6 Easy Tips for Winning at B2B SEO

Despite the term ‘SEO’ being coined almost 20 years ago, the principles of search engine optimisation still causes confusion among marketers and web developers. With new algorithms, increasingly sophisticated search engines and differing opinions from industry insiders, it’s no wonder that for many, SEO is a bit of a guessing game. While SEO is a work in progress, you can’t go wrong by implementing these key SEO best practice tips.

1. Write for humans first, search engines second

This point really can’t be stressed enough! While SEO is essential for improving page rankings and visibility, it shouldn’t come at the cost of user experience. If your website copy reads more like a code sheet, rather than actual educational content – it’s time to have a re-think. Humans, not crawlers, engage with your content and become customers. 

2. Don’t stuff your content full of keywords

Again, it’s all about striking a balance between SEO and readability. Never sacrifice sentence structure for the sake of using an additional keyword. If it doesn’t sound natural to you, it probably won’t to the reader either. It’s SEO best practice to try and not use the same keyword more than five times per page or blog post (although this figure will vary depending on how heavy the copy is). Not only will keyword-heavy copy leave prospects with a sour taste, search engines are more sophisticated and can spot these tactics from a mile away. As a result, your website could be penalised. Want to learn more about creating optimised content? Check out our ultimate guide to SEO, where we offer best practice advice on content creation. 

3. Consider your mobile audience 

It's long been known how important mobile-friendly and mobile-optimised websites are for your rankings. B2B decision makers still tend to make the final purchase on a computer but the buyer journey involves substantial amounts of research often completed on mobile platforms. It’s therefore essential to consider how the user experience will differ for your mobile visitors. As well as using a responsive website design and a simplified menu, remember that the location of your business is more relevant on mobile. Therefore, it's best practice to implement local SEO. Ensure consistent spellings and abbreviations of your business name and address. On contact pages, include your location in title and meta tags to help local mobile visitors find your site more easily.

4. Always prioritise quality over quantity with your content

There is a common misconception that the more indexed pages you have, the greater the chance you have of increasing your page rank – which simply isn’t the case. In fact, the number of pages on your site alone does not carry a direct ranking benefit. Producing a bloated number of site pages at the expense of producing quality content will do you no favours. If your pages are irrelevant or poor quality, visitors will quickly bounce off your site. Google will pick up on this and your ranking will likely suffer as a result. Your chief aim should always be to publish content that answers search queries. In other words, content that your potential customers will want to read. 

5. Don’t ignore your meta descriptions

Page and blog post meta descriptions can often be overshadowed by other, more ‘important’ B2B SEO features. While meta descriptions don’t technically offer any SEO value, they play a crucial role in encouraging visitors. The meta description is the supporting text that appears in search engine results and essentially sells the value of your website page or blog post. A badly written meta description does little to excite readers, minimising the chance of receiving a website visitor. 

6. Use links appropriately for the best SEO benefit

When using statistics and quotes, linking to original sources helps to give your content more credibility, while adding weight to your argument. It also encourages engagement with other relevant businesses, which can potentially result in your website receiving back links in the future. From an SEO perspective, this can improve your blog authority and ranking. However, it’s vital to only link to relevant, reputable websites. Visitors won’t appreciate being directed to a site that have no relation to your original post, or provides them with poor content. Word of warning: don’t over-do it. Too many outbound links can be overwhelming to the reader as well as frustrating. Focus on providing a few key and relevant links, while also prioritising internal linking to other blog posts and relevant service pages.

SEO remains just one way of increasing visitors to your website. If you'd like to know what else can bring visitors to your website and, vitally, how to then convert them? Check out our guide - Everything you need to know about Optimising your B2B Website for Lead Generation.

If you’re looking to overhaul your B2B SEO strategy for the New Year, be sure to download our new guide and learn the truth behind some of the most common SEO myths. Click on the banner below to access your copy.