The complete guide to B2B SEO

The practice and industry of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has been around for quite a while now. People generally tend to think about an SEO strategy in terms of ranking high in popular keyword searches. But for business-to-business (B2B) companies, the strategy shifts from a broad audience to a very specific one.

B2B SEO has a few basic areas that differ from B2C SEO. In this guide, we'll outline those key differences and how you can better your own B2B SEO strategy.

What is B2B SEO?

B2B SEO is the online practice of using various techniques – like keyword research and a page’s metadata – to reach the decision-makers of a company. A successful strategy means that someone actively researching the product or service that you’re offering reaches your company’s website.

There are a few different elements to B2B SEO. Each one plays a role in your overall strategy. If you’re lacking in one area, it means you’ve still got room to optimize your site.

Technical SEO: These are the optimizations you make to the backbone of your website. It covers areas like your XML sitemap, load speed and a responsive design.Content SEO: B2B content marketing for SEO is the practice of using research on user needs and search intent to create content. You go through the steps of research, ideation, content creation and promotion.On-page SEO: This is the optimization of the content itself. On a page or blog post, it includes the meta description and title tag, alt text on images and structuring the content so information is relevant to both the user and findable by search engines.Off-page SEO: Also referred to as backlinks, having high-quality pages link to you on a specific topic increases your perceived expertise in said topic. It also includes engagement on the page or post. The links in the below blog post from Affirm show off an example of using off-page SEO.