What do the stats say about the importance of SEO for B2B businesses?
On average, a buyer, business owner or decision-maker will run at least 12 searches before they decide which supplier or vendor to contact, and 71% will consider web searches a key component of their research.
If we consider that over 70% of all finalised sales in B2B businesses are linked to organic traffic, the importance of SEO for B2B businesses becomes even more apparent.
This could potentially mean your business relies on just 30% of the potential revenues it is capable of.
Many business owners are unaware that organic visibility is an integral part of the entire decision-making process for your potential customers. A strong organic presence isn’t just a nice-to-have but a crucial component of your online footprint and an influential factor in the leads, enquiries and sales you attract.
The flip side – a life without SEO
If we look at the flip side and consider a B2B business that has no organic presence, the disadvantages become pretty apparent:
- Leads depend wholly on word-of-mouth recommendations or localised awareness of your business.
- Buyers who search online will not find the content or materials they need to recommend a brand or to move their enquiry forward.
- Procurement teams looking for experts in their field will look elsewhere without any indication that you are a specialist in your sector or can add value to their processes.
Why Is SEO So Important? Because SEO isn’t just SEO.
This may seem like a strange statement to make – but it’s important to focus on what SEO isn’t.
- It isn’t ‘just keywords’
- It isn’t meta titles and H1s
- It isn’t backlinks
- It isn’t Google Analytics
SEO is
- Proving value to your audience
- Solving your customers pain points
- Becoming an authority in your space
- Developing your brand voice
The primary aim of investing in SEO is to establish the presence, reputation and gravitas that give another company the confidence that you are the right choice for their business to drive highly qualified enquiries. Without these elements to your marketing, sales are infinitely harder, fewer and far between.
This is why SEO is important for B2B businesses – SEO can help to achieve several business or marketing goals in the same stroke. It’s not a dark art designed to manipulate search engines. It’s at the core of your marketing.
The many faces of a successful SEO campaign
Whilst the primary reason for any SEO campaign should be to impact the bottom line, SEO success comes under many guises which make SEO for B2B companies all the more important:
Whichever targets you set, the results can include:
- Increased Visibility and Traffic: As discussed, B2B buyers often start their purchasing journey with online research. SEO helps improve the visibility of your website in search engine results, making it more likely that potential customers will find your business when they are actively looking for products or services you offer.
- More leads – yes please: Of course. A well-optimised website can serve as a powerful lead-generation tool. Not only this – they’re inbound leads meaning that they’re actively searching for a solution. Leads generated from search are considered the most valuable and relevant provided you get your messaging and content right.
- Improved Authority and Credibility: Optimising the content on your service pages and providing authoritative blog content that helps resolve customer pain points can contribute to your business’s perceived authority and credibility. B2B buyers are more likely to trust and engage with companies that appear prominently in search engine results with answers to their burning questions. A key parameter for any buyer who takes a risk on proposing a new vendor to decision-makers. If a quick search solidifies your presence and reinforces your position as a thought leader, you have little more to do to convince a prospect you have the capabilities to deliver.
- Cost-Effective Marketing: Yes that’s right. I know – good SEO isn’t cheap but it’s actually one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing. Once you’ve worked hard to establish authority and visibility, your strong ranking positions continue to attract and compound higher volumes of organic traffic without the need for additional spend. This combined with the fact that assets created for SEO reasons can support other marketing channels makes SEO one of the best bang- for-buck marketing activities.
- Alignment with Buyer Behavior: We’ve established that B2B buyers often conduct extensive research before making a purchasing decision. SEO, or more accurately, the optimised content produced, helps align your online presence with their search behaviour, making it easier for them to find the information they need and engage with your business at different stages of the buying process.
- Gaining a Competitive Advantage: Many B2B companies operate in competitive markets. Effective SEO strategies can give your business a competitive edge by ensuring that your website stands out in search results, attracting potential customers away from competitors. Put simply, if you’re not visible when your customers are searching for your products and searches – you may not exist to them!
- Measurable Results: SEO efforts can be tracked and analysed using various tools. This allows B2B companies to measure the effectiveness of their strategies, identify areas for improvement, and make data-driven decisions to enhance their online presence.
- Shorter sales cycles: meaning sales and marketing teams work on a solid foundation of brand awareness and interest, helping to expedite the velocity of a prospect through to a customer, with fewer interactions and greater knowledge of what you can offer.
Looking to start growing your B2B business in 2024
As an independent B2B SEO consultant and strategist, I work with clients across the UK as an SEO partner.
What is an SEO partner?
I believe that the best SEO results are achieved when I’m able to work as a partner or an extension of your marketing team, driving strategy and building a long-term relationship to help fulfil your aspirations. I deliver transparent, straightforward and jargon-free guidance to help your business generate a consistent steam of high-quality, highly qualified leads.
Please get in touch for more information or book a meeting at your convenience to learn more.
