Businesses need search engine optimization (or SEO for short)  to build their notoriety on search engines and find new clients. Google offers two major options to be high on search page results: paid ads and organic search results. According to Digiviser, 80% of Google search users ignore paid ads. So, we focus on organic search results in this article as a driving factor of users to your website. We may say that a lot of companies have seen these statistics. According to Gartner, 46% of companies increased their SEO budgets over the past few years. 

So, SEO matters. Especially in the B2B segment. Google remains the primary source of research for B2B customers, with 89% of them using the internet to find the information they need, and 71% of B2B researchers start with generic searches.

You’re probably reading this article because you want to find a professional B2B SEO agency. Choosing the right B2B SEO agency can be challenging, and you can’t take risks on such an important decision. In this article, we will discuss the most important points to consider when you select a B2B SEO agency and how to know that you need to invest in SEO services. 

Why Information in This Article Is Trustworthy

It’s a similar question to “Why should I read your article?”. 

The answer is simple: this article is written by SumatoSoft, which provides B2B SEO services. We share real advice that can be useful for our clients and readers. And this advice is derived from our experience and expertise, not from Google.

We are not theorists but practitioners! 

Our key expertise is B2B SEO (we do B2B SEO for ourselves as well) and SaaS SEO services. As additional proof, you may read this real-life SEO for SaaS cases when we helped get more traffic.

Now, let’s get back to the article. 

What Is a B2B SEO Agency?

A B2B SEO Agency is specialized in improving your business’s online presence and increasing its rank on search engines such as Google, Bing, or Safari. B2B SEO is the type of SEO that focuses on attracting businesses as clients through organic search results. The opposite is B2C SEO which targets individual customers.

B2B SEO differs from the B2C segment. We’ll explain how in further sections. Firstly, let’s consider SEO areas of work. 

B2B SEO Agencies have three areas of work: 

• Content SEO 

Responsible for content optimization through keywords, and backlinks, and works directly with SEO writers and website developers.

• Technical SEO

This team will make sure the website is functional, mobile-friendly and all the pages are indexed so search engines can rank them. 

• Leadership SEO

Incorporates business goals into SEO strategies and monitors the results obtained by the other SEO teams.

Based on these areas of work, there are different types of marketing agencies you can work with: 

• Digital marketing: An agency that specializes in promoting products or services through various digital channels, such as search engines, social media, and websites.
• Growth marketing: An agency that focuses on identifying and implementing tactics and strategies to grow a business or product’s user base or revenue.
• Performance marketing: An agency that focuses on utilizing data and analytics to optimize and track the performance of marketing campaigns.
• Creative marketing: An agency that specializes in coming up with unique and effective ways to promote a brand or product.
• Social media marketing: An agency that specializes in promoting a brand or product through social media platforms.
• Advertising marketing: An agency that focuses on creating and placing advertisements to promote a brand or product.
• Account-based marketing: An agency that focuses on personalizing and targeting marketing efforts to specific accounts or businesses.
• Personal reputation marketing: An agency that specializes in managing and enhancing an individual’s personal brand and reputation.
• Branding marketing: An agency that focuses on creating and maintaining a brand’s image and identity.

How B2B SEO Differs From B2C SEO

The main difference between B2B SEO and B2C SEO it’s the target audience. B2B SEO addresses the business clients, while B2C SEO addresses the individual customers. But there are other differences to consider, as you will see below:

B2B Content Marketing Much More Complex Than B2C 

While B2C SEO focuses on convincing a buyer to make a purchase fast and impulsively, B2B SEO builds a marketing strategy based on average on eight touchpoints to make a sale. For B2C SEO, good offers and catchy content could be enough to gain new customers. But when it comes to B2B SEO, actions like demo requests, newsletter signups, whitepaper downloads, etc., are required to create leads that become sales.      

The complexity of B2B SEO comes from the fact that B2B buyers need to reach an agreement between more departments of the company, and they look at the purchase from multiple perspectives while the B2C buyer only has to consider their own needs and expectations. 

B2B Companies Need to Use Low-competitive Specific Keywords

B2B companies should focus on the specific low-competitive keywords and use them to acquire more authority in Google to be able to compete for high-competitive keywords. 

Advantages of low-competitive keywords:

• Low-competitive keywords are targeted by fewer websites, and it is easier to rank higher on search engines through them.
• Low-competitive keywords are usually quite specific and less general. So they are more relevant for your potential customers.
• They give you the opportunity to appear as the expert in a particular niche, which builds customers’ trust in your company.

Buying Lifecycle in B2B Sector is Longer

Businesses make decisions differently than individuals, meaning that they invest more time and resources and look further down the line at how their purchase will affect the company’s growth. Unlike individual customers, statistics show that 77% of B2B clients admit that their most recent purchases were very complex, with 76.4% saying that it takes between four and seven months to make a purchase. 

Paid Search And SEO Should Go Hand in Hand

Paid search or PPC(Pay Per Click) is the process of purchasing advertisements to increase the ranking of your website on search engines. The ultimate goal is for your advertisements to show up at the upper side of the SERP for both the keywords and phrases you want to target. Customarily, you will be billed every time a visitor clicks on an advertisement (cost-per-click).

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) aims to optimize your site to receive visitors from organic search engine results, with the ultimate goal of ranking higher on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPS).

The majority (68%) of B2B buyers see advertisements from the solution provider they selected throughout the research process, according to research from Demand Gen Report. 37% of those who saw the winning vendors’ advertisements claimed they had an advantageous effect on how they felt about the business.