In a previous article, we commented on the importance and advantages of developing a B2B website, as well as the main reasons and aspects that must be taken into account when developing or improving it. One of those main reasons we talk about is, “Let them find you”.
The fact of having a company website based simply on design is a mistake that many companies still make. It is also important to know that, if the company has a website developed a few years ago, it is possible that it has become obsolete or ineffective at the SEO level, since the algorithms of the main search engines have changed over time and some aspects that previously contributed to organic positioning are now completely useless. So, if your company's website was developed a while ago, it is recommended that you do an SEO study and request advice from an expert agency in web development and SEO for B2B.
To be successful, a B2B website must first be found
As we have mentioned, it is not enough to have an attractive website with a good design if, in the end, the client does not access it because they cannot find it. The best way for this to happen and to get the visit of potential clients is to appear in the first search results every time the user consults a concept or keyword related to our sector, product, or service. That is why SEO optimization is one of the main aspects to take into account when developing or improving a website.
What is SEO?
Search engine optimization or search engine optimization is the process of improving the visibility of a website in the organic results of different search engines. It is also common to name it by its English title, SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
WIKIPEDIA
SEO has changed a lot in recent years. We have seen a good number of updates such as Penguin and Panda, and how these have given a 180-degree turn to how SEO was worked until not long ago. The last big change we've seen is Hummingbird, a completely new algorithm. The great novelty is that it focuses on what we call semantic search and the knowledge graph and, really, what is going to happen more and more is that short tail traffic (short keywords) is going to be distributed among more websites, so The logical thing would be to work more with long tail keywords, which are more specific phrases made up of several keywords.
In summary, Google's algorithms change and are constantly updated (about 500 times a year), so it is very important to keep up to date and know which changes are relevant and which ones could affect the SEO of our website.
There are thousands of factors on which a search engine such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing is based to position a site, but this large number of factors can be grouped into two large groups:
On-site:
On-site SEO is the one that deals with or relates to relevance. It is the one that we work to have the web optimized and that the search engine understands the main thing and what we want, so that it can position it correctly. In the SEO On-site, we will take into account the optimization of keywords (short tail and long tail), it is in the SEO on-site where we are going to work on the title, the meta description, the optimization of the URL code, the H₁, charging time, etc.
Off-site:
Off-site SEO, as its name suggests, is the part of SEO that focuses on factors external to the web page. In off-site SEO, we will mainly take into account what we call Link Building, that is, the number and quality of links from other pages. Off-site SEO also takes into account the presence in social networks, the CTR that the web results have in a search engine and the mentions in the media.
We already know the basic concepts of SEO and the main groups of factors that influence the good positioning of a website in search engines. Although each of its factors can be analyzed in detail from these two large groups, today we also want to touch on issues that are not normally touched on and that must be taken into account before starting to develop a company website and its SEO strategy.
Many times companies believe that making a website and SEO is emptying the history of the company, its products and services, solutions and contact form on a site. The main mistake is that they develop a website thinking only about the company and what it offers, when what really needs to be done is to develop a website thinking about the user. Companies have to understand what the user needs, how they do their searches, what information is relevant, etc. The user must be taken into account as the center of the strategy, to then cross-check his needs and behaviors with what the company offers, in this way it is possible for the user to really find the web and have a good experience on it.
To achieve this, we recommend taking into account 4 key points when developing a B2B company website and its SEO strategy.
Clear objectives:
B2B companies generally have one main objective: to get the sale of products or services to other companies. However, there may be other objectives, such as having a digital presence to improve the brand image and being in the top of mind of suppliers, direct customers and end customers.
Having a company website can help the company to achieve the main objective and also some secondary objective. An example could be that of a B2B company in the ICT sector, this could have the following objectives:
Main: Get new contacts (Leads) from new distributors (channel) or, if you are a distribution company, get new leads from potential companies that can buy your products or solutions.
Secondary: Have a digital identity to be in the top of mind of the end customer or distributors, offer downloadable technical IT content of value on products of the brands that the company distributes, its own solutions, etc.
Having defined the main objectives that you want to achieve is the most important point and the basis of the entire SEO strategy of the web.
Define the target audience
As we mentioned before, it is very essential to have the user as the center of web development and therefore of the SEO strategy. It is key for every B2B company to know its target audience well, that is, to know these other companies and their decision-making profiles well. It is very possible that a company has products, services, or solutions that are adapted to different types of target audiences (companies). The data of the companies, their size, number of employees, billing, their needs, concerns, etc., must be taken into account.
In the case of the previous example of companies in the ICT sector, it must be taken into account, for example, if the size of their potential client allows them to have a CIO who makes decisions or if the decisions are made by other roles in the company. All of this is very important because in this way you can find out how to feed content to the web in its different products or solutions, if some content should be worked with more technical language, etc.
By taking the user into account as the center of the SEO strategy, we must analyze how they perform searches, what type of words or phrases they use the most, what they are looking for, etc. With this information, the short tail and long tail keywords can be defined more effectively. Likewise, it is necessary to know the main media or pages that the different target audiences of the company visit, in order to work on a successful link building strategy with results.
Benchmark
Another very significant factor in any SEO strategy is to have identified all possible competitors and try to understand what strategies they follow at the SEO level.
To identify the competitors, the first thing to do is consult the search engines with the keywords and phrases that have been chosen when carrying out the target analysis. You can also use some Google commands, such as “related,” or resort to payment tools to get the keys to the competitors' strategies.
Once the competitors have been identified, it is significant to assess a SWOT matrix of the most important ones, as well as of the company itself, and be able to understand their strengths and weaknesses and compare them to define where the company's strategy should go and what type of searches it wants. Or should you compete?
We have been able to learn the basic concepts of SEO, its importance, the main groups of factors that influence good search engine positioning and also something very critical that companies tend to forget, the previous steps to be able to develop a website with good SEO and that really be effective.
Many companies, for cost savings and opting for the most economical option, prefer not to pay specialist companies to carry out these previous analyses or the constant subsequent analyzes that must be done to improve the SEO strategy every day. Consequently, in the medium term, as a result, these websites will obtain few visits, less time spent by users, a higher bounce rate and, consequently, a low conversion rate, which will result in frustration for the company and loss of credibility to continue investing in the digital environment. Let's remember that, to save costs, the website of a B2B company may simply be useless if its target groups do not first find it.
At PGR Marketing & Technology, we have been advising our clients for more than 13 years as a Comprehensive Marketing Agency specialized in Lead Generation for B2B companies in the ICT Sector. We help our clients to grow by working from the creation of an optimized and specialized website, to a comprehensive Digital Marketing strategy, based on Inbound Marketing Lead Generation and oriented to results. We have a team of web positioning professionals who can help your company gain visibility in the online world and achieve better results.
