by Having an attractive site for B2B activities is not enough to unlock the true power behind your business’s online presence. Getting organic traffic to drive into your site and convert your targeted audience is possible through proper SEO.
Thorough keyword research can be the difference between your website being visible on the first page or getting invisible under thousands of results. This article offers an all-in-one guide on how to conduct effective B2B keyword research in order to succeed in SEO.
Let’s enter the land of keywords, uncover why they are relevant and know how you can use them for your own benefit. This article is helpful whether you are going to consider hiring a B2B SEO company to work for you or even when you have an in-house team.
KEY POINTS
Why is B2B keyword research important?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of B2B keyword research, it’s essential to understand why it matters. Simply put, keyword research refers to the process of searching and analyzing the words or phrases that your target customers use when they are looking for products or services related to your business.
You can therefore optimize your website with such keywords so that you have higher probabilities of appearing on those search results. This in turn may result in higher online traffic as well as possible conversions.
In addition, B2B keyword research offers insights into the mind-set as well as behavior of your audience, making it possible for you to customize content alongside marketing strategies accordingly. It also helps you to remain competitive by staying current with industry trends and the ever-changing search algorithms.
Having knowledge about B2B keywords research will give you an upper hand even if you are using search engine optimization packages to optimize your website. On this note, let’s look at steps to master keywords research for ultimate SEO success:
Tips to master B2B keyword research:
Start by identifying the seed keywords:
Seed keywords are main words or phrases, which describe your business, the products and/or services. Look up your industry and target audience to get these keywords.
For instance, if you are a digital agency offering B2B services, your seed keywords can include “B2B marketing”, “digital marketing services,” and “online advertising for businesses” among others which will provide the base of your keyword research optimization efforts.
On the other hand, seed keywords help determine the intent of your target audience as they comprise general terms and phrases used by these people during their search for products or services related to your business.
Use keyword tools to find historic data:
Once you have your seed keywords, make use of keyword research tools to get historical search volumes, competitive data and any other related phrases. common tools are ahrefs, Google Keyword Planner and Moz amongst others. With these tools, you can understand how popular and competitive your key words actually are by providing them that will help you select the best ones from your list.
These tools can also be used to find long-tail keywords which are longer, more targeted keyword phrases with less search volume but higher conversion rate. Long-tail keywords are extremely B2B-oriented that focus on a much more specific, highly purchased audience.
Analyzing competitors:
Another vital part of keyword research for B2B is considering the search terms they use. This will not only let you know the keywords they are targeting but assist you to identify the areas not covered in your strategy. Such tools as SpyFu or SimilarWeb can be used for organic/ paid keywords analysis concerning competitors.
Finding out competitors’ paid keywords can give insights into the exact keywords they do pay for. On the other hand, organic keywords analysis will help you to better understand the general idea of their SEO strategy and identify the opportunity for your own business. You may also get some hints from your competitors’ content and backlinks on the keywords they use.
Understanding search intent:
Choosing the right keywords for B2B SEO revolves around understanding the intent of a search query. B2B Searches fall into three Categories—informational, navigational and transactional.
Informational searches happen when a user is searching for information or rather answers to their question. They include those of ‘they know exactly which website they want to go to’, also referred to as navigational searches.
Transactional searches, on the other hand, occur when a user is prepared to purchase or seek further information. Once you understand what a user is trying to do with each query, you can better target your content and keywords to speak specifically toward that intent and significantly increase your chances of converting.
Focus more on user-centric LSIs:
In addition to the traditional keywords, an emphasis on user-centered LSIs (Latent Semantic Indexing) can significantly enhance your research for B2B keywords. LSIs refer to words or phrases related to your primary keyword that help search engines in understanding the context of your writing. Adding LSIs to your content enables you to boost search engine perception of the relevance and authority of your website.
Some of the tools you can use include Google’s Keyword Planner and LSIGraph, to name a few, for finding low-competition LSIs. Such tools will propose complimentary words and phrases that can be used to make the content more visible.
Limit using buzzwords:
Use jargon and not buzzwords in your B2B keyword research. In some cases, industry-specific jargon can be useful in targeting a specific audience; however, buzzwords are more harmful than beneficial. Although these catch words may have high search volume but frequently end up being overused and fail B2B searches relevancy.
Therefore, you should be choosy with the language and terminology in your keyword research. Remember to pick appropriate keywords for your intended audience and not just use popular important terms.
In summary, successful B2B keyword research mastering involves a strategic way that trespasses the conventional practice. Through understanding the search query’s intent, structuring for user-centric LSIs and avoiding buzzwords, you will increase your website visibility and secure traffic of high quality from prospective B2B customers.
Don’t forget to constantly revise and refresh your keywords as the industry trends change; this is required to keep your business one step ahead in the online market. With that in mind, you will dominate B2B and become highly effective in SEO strategies.
