Keyword Discovery Targeting For B2B Businesses

I like to talk about how performing SEO for a B2B client is different than a B2C client. Like all good starting points in a successful search engine optimization campaign, keyword discovery is the heart of it and performing this discovery for a B2B client is much different. I am going to use a client of mine Hire Velocity, a Tampa, Florida based recruitment process outsourcing company as our example.

Keyword Discovery Challanges

Most keyword discovery is based around finding the most relative keywords that are used the most.  From a B2C perspective this is something that works very well.  Our example site if it was a B2C site we would  target terms such as recruitment agency, professional recruiters, or hiring agency. In a B2B environment the terms are different as the “searcher” will be a corporate professional such as a CEO, president, or executive staff member. One of the rule of thumbs that I use when developing my keyword lists for a B2B company is that I look for industry specific than shear numbers.  You will be far better off with a #1 ranking for recruitment process outsourcing (which yields 1,000 exact match searches a month) vs. recruitment agency (which yields 100,000 exact match searches a month).

Get As Long Tail As You Can

Some experts have said that the long tail is dead. I totally disagree with this statement and will go to my grave optimizing for the long tail keywords. My philosophy on the long tail keyword is simple. I would take a keyword that gives my 5 visitors and 3 convert than a keyword that gives me 100 visitors and 3 convert. These terms can be product based such as applicant tracking system or solution based such as employee screening.

Tie Into Your Assets

So your you have done a great job of achieving a top page placement for “employee screening”! Great job but what do you have to offer them that will get them to fill out your lead form or call you?  You need authoritative assets that will give the  potential client the real sense that your company knows their business and that confirms the keywords you have optimized for.  These types of assets are:

• Videos
• White Papers
• Guides
• Webinars
• Infographics
• Surveys/Polls
• Case Studies

Industry Specific Pages

My client provides recruitment solutions for many different types of industries such as IT, Sales, Engineering, Insurances, etc.  You need to have pages created specifically tailored to these industries. You need to speak their language as they are looking for terms that are related to their specific needs. Start off with pages that are the most popular industries you currently work for and cross link them to industry specific demos, evaluation tools, and technical documents.

Conversion Optimization Is A Must

Like any lead generation sites, conversion optimization is a must in order to increase the opportunity to obtain more leads.  Most B2B sites are lead generation sites so perform these basic optimization tactics:

• Always have a lead form or call to action on each page in the “above the fold” area.
• Test headlines, images, colors, button shapes and button wording.
• Make sure phone numbers are present on all pages.