B2B SEO in 2025: Tactics, Strategies, & Insights Your Business Can’t Afford to Ignore.

James Brockbank James Brockbank | Last updated: September 3, 2025

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Key Takeaways.
  • B2B SEO is fundamentally different from B2C SEO.
    It requires precision targeting, authoritative content, and strategies built for longer, multi-stakeholder buying cycles – not consumer-style tactics.
  • Success relies on depth, not volume.
    High-intent, long-tail keywords and in-depth content formats (white papers, case studies, comparison guides) outperform broad traffic plays.
  • Content is the growth engine.
    From best-in-class landing pages to thought leadership, case studies, and stats pages, B2B SEO wins through credibility, expertise, and evergreen resources that guide decision-makers through the funnel.
  • Measurement must be tied to revenue impact.
    Metrics like conversion rates, share of voice, and attribution modelling matter more than raw traffic or rankings.

Let’s get one thing straight: B2B SEO is not B2C SEO with a different label. If you’re trying to apply the same strategies to both, you’re wasting time, money, and potential leads.

B2B decision-makers aren’t impulse shoppers. They’re highly informed professionals making calculated investments. To win their attention, you need SEO strategies built for longer sales cycles, complex buyer journeys, and audiences that demand expertise at every turn.

Done right, B2B SEO doesn’t just drive traffic and enable one-time purchases – it fuels sustainable growth. It puts your brand in front of the right people at the right time and nurtures them into loyal clients with high lifetime values (LTVs).

Here, we break down the key differences between B2B and B2C SEO, reveal the tactics that actually work in B2B markets, and show you how to build a strategy that scales with your ambitions.

Ready to turn things up a notch and get serious about results?

What Is B2B SEO?

B2B (business-to-business) SEO is the strategic process of optimising a website to attract, engage, and convert other businesses as customers through organic search traffic. It’s not just about ranking higher on Google – it’s about showing up where it matters most: in front of decision-makers actively searching for solutions to their business challenges.

Spoiler alert: you’re the business offering those solutions. And you need to make damn sure your target audience knows it.

Unlike B2C SEO, which focuses on attracting everyday consumers, B2B SEO is laser-focused on targeting professionals with specific needs, long sales cycles, and high stakes. It’s about creating content that educates, informs, and persuades-guiding potential clients from curious searchers to confident buyers.

At its core, B2B SEO combines technical expertise, audience insight, and strategic content creation to position your business as the go-to authority in your industry. It’s not just about getting clicks; it’s about driving qualified leads that turn into long-term partnerships, high-value contracts, and repeat business. It’s the key to unlocking sustainable, scalable growth in today’s competitive landscape. If you’re not investing in it, you’re leaving money (and market share) on the table.

The Main Differences Between B2B And B2C SEO

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that SEO is SEO, no matter how you dress it up.

Sure, there are SEO fundamentals and proven best practices that apply regardless of whether you’re dealing with a B2B or B2C website, but there are also mission-critical differences that can’t be overlooked if you want to stand a chance of ranking highly on SERPs.

Ultimately, treating them the same is like using a sledgehammer when you need a scalpel. The rules of the game change when you’re targeting C-suite executives, procurement teams, or engineers instead of everyday consumers. Here’s why:

AspectB2B SEOB2C SEO
AudiencesTargets committees, including decision-makers, end-users, and budget holders. Focuses on expertise and tailored solutions.Focuses on individual consumers, appealing to personal preferences and emotions.
KeywordsPrioritises precise, long-tail, and industry-specific keywords with lower search volume but high revenue potential.Targets high-volume, broad keywords to drive mass traffic and brand visibility.
Content StrategiesRelies on in-depth formats like white papers, case studies, and expert guides to address complex needs.Uses engaging, shorter-form content like blogs, videos, and product pages to capture attention.
Conversion MetricsTracks leads throughout a complex path to purchase using email captures, demo requests, and downloads, focusing on quality and revenue impact.Measures direct actions like “Buy Now” clicks or “Add to Basket” that focus on immediate and often passive sales.
Sales FunnelsLonger, multi-staged processes involving extensive research, comparisons, and negotiations.Shorter cycles, often impulsive or repetitive, with price sensitivity being a key factor.
Competitor LandscapesFewer competitors, but they’re highly specialised and often have established authority in the niche.Larger, more saturated markets with competitors spanning multiple industries and scales.
Audience MotivationsDecision-making is far more rational, based on ROI, features, and business outcomes.Purchases are often emotionally driven, focusing on desires, aspirations, or instant gratification.

Types Of B2B SEO: An Overview

Think that B2B SEO is a static, inflexible strategy? Think again.

In reality, there are different types of B2B SEO, all involving slightly tailored approaches to meet the unique needs of different businesses.

And that makes total sense.

A SaaS company’s operation is totally different from that of a local corporate IT provider, and both look entirely different to a multinational manufacturing business.

Your strategy needs to match how your business operates, who your buyers are, and how they search. Here’s a breakdown of the key types of B2B SEO and how to get them right.

B2B SaaS SEO

That’s a lot of acronyms in one…but it sure is easier to say than “business-to-business software as a service search engine optimisation”.

For SaaS businesses, SEO can be huge. Unlike other B2B SEO models, where leads might need to request a consultation with one of your sales reps or get a bespoke quote for your services, SaaS buyers can sometimes convert on the spot. No fuss, no off-site involvement.

SEO strategies must be tailored to the specifics of SaaS business models if they are to prove effective. Two key things that set SaaS SEO apart from other types of B2B SEO are:

  • Recurring revenue goals → We don’t want low-quality traffic that promises poor LTV. We want to secure high-value accounts with the potential to spend big over a long period. Strategies should be targeted, not just aiming for site visitor numbers above all else.
  • Trial, demo, and subscription-based conversions → While in eCommerce SEO, we see fixed, one-time sales, SaaS businesses must curate content that will effectively guide their leads from research to free trials to long-lasting commitment. There’s a real need for deep audience understanding to consolidate trust at each stage of the sales funnel.

Priorities For B2B SaaS SEO:

  • Site speed – SaaS websites demand technical excellence, meaning Core Web Vitals, Page Speed, and site structure are all mission-critical.
  • Full-funnel search intent – Target the top, middle, and bottom of your sales funnel to reach prospects at their current research stage (awareness, consideration, and decision).
  • ABM alignment – SaaS SEO can’t operate independently of other marketing channels, especially ABM. Leverage insights from your sales team to craft solution-focused content that addresses genuine user frustrations to support retention.
  • Best-in-class landing pages – When businesses shop for tech, they expect elite product pages. Be sure to sell your solution’s features and benefits while also proactively handling objections by linking to “[Your Brand] vs [Competitor]” comparisons.
  • Backlinks – Off-site authority isn’t up for discussion. SaaS brands need robust, hyper-relevant backlink profiles from industry publications that their target audience will read. Use off-site and off-site assets to earn links and build credibility.

B2B SaaS is, without a doubt, one of the most competitive spaces in SEO. It’s aggressive, fast-moving, and sees brands vying for attention on paid-heavy SERPs. But that definitely doesn’t mean it can’t be hugely lucrative.

We’re a specialist SEO agency that understands the true importance of driving SaaS growth. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your business succeed.

B2B eCommerce SEO

B2B eCommerce SEO guides targeted, purchase-ready traffic to your business’s online store.

Unlike B2C eCommerce, where customers buy more impulsively, B2B buyers thoroughly research, compare suppliers, and maybe even liaise with an account manager before converting. Your SEO strategy needs to account for this longer, more rational purchase cycle.

Key considerations for B2B eCommerce SEO:

  • Optimised product and category pages – Unlike B2C pages, which often focus on emotional appeal, B2B pages must highlight technical specifications, pricing structures, bulk discounts, and business account benefits.
  • Long-tail, transactional keywords – Let’s say you’re a commercial furniture retailer. Instead of “desk chairs” (which returns results for B2C buyers), target “bulk desk chairs” (which returns results for office managers looking to purchase seating for an entire workspace).
  • Structured data – Implementing schema markup for free product listings, pricing, and reviews helps improve visibility in search results. This is prime real estate on the SERPs, so make the most of it.
  • Content-driven authority building – Product comparison guides, use-case blog posts, and industry reports help drive informed B2B buyers to your site.

B2B Enterprise SEO

B2B enterprise SEO is for large-scale organisations with complex websites. We’re not talking little leagues here.

When we reach enterprise level, we’re dealing with multinational corporations, SaaS platforms with hundreds of landing pages, or businesses serving multiple industries. Here, SEO becomes about managing high volumes of content, competitive search landscapes, and complex site structures.

Key focus areas for B2B enterprise SEO:

  • Scalability – When you manage a website with hundreds or thousands of pages, automation, internal linking, and programmatic SEO are all essential. Make sure you choose a CMS built to facilitate publishing content at scale and consider a CDN (content delivery network) to ensure efficient distribution.
  • Competitive landscape – Large enterprises compete with other major players, requiring aggressive backlink acquisition, strategic content production, and constant on-page optimisation to stay ahead. Your competitors aren’t going to be standing still, so neither can you.
  • Technical foundations – The more moving parts there are, the greater the chance of something breaking. For enterprise SEO, make sure you stay 100% on top of your site’s technical SEO (including things like your XML sitemap, indexing, 404 pages, Robot.txt, broken links, etc.).

B2B International SEO

Taking operations international is fast becoming the norm.

But going global doesn’t just mean having offices, teams, and customer bases in different countries.

Scaling B2B businesses internationally and maintaining a strong online presence requires careful, well-planned targeting to ensure the right content reaches the right audiences worldwide.

If done well, B2B SEO can be a game-changer for accelerated growth….but when done poorly, it can cause significant duplicate content issues, reduced traffic (in all markets), and declining visibility.

Here are your key considerations for B2B international SEO:

  • Site structure – Let’s say you want to expand your site to Spain. You’ll have several options to ensure effective geo-targeting:
    • Country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) – b2bcompany.es
    • Subfolders – b2bcompany.com/es/
    • Subdomains – es.b2bcompany.com
  • Hreflang tags – This is the HTML instruction telling Google which version of your content belongs to which audience, so pages translated into Spanish, for example, will rank on Spanish SERPs. Without hreflang, you’ll likely face serious indexing and cannibalisation issues.
  • Keyword strategies and localisation – People search in different ways in different places, so getting local search intent down is key. Work with native speakers wherever possible to make sure messaging, cultural nuances, and audience expectations are met.

B2B Local SEO

Local SEO is essential for businesses that serve clients in a specific region (or regions) or have an omnichannel presence with physical stores.

You might be an IT services provider, a business consultancy firm, or a corporate cleaning service.

Whatever your business model and industry, ranking in local search results ensures you attract nearby clients with clear purchase intent.

How to win at B2B local SEO:

  • Optimise your Google Business Profile – Keeping your listing updated with accurate business details, service descriptions, and customer reviews helps drive local visibility. This is high-impact SERP visibility you can’t afford to ignore.
  • Local keyword targeting – To rank for keywords with local search intent, you need a well-optimised landing page for every location you want to target. Examples might be “SEO agency Manchester” or “Digital PR agency Cumbria”.
  • Build local authority – Link building isn’t a game of the bigger, the better. It’s a game of relevance and quality. With local off-page SEO, you want to build links from local and hyper-relevant industry publications.

How Is AI Search Transforming B2B SEO, And How Are Smart Businesses Winning?

The rise of AI search isn’t just changing the SEO game; it’s completely rewriting the rules. AI search and LLM visibility are fundamentally transforming how B2B brands achieve organic reach and build market authority, demanding optimisation not just for traditional Google rankings but also for visibility within AI-generated answers and conversational search experiences.

The AI Search Impact: What’s Actually Changing

Instead of relying solely on technical SEO factors, LLMs (large language models) and AI systems now prioritise conversational relevance, intent satisfaction, and semantic depth. They aggregate insights from multiple sources, think contextually, and understand buyer intent in ways traditional search never could.

For B2B companies, this means prospects are increasingly encountering brands through AI-mediated experiences – whether through ChatGPT research sessions, voice search queries, or AI-summarised competitor comparisons. The old linear path from keyword to click to conversion has been replaced by a complex web of AI touchpoints that influence buyer decisions long before they reach your website.

The numbers tell the story: 68% of B2B buyers now use AI tools during vendor research, and 43% trust AI-summarised information as much as vendor websites themselves. Think you can sleep on this? Think again.

How Forward-Thinking B2B Brands Are Adapting

The businesses winning in this AI-first environment have made strategic shifts from traditional SEO tactics to what we call structured visibility and semantic authority. Here’s how they’re leveraging AI search to their advantage:

1. Building Topic Authority, Not Just Page Rankings

Instead of targeting individual keywords, smart B2B marketers are creating comprehensive content clusters around buyer journey stages and central topics. This approach mirrors how AI systems understand and categorise information, making it easier for LLMs to identify your brand as an authoritative source.

2. Earning Distributed Web Presence

AI systems pull from diverse sources – forums, reviews, podcasts, third-party publications, and industry sites. By actively building mentions and thought leadership across these platforms, B2B companies increase their chances of being referenced in AI-generated answers while building genuine market authority.

3. Optimising Content For AI Comprehension

The most successful companies are restructuring their content with AI consumption in mind. This means well-cited expert insights, conversationally relevant formatting, clear value propositions, and semantic markup that helps AI systems understand context and credibility.

4. Leveraging AI Tools For Competitive Advantage

Forward-thinking B2B marketers are using AI for predictive keyword research, real-time SERP analysis, automated content audits, and advanced keyword clustering. They’re essentially using AI to beat AI – understanding how these systems work to optimise their content accordingly.

Your Strategic Advantage: Acting While Others Wait

The AI search transformation is happening now, not in some distant future. While many B2B companies are still debating whether to take AI search seriously, the early adopters are already capturing market share by:

  • Positioning themselves as the go-to sources that AI systems reference
  • Building semantic authority that translates into buyer trust
  • Creating content ecosystems that work for both human readers and AI systems
  • Establishing a distributed web presence that amplifies their expertise
  • Balancing traditional SEO fundamentals with emerging trends and search behaviours to cover all bases

The strategic opportunity is clear: businesses that master AI search optimisation now will build sustainable competitive advantages that compound over time. Those who wait will find themselves playing catch-up in an increasingly AI-mediated marketplace.

Keyword Research For B2B SEO: Precision Targeting For Maximum Impact

B2B keyword research is where most businesses stumble. While B2C can often focus on high-traffic, broad keywords designed to catch as many eyeballs as possible, B2B SEO requires precision. Why? Because your audience isn’t looking for generalities.

Key decision-makers aren’t interested in a list of topics as long as your arm; they’re searching for specific solutions to specific problems.

Sure, these types of keywords might not have the highest search volumes, but the quality traffic you’ll get more than makes up for it.

Here are three things you can’t afford to overlook when engineering a killer B2B keyword strategy.

Long-Tail Keywords

In B2B, specificity is power. A keyword like “CRM software” might seem appealing, but it’s so broad it borders on useless.

Instead, focus on terms like “best CRM for healthcare startups” or “CRM with advanced reporting for SaaS companies.” These long-tail keywords might bring in less traffic, but the visitors they do bring are far more likely to convert.

Competitor & Keyword Gap Analysis

Your competitors can be your best teachers. Tools like Ahrefs and Semrush allow you to analyse which keywords drive traffic to their sites. Identify gaps between your site and theirs and uncover where your competitors rank poorly or fail to cover specific queries.

But if you want to make the rules instead of just playing the game, you have to see your competitors as the baseline rather than the benchmark for content quality. Create content that not only fills any gaps but surpasses their efforts in quality, utility, originality and depth.

A huge part of this is information gain. Bringing new, conversation-advancing insights to the table to produce genuinely valuable content that positions your business as a leader, not a follower.

Ultimately, this forces us to face one inconvenient truth: mass-produced, AI-generated content that does little more than regurgitate what’s already available is no real route to measurable results.

Strategic Targeting

Once you have a list of keywords, validate them with accurate data. Tools like Semrush, Ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner, and even your website’s own search analytics can help you pinpoint terms with strong potential. Prioritise based on search volume, competition, and alignment with your business goals.

Keyword research isn’t about casting a wide net but crafting a bespoke strategy that aligns with your audience’s needs and objectives. Invest the time here to identify precisely what will have the greatest impact on your bottom line, and your SEO performance will soar.

The Key Components Of A Successful B2B SEO Strategy

SEO strategies can be divided into three core pillars: technical SEO, on-page SEO and content, and link-building.

Technical Foundations

If search engines can’t crawl and index your site, everything else is basically pointless. You can have the best content in the world that’s backed up by the most authoritative links, but if it’s not visible, who’s going to know?

This means getting your site’s technical SEO on point is mission-critical. Here are the things you can’t overlook:

  • Mobile responsiveness – If your B2B site isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re losing decision-makers researching on the go. A responsive design ensures every page looks great and functions perfectly on any device.
  • Core Web Vitals – These are the performance metrics Google uses to measure page speed, interactivity, and overall stability.
  • Page load speeds – Slow sites kill conversions. If your pages take too long to load, busy B2B buyers will bounce. Optimise images and reduce code bloat to keep things fast.
  • JavaScript – If Google can’t read it, it won’t rank. JavaScript-heavy sites (whether B2B or B2C) need server-side or dynamic rendering to ensure critical content is visible to crawlers and indexed properly.
  • Broken links and 404 pages – Dead links frustrate users and waste crawl budget, especially if you’re working with an enterprise-level site. Regular audits and smart redirects keep your site seamless and search-friendly.
  • Meta descriptions and title tags – First impressions count in business, and the SERPs are no different. Use clear, compelling titles and descriptions to boost click-through rates and drive the right traffic.
  • Internal linking – This is one of your best secret weapons. Strong internal linking helps search engines understand relationships between pages, reduces cannibalisation issues, distributes link equity effectively and keeps users moving towards conversion. Not bad, eh?
  • Site structure and navigation – A logical, well-organised structure improves both rankings and UX by improving crawlability and helping users find the information they need quickly.
  • Canonicalisation – Sometimes, multiple versions of a page are necessary, but if managed incorrectly, duplicate content confuses search engines. Canonical tags tell Google which version of a page to index, keeping your rankings intact and driving traffic to the right places.
  • Internationalisation and hreflang – Selling globally? Hreflang tags show the correct language and regional version of your site to the right audience, preventing duplicate content issues and increasing engagement.
  • Robots.txt – This file tells search engines what they can and can’t crawl, ensuring Google focuses on your most valuable pages.
  • XML sitemaps – Your sitemap helps search engines find, crawl, and index your most important pages faster.

On-Page Seo & Content

Content is the backbone of any successful B2B SEO strategy. It’s the bridge between your business and decision-makers seeking solutions who need expertise, credibility, and actionable value. Here’s how to build a content strategy that delivers.

Before creating content, determine your goals. Are you trying to attract new visitors, nurture leads, or close deals? Each goal requires a different approach:

  • Top-of-funnel (awareness) – Address general pain points to attract a broad audience. The best content formats for this include blog posts, videos, infographics, and how-to guides.
  • Middle-of-funnel (consideration) – Help potential buyers evaluate options and narrow their choices. Leverage content formats like case studies with customer testimonials, comparison guides, and white papers.
  • Bottom-of-funnel (decision) – Provide persuasive content to convert leads into customers. The best types of content to facilitate conversions are best-in-class landing pages with clear CTAs, ROI calculators, testimonials, free trial pages, and product demos.
Sales and marketing funnel showing awareness, evaluation, decision, retention, and advocacy.

Experience tells us it’s best to…

1. Create Evergreen Content With Depth

B2B buyers aren’t swayed by surface-level content. They want answers. 

Focus on creating in-depth, long-form content like comprehensive guides, technical documentation, and long-form blog posts that solve problems or clarify complex topics. This evergreen content will continue to drive traffic and leads over time, elevating the ROI of your business’s investment in organic.

Let’s say you’re a logistics company, for example. A blog post titled “How to Improve Supply Chain Efficiency in Manufacturing: A Step-by-Step Guide” can provide lasting value and be a key asset for internal linking site-wide.

2. Use Storytelling To Build Authority And Trust

Sure, facts and figures are crucial for credibility, but don’t neglect storytelling. B2B buyers are still humans at the end of the day.

Case studies, customer success stories, and anecdotes from your team show how your business has solved similar problems for others, making you a more relatable and trustworthy option for your target audience.

Compelling storytelling fits into broader E-E-A-T strategies that permeate your online presence at three levels: content, author, and brand. E-E-A-T is all about showing prospective customers and search engines that you know your sh*t inside and out – proving without question that your brand deserves organic attention for the queries it targets.

Off-Page Seo And Link-Building

Off-page SEO for B2B is about one thing: authority. In competitive niches, being seen as the go-to source is crucial. That means earning backlinks from credible, relevant sources – not spamming for volume and vanity metrics.

1. Focus On Quality Over Quantity When Earning Links

For B2B, a link from an industry publication, respected blog, or trade association can carry more weight than dozens of low-quality backlinks. Focus your efforts on relevance, authority, and topical alignment.

2. Quality Backlinks Need Quality Content

Luckily, having quality, helpful content can make things a whole lot easier when a digital PR agency works to earn editorial links in relevant publications online. 

And this makes sense because journalists want exclusive, expert commentaries on hyper-relevant industry issues that will appeal to a B2B audience.

Whether it’s a data-led hero campaign with original research reports or an on-topic reactive piece that adds value to current conversations, your website’s content plays an essential role in bolstering off-page authority.

  • Data-led campaigns – These are original research, packed with exclusive insights that position your brand as a thought leader within your industry. Do they take more effort to produce? Sometimes, yes. But the ROI, when done right, makes it all worthwhile. You can also utilise internal data within your campaigns, which is a goldmine for digital PR, as no one else has this! 
  • Expert insights Get your business name and expertise in front of the people with the purchasing power by securing hyper-relevant links on timely news stories in the press. Utilise your in-house experts to provide insight to the press to get involved in relevant conversations – you can do this both reactively and proactively. These subject-matter experts become your spokespeople to represent your brand and reinforce E-E-A-T signals.
  • Product PR You might think this tactic is only for B2C eCommerce brands looking to sell surplus stock on Black Friday, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Product and service PR can prove a hugely effective B2B SEO strategy, as it can place your business’s solution in the hands of the people who are best placed to buy it.
  • Hyper-relevant statistic pages – Create content which organically sits at the top of the SERPs on topics relevant to your brand. These hyper-relevant statistic pages organically earn links over time, doing the hard work for you! 

Want to learn more about how digital PRs build high-quality links? Read our complete guide to digital PR on our blog.

What Types Of Content Work Best For B2B SEO Strategies?

When it comes to B2B SEO, content isn’t just king – it’s the entire kingdom. Your audience is made up of decision-makers, technical experts, and budget-conscious stakeholders, all of whom need tailored, high-value content to guide their journey.

Certain content types perform exceptionally well in B2B SEO because they align with your audience’s more complex sales cycles and rational decision-making process (which is why it pays to have detailed buyer personas to hand).

Let’s explore the key formats that should anchor your strategy.

1. Best-In-Class Landing Pages

We call these the money-maker pages. Your landing pages aren’t just about looking good; they’re about delivering results. 

These pages need to be optimised for search intent, targeting keywords that decision-makers and influencers are actively searching for. Clear value propositions, compelling CTAs, and trust signals (think testimonials and awards) are non-negotiable.

2. Thought Leadership Content & White Papers

B2B audiences don’t trust faceless corporations; they trust experts. Thought leadership pieces and white papers position your brand as the authority in your niche. 

By addressing complex industry challenges, offering solutions, or showcasing forward-thinking insights, you can earn the respect of decision-makers who prefer expertise over sales pitches.

3. Case Studies & Customer Stories

The proof is in the pudding – or, in this case, the conversion is in the case study. Business buyers don’t take risks lightly. 

Case studies that showcase tangible results, similar client profiles, and problem-solving success stories are pivotal in convincing prospects to choose your business. Highlight outcomes, testimonials, and metrics that demonstrate your expertise.

4. Ebooks

A well-designed eBook can be a powerful downloadable resource, combining educational depth and shareability. These assets allow you to dive deeper into niche topics, positioning your business as a knowledgeable and reliable partner.

Better yet, they’re excellent lead magnets for capturing high-value prospect data (names and email addresses) and nurturing long-term relationships.

5. Blog Posts

Ahh, the golden child of content marketing strategies.

But these aren’t just your average “5 Tips for X” fluff; B2B blogs should must deliver hyper-relevant, deeply insightful content aligned with niche keywords and audience pain points.

Think long-tail queries with lower search volumes but high intent, such as “How to improve supply chain efficiency with SaaS.” This content drives the kind of traffic that converts, not just fills your analytics with vanity metrics that will never impact your bottom line.

6. Competitor Comparison Guides

Content…about your competitors?!

Yeah, just hear me out.

While giving your biggest competition free real estate on your website might seem counterintuitive, there’s a method to the madness.

Think about it this way: in B2B, audiences aren’t making impulsive purchase decisions or saying yes to the first provider they encounter. They’re weighing things up, doing their own due diligence, and subjecting a host of options to brutal side-by-side comparisons.

Thanks to keyword research, we know this to be a fact. Check out the example below. There are 13.8k searches per month from people comparing HubSpot with competitors.

Semrush keyword research showing hubspot vs salesforce queries

And if they’re going to compare you to alternatives anyway, why not own the conversation (before your competition does)? A well-crafted competitor comparison guide lets you frame the brand narrative – highlighting your strengths while objectively addressing where you stand against others.

Done right, this type of targeted content positions you as the transparent, trustworthy authority in your industry. You’re not just another sales pitch; you’re a business that understands the landscape and helps prospects make smarter decisions.

But here’s the key: keep it fair. A biased “why we’re better” rant won’t cut it. 

Instead, use hard facts, features, and real-world benefits to show why your solution is the best fit. Use tables, charts, and direct product comparisons to make it digestible, compelling, and SEO-friendly.

Competitor comparison guides attract high-intent traffic and help convert it. Prospects searching for “[Your Brand] vs [Competitor]” are deep in the buying cycle. Give them the clarity they need and help them decide you are the obvious choice.

7. Industry News And Updates

Your knowledge of your sector gives you a unique voice. Use it to share technical innovations, new industry developments, or commentary on key trends. 

Did you attend a major event? Write about the insights your team gained. Have you launched a new product or solution? Make sure people know about it! These updates establish your brand as an informed, connected player within the industry.

8. Service And Product Pages

Every B2B SEO strategy needs to bring it home with optimised service and product pages. These are where you close the deal, so make them count. 

Highlight features, benefits, technical specifications, and solutions tailored to your audience’s unique pain points. Combine this with strong internal linking, schema markup, and multimedia elements for maximum impact.

9. Statistics Pages

B2B buyers (and journalists) love data – it’s sexy, provides tangible credibility, and gets people talking. Creating dedicated statistics pages with up-to-date, relevant industry data positions your business as an authority and attracts natural backlinks and shares. These pages are evergreen resources that drive ongoing organic traffic while building topical authority.

Interested in leveraging stats pages for your brand? Good call. Read our guide on 15 statistics page examples that generate backlinks on autopilot for businesses in all industries.

B2B SEO Metrics To Track

Tracking the right metrics is the backbone of any successful B2B SEO strategy.

These metrics are your SEO dashboard, guiding your efforts and helping you adjust as you go. But don’t just measure for the sake of it…that’s the dictionary definition of a waste of time.

To give the numbers meaning, tie each metric to your business goals. If a KPI doesn’t align with increasing leads, improving sales funnel efficiency, or driving revenue, you have to ask: is this worth chasing?

Serp Rankings

Whether it’s your high-intent industry keywords or long-tail queries, monitoring your position on the SERPs gives you a real-time gauge of your visibility.

Here’s the kicker, though. Don’t just focus on being number one. The ultimate goal isn’t to climb the rankings and call it a day – it’s to convert.

Traffic Volumes

Here, we’re talking about quantity vs quality. For B2B, raw traffic numbers don’t matter if they’re irrelevant. Focus on quality: Are the right people visiting your site’s pages? Traffic from long-tail queries, industry-specific searches, and high-value keywords? That’s the gold.

Click-Through Rates

In B2B SEO, a higher CTR is the first step to converting decision-makers into leads. CTR shows how effective your titles, meta descriptions, and page positioning are at grabbing attention and delivering on search intent. If your CTR is lagging despite high rankings, it’s time to run some A/B tests and optimise your metadata.

Sessions Per User

We know B2B sales cycles are long, so tracking return visitors is key. For B2B, repeat sessions indicate interest and a strong pull toward your products or services. When prospects keep coming back, it’s a sign that your content is valuable, and your SEO strategy is aligned with their research needs.

Session Duration

The longer visitors stay on your site, the more they engage with your content. This metric is a direct indicator of relevance, utility, and quality. In B2B, longer session durations often correlate with decision-makers digging into your white papers, case studies, and thought leadership content. If they’re spending time, they’re seriously considering your offering.

Bounce Rates

No matter whether you’re running a B2B or B2C ship, high bounce rates (or low engagement rates, if you’re using GA4) are a red flag. For context, the average bounce rate across all industries is around 53%, but this will be higher or lower depending on page type. They signal that users aren’t finding what they need, whether due to irrelevant content, poor page design, or slow load times.

Page Impressions

How often does your content appear in search engine results for target keywords? Page impressions are a great leading indicator of your growing visibility. When combined with CTR, impressions show you which queries deliver the biggest engagement opportunities.

In B2B SEO, targeting niche, low-volume queries often means fewer impressions – but they’re often hyper-qualified from the point of entry to your site.

Conversion Rates

This is your North Star metric – the one that matters most for your business’s bottom line.

But for B2B SEO, conversions rarely mean immediate sales. They can be demo requests, content downloads, email subscriptions, or contact form submissions. Tracking conversion rates allows you to measure the effectiveness of your content, CTAs, and landing pages in driving your prospects deeper into the funnel.

At the end of the day, a successful SEO strategy is one of various digital marketing methods businesses can leverage to generate growth, so improving money-in-the-bank metrics like conversion rates should be a top priority.

Share Of Voice

Looking at the organic share of voice pushes us to ask how much of the conversation a brand dominates in its space. 

It means focusing on search visibility and analysing the total addressable market (TAM) and traffic levels to determine the quantity of this your business controls compared to competitors.

Brand Vs. Non-Brand Search

Is your traffic coming from people actively seeking your brand, or are they discovering you organically? Tracking brand vs. non-brand search helps you evaluate your ability to attract new audiences. 

For B2B, growing non-brand traffic is critical. It means your SEO strategy pulls in prospects who didn’t know you existed before, widening your prospect pool and providing more opportunities to close deals.

Backlinks

There’s no getting away from it: quality far outweighs quantity when it comes to backlinks. Quality backlinks from a niche industry journal or respected trade site can carry more weight than hundreds from generic directories.

Monitor your backlink profile to ensure your link-building strategy strengthens your site’s authority and trustworthiness while avoiding low-quality or spammy links that could harm rankings.

Attribution Modelling

Unlike B2C, where a single visit might result in a purchase, B2B buyers conduct extensive research across various channels before making a decision. Accurate attribution is the key to understanding how your organic traffic contributes to leads, pipeline management, and money in the bank.

If you credit only the last-click source, you’re missing the bigger picture and losing the opportunity to showcase the true value of organic visibility in nurturing leads over time. Proper attribution modelling helps you pinpoint which SEO efforts are influencing decision-makers at every stage of the buyer’s journey.

How To Create A Winning B2B SEO Campaign

Despite what you were told at school, it’s not really the taking part that counts. Not in SEO, at least. If you want to see results that truly make an impact on your commercial bottom lines, you need to be in it to win, not just to play the game.

And that’s where a robust strategy comes into the picture.

Now, at a top level, core SEO tactics (the fundamentals that underpin the entire professional space) can be applied to pretty much all sites, but let’s take a look at how these translate to the more nuanced world of B2B.

  1. Know who your target audience is (and isn’t) – If you don’t have buyer personas or ICPs for the people you’re targeting, you might as well be shooting blind. Drill down into who they are, what they want, and how you can resonate with their primary needs.
  2. Perform technical and on-page audits – Before you can make improvements to your site’s organic performance, you need to know where things stand at present. How? By conducting in-depth technical and on-page SEO audits to distil where the issues, gaps, and opportunities lie.
  3. Carry out competitor analysis – Knowing how (and why) your competitors rank for search terms is essential for establishing solid benchmarks. SEO tools like Semrush and Ahrefs can offer fantastic insights into where your site is falling short and highlight the work needed to plug any gaps.
  4. Prioritise or die – Okay, it’s not that dramatic, but any effective B2B SEO strategy does rely on prioritising what to do and when. It’s not rocket science; it’s just knowing what will have the greatest impact on your organic performance and focusing on that. Using an Eisenhower matrix to plot tactics on an effort vs. reward chart can help with this.
  5. Prep for multi-channel success – Let’s set the record straight. We’re no longer working in a world where SEO can exist in a silo. Organic strategies can only yield genuinely meaningful results when leveraged in unison with other channels – PPC, email and content marketing, social media, account-based marketing, word of mouth, and more…all coming together to create a holistic growth ecosystem.
  6. Track, measure, and adapt – Strategies without performance metrics and monitoring are guesswork. Use Google Analytics, Google Search Console, Ahrefs, and Semrush (along with a healthy dose of common sense – something that no SEO tool can replicate) to keep tabs on what’s working. Review, reprioritise, rinse, and repeat.

Common Pitfalls (And How To Avoid Them)

Many B2B companies (and agencies) fall into the same SEO traps, wasting time and resources on ineffective tactics. This primarily comes down to a fundamental misunderstanding of audiences and the fact that SEO holds one of many seats at the B2B marketing table.

But what are these traps…and how do you avoid stepping into them? Let’s take a look.

1. Only Focusing On High-Volume Keywords

  • The mistake Too many B2B brands fall into the “more is more” trap, chasing broad, high-volume keywords that mean they lose visibility on cluttered, saturated SERPs.
  • The fix Prioritise high-intent, niche keywords that match your target audience’s pain points and search behaviours.
  • Example Let’s say you’re a B2B SaaS company. Instead of targeting “CRM software” (which is ultra-competitive and vague), go after problem-solving queries like “the best CRM for manufacturing companies” or “how to integrate a CRM with an ERP.” These terms attract decision-makers further along in their buying journey.

2. Neglecting Your Funnel

  • The mistake By only focusing on top-of-funnel (ToFu) blog content, you’re neglecting middle- and bottom-funnel content that actually drives conversions.
  • The fix Build a full-funnel SEO strategy that nurtures leads at every stage: top, middle, and bottom. Failing to cater for any phase will result in broken sales cycles.
  • Example If a CFO is looking for “ERP software for mid-sized companies”, they’re likely past the awareness stage. A comparison page showing why your solution outperforms competitors will drive far more conversions than a generic blog post about ERP benefits.

3. Having Low-Quality Landing Pages

  • The mistake Many B2B landing pages are too feature-focused and fail to address decision-maker pain points and objections.
  • The fix Optimise landing pages for search intent and conversions by:
    • Writing compelling, benefit-driven copy (not just technical features)
    • Adding customer testimonials, case studies, and proof points to build trust
    • Using clear CTAs that guide users to the next step (e.g. “Get a Demo” or “Download the Guide”)
  • Example Frame your product or solution in terms of how it will meaningfully change the professional life of your target audience. If your business provides corporate events management services, for example, be sure to showcase the tangible benefits of hosting events with your team.

5. Ignoring E-E-A-T

  • The mistake Google prioritises content from trusted, authoritative sources, but many B2B brands fail to showcase credibility online.
  • The fix Strengthen your E-E-A-T signals by using structured data to signal clear authorship, expertise, qualifications, and associations. Also, attribute content to genuine subject-matter experts, not anonymous writers.
  • Example A blog post titled “The 15 Best AI Tools for Financial Services” will rank higher if written by an AI specialist at a fintech company. Utilise your in-house experts – they’re your secret weapon.

Want to know how your brand’s E-E-A-T profile stacks up? Contact us to get a bespoke E-E-A-T audit of your B2B website packed full of exclusive learnings and high-priority suggested improvements.

6. Not Aligning Seo With Other Channels

  • The mistake Thinking that SEO can operate in a silo, disconnected from sales teams, demand generation, and ABM strategies.
  • The fix Talk to your sales team to align SEO with engagement and enablement by:
    • Creating content that directly addresses sales objections, not just keyword volumes
    • Using ABM insights to target high-value accounts with SEO-driven content
  • Example If your sales team keep hearing, “We’re not sure how this integrates with our existing tools,” create an SEO-optimised integration guide that ranks for “[Your Product] + [Competitor] integration”. Boom, there’s your instant cross-functional asset that serves both organic and account-based strategies.

So…Are You Playing To Win, Or Are You Just Along For The Ride?

B2B SEO isn’t just about rankings – it’s about creating a strategic, scalable pipeline for long-term growth. Nail it, and you can attract high-value leads, dominate your industry’s search landscape, and turn organic traffic into real revenue.

You need to place SEO firmly within broader marketing ecosystems if it’s to serve its full potential as a growth driver for your business – helping other channels work harder and win bigger, all at the same time.

But applying regular SEO tactics won’t work. In B2B, sales cycles are longer, audiences are more demanding, objectives differ, and attribution becomes more complex…I could go on.

Get it right, though, and your business will be positioned to outperform competitors, dominate SERPs, own the share of voice, and enjoy predictable growth year-on-year.

So ask yourself this: In a year’s time, do you want to lead the pack or trail further behind while others win big?

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