How to improve your B2B SEO with content marketing

DTC and B2B customers are two very different audiences, but there’s one strategy which can successfully attract both - SEO-led content. There exists plenty of advice online about how to use SEO content to bring more high quality DTC customers to your store, and you can use many of the same principles to do the same for your B2B audience. However, it’s easier said than done - what kind of content do B2B buyers actually want to see?

Let’s look at some easy examples of content you can add to your store that will help improve your B2B SEO.

Why SEO is important for B2B

Search is a major part of the customer journey, and it’s the channel through which many discover new products and brands. That’s not just applicable to DTC customers, but also to B2B buyers. It makes sense - they’re used to using search engines to research and discover products, find local businesses, and more. That familiarity with search’s role in their purchasing journey then carries over to their B2B decision making. The role of digital in B2B is growing, with buyers saying 27% of their time is taken up by researching independently online versus just 18% of time spent researching offline. 

The purchasing journey for a B2B buyer is more complex than that of a DTC customer, given the different steps involved, multiple decision makers, and longer times to conversion. That’s why it’s so important to ensure that during that journey, they have adequate information and resources to help them make their decision. And if you can create fresh, high quality content that ticks all the SEO boxes, you’ll also stand a stronger chance of edging out your competitors on SERPs when B2B buyers are looking for new brands to work with.

Content marketing for B2B SEO

As with DTC, content marketing is a valuable part of any SEO strategy for B2B. Buyers consume on average 3 to 7 pieces of content before they speak to a sales person, however 73% say these days they have less time to devote to reading and researching. This highlights a need then for quality density in B2B content, meaning merchants need to prioritize the most valuable content for their B2B customers. 

Having high quality, information dense product pages is just the beginning for improving your B2B content. If you really want to capture your customers’ attention as well as Google’s, you need to provide high quality, relevant content that targets the kind of information your B2B audience is looking for. You also want that content to maximize the value of the time your customers spend on B2B content. So - let’s work through three types of content you can implement that target your B2B customers that will greatly improve your B2B SEO.

#1 - B2B Landing Page

A good landing page will act as an information hub for customers, giving them all the most relevant information they’ll need for their specific purchasing journey. In DTC, this may be a Black Friday landing page to quickly direct customers who want to know about deals and BFCM specific promotions rather than browsing through pages which don’t contain that information. For B2B, you want this page to give potential and existing customers all the information they need without navigating your DTC pages. That way, they get only the most relevant content to their specific needs. This will then work better for your store’s SEO, as when users go to search for wholesale resources they can be directed to your B2B landing page. 

Your landing page should aim to satisfy different types of B2B search intent - so that may be those just starting to research brands, as well as those who are ready to start working with you. Give them easy access to information and resources for these different stages of the customer journey, including links to different resources and how to get in touch with your team. Add any additional info that may be useful for SEO, such as if you offer customizations to products, the type of customers you typically work with and any additional services you offer for wholesale. In the example above for La Colombe, they give added information about training and technical support for wholesale customers as well as links to their wholesale portal for existing customers.

Keep your landing page concise to ensure you maximize that quality density we spoke of earlier. Your landing page should act as a springboard for customers to explore the content they now need for their B2B decision-making, linking out to those additional resources most relevant to each customer.

#2 - Blog

Blogs are a great opportunity to boost your store’s SEO, targeting topics and keywords that you may not be able to cover on other pages of your site. The same applies to your B2B SEO strategy; by identifying the keywords your B2B customers are interested in, you can regularly create content on the topics they’re looking for outside of just brands and products. You may integrate these articles as part of your usual blog posting schedule, or host them on their own separate B2B specific blog page.

These articles will give your customers even more ways to come across your store via search. They’re a great way to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise of the product and industry you operate in, as well as showing both customers and search engines that you want to engage B2B customers and the topics they’re interested in.

#3 - Additional Resources

When you are optimizing content for your DTC customers, you often start considering which resources and additional information they’re going to need both before and after they make a purchase. That may be product specifications, care instructions, and so on. Your B2B customers will likely want access to even more in-depth and specific resources than your DTC customers - sales information, technical details, training and support etc. 

Providing these resources in an easily accessible way on your site is better not just for the B2B customer experience but also for your store’s SEO. You can target different keywords and search intent to your landing page and blogs, and demonstrate to both customers and search engines your commitment to B2B content and resources. Customers can see just by the fact these resources are hosted on your site, that your team are focussed on their experience as well as your DTC customers. 

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B2B ecommerce is a huge opportunity for merchants, and by incorporating SEO-led content that targets B2B search users into your strategy, you can make the most of that opportunity.