B2B SEO strategy: How to drive qualified organic leads
Learn how to build a high-impact B2B SEO strategy that attracts decision-makers, boosts organic visibility, and drives pipeline growth at every stage.
B2B SEO isn’t just your traditional search engine optimization with a business twist—it’s an entirely different strategy to capture organic traffic, with its own challenges and considerations.
High-volume keywords and snap-quick conversions are common in B2C SEO. B2B SEO, on the other hand, must navigate complicated stakeholder structures, lengthy buying cycles, and mountains of content.
So yes, B2B SEO is a heavier lift. But a successful strategy is one that prioritizes conversions and revenue over useless traffic.
What is B2B SEO? Strategy, differences, and how to win in complex sales cycles
B2B SEO is how businesses fight to be at the top of organic search engine result pages (SERPs).
It differs from your usual e-commerce optimization because of its focus on:
- Different types of keywords
- Longer conversion funnels
- Appeal to different stakeholders
Unlike your standard search practices, B2B websites use long, complex, and low-search volume journeys to reach the stakeholders who can make or break your business. That means you can’t just focus on product terms.
To properly capture those stakeholders as they learn about, research, and decide to buy your offering, you’ll need to have content that supports them every step of the way.
What makes B2B SEO different from B2C SEO
Are B2C SEO and B2B SEO really that different?
It depends.
The two are the same when it comes to ranking. You’ll always want great content. There isn’t a different algorithm you’re working toward when it comes to B2B versus B2C.
But those best practices to get pages to rank for a B2B site compared to a B2C site? Now that’s where things start to split.
Here’s a breakdown of how the two differ:

Note: For social channels, Meta (Facebook) and X (formerly Twitter) can both drive sales for B2B and B2C, but it depends on your audience. Threads and Bluesky, on the other hand, are still emerging, and limited adoption rates mean limited use.
Decision timeline
B2B stakeholders need a lot more time to make a decision. This isn’t a quick Google Shopping conversion. We’re talking about a 4-6 month journey from the moment someone identifies a problem to when they hop on a sales call.
That means a lot of time devoted to research, getting buy-in, and comparing options.
To even compete in the process, a B2B company has to build out content to guide users each step of the way. This means more research, more tailored solutions for each target persona, and a lot of catering to stakeholders.
And the result of all that hard work?
Less traffic than B2C would ever see. And fewer conversions. But because B2B deals are so profitable, there’s an equal amount of overall revenue.
Stakeholder involvement
In B2C, you might see two people involved in a purchasing decision. Any more than that is unusual.
It’s the reverse for B2B—because stakes are so high, more people need to be involved in the purchasing process. At an enterprise B2B company, for example, you might see a procurement manager, department head, IT/security VPs, and even legal getting involved in a deal.
Organic keywords
B2C SEO wants those high-volume transactional queries.
Think “buy dresses online” or “brake pads for sale.” Those are B2C SEO bread and butter. The best terms for B2C are those where the searcher already has a credit card in hand.
SEO for B2B has to be more broad and research-driven. Buyers spend a lot more time researching what it is they want to buy, who’s selling it, and if that product is worth the cost.
You might see keywords like “enterprise data pipeline provider” or “HIPAA-compliant email service provider.” These terms get way less traffic—and that’s okay. The searches they do bring in are likely to be more qualified and ready to convert.
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Paid keywords
Those lower search volume B2B terms are not cheap when it comes to cost per click (CPC) advertising.
CPC is how much people bid on a term in Google Ads. The more you invest in advertising, the more you can potentially earn from that traffic through conversions.
CPC also depends on how many people are looking for that term. That’s why B2C search terms like “buy dresses online” are nowhere near as expensive as “best VoIP providers.” Even though the B2C term has more search volume, there’s lower overall revenue per conversion.
In B2B, fewer searchers means each potential customer is worth more, so advertisers will bid a lot more aggressively. And since those sales cycles are so much longer, businesses will need to keep ads running for much longer. That all drives up the cost for B2B CPCs.
Target audience
B2B target audiences are far more specific than B2C. They have to be. You can’t simply say “We want to sell this to new moms” (a valid B2C target customer) when you’re looking for people to buy your new VoIP product. Instead, with B2B SaaS SEO, you need to focus on that small group of decision-makers at a company.
If you’re selling telecommunication solutions, this might be an IT director at an enterprise company looking to upgrade internal communication systems. Or it could be the CEO at a startup that wants to make it easier to reach customers.
These are two very different target audiences.
A new mom is a huge, transient group of people. You’re looking at thousands of searches a month.
On the other hand, an IT director at an enterprise company? If you’re lucky, you might find a target keyword with 50 searches a month. Maybe 100.
Social media channels
Those news moms? They’re going to be scrolling on Instagram Reels and TikTok and posting on Facebook. And all the while, you can target them with organic and paid social content.
Those IT directors?
LinkedIn.
B2B has a much narrower scope when it comes to social media marketing. Though it depends on your industry, you’ll usually see a lot less traction with short-form video. You’re better off sticking to webinars.
That doesn’t mean you should ignore niche online communities. Stop by industry-relevant subreddits, Slack groups, Discord channels, and private forums. Those are all great places to reach a more technical audience, especially if you’re targeting B2B SaaS organizations.
Content
Since B2B involves a much larger purchase, buyers want extensive research opportunities. You’ll have to get approval from a list of stakeholders. This makes the buying cycle much more complex.
Let’s go back to our IT director. If they want to make a company-wide purchase, they’ll need buy-in from their direct manager, members on the team that will use the product, and likely a C-suite level executive.
You’ll want comparison guides between yourself and other vendors. Webinars and whitepapers showing off your expertise. Guides on your product. Case studies showing off your product. Blogs defining basic terms.
Each piece of quality content supports that buying journey.
Unlike B2C that can appeal to a short-term emotional pain point—this stroller means new moms never have to worry about safety—B2B content has to focus on technical expertise that demonstrates your authority in the industry.
Risk tolerance
Just as B2B audiences need more time to make a decision, they also need a lot more reassurance before they start giving you their payment details.
Keep this in mind when building out your content. Think about the kinds of reassurances your target personas will need each step of the way. Add detailed case studies, compliance documentation, third-party security certifications, integration guides, or testimonials so prospects know they can trust you and your product.
Search behavior
Your classic B2B target audience loves to do research. They are frequently looking for how to’s, installation guides, comparison charts, and webinars.
Optimize these pieces of content for search by targeting terms like:
- “How to set up cloud monitoring tool” (great for a technical how-to guide)
- “[Your product] vs. [Competitor]” (great for a comparison chart)
- “Best practices for HIPAA-compliant emails” (great for a long-form guide or webinar)
- “Enterprise messaging security checklist” (great lead-in for a downloadable resource or gated asset)
Conversions
Since the sales process is so different, it only makes sense that B2B and B2C track success differently.
B2C is looking at how many products they’ve sold.
B2B?
They’re looking at MQLs, or marketing qualified leads. These are often potential customers who have downloaded whitepapers, attended webinars, and/or requested demos.
An MQL indicates someone who’s expressed interest in a B2B product and should be targeted with remarketing efforts. B2B has to target these softer conversions because of the length of the sales funnel and how much smaller their user base is.
Core pillars of a successful B2B SEO strategy
The key to a strong B2B SEO strategy? Knowing your audience.
To really make that sale, you’ll need to:
- Define decision-maker personas
- Map their buyer journey
- Align your SEO and content efforts accordingly

Persona and intent research
You’ve got one main question when it comes to personal research: Who are you targeting?
In B2C, that’s an easy answer: a customer.
Selling strollers? You’re looking at new parents. Running shoes? Runners.
Things get complicated with B2B. You’re still targeting a who, but you’re looking at people in working roles. CFOs. Product managers. IT directors. And they all have different pain points and goals.
Let’s say you’re selling a VoIP solution. Here’s how those personas differ:
- IT Director: Wants to know how to integrate the solution, what tools it integrates with, and any technical issues they might have to handle
- CFO: Wants to know the total cost, ROI, and competitor comparisons
- COO: Wants to know about adoptability and how the product fits in with the broader team
If you’re really stuck, Semrush’s free buyer persona tool is a great place to start. You can create a persona in minutes.

If you want to take a shot at building out a target persona yourself, you’ll want to look at averages.
Think about everything from:
- Age
- Degree
- Industry
- Job title
- Location
- Budget
- Company size
- Team size
- Favorite tools
- What they want to accomplish
Use this information to understand how this target persona moves through search. Would they already know what your offering is? Why would they want your product?
These types of questions will tell you what keywords you need to target with your keyword strategy.
Full-funnel keyword strategy
Remember: B2B is looking at all areas of the funnel.
You’ll want those top-of-funnel terms like “what is VoIP” (8,100 searches/month) for the C-suite decision makers who were just told by their IT director they need to have this product. This is a “we have a problem” search. Think education and awareness building.
Capture the “enterprise VoIP solutions” (590 searches/month) middle-of-funnel searches from the IT director. Think of this area of the funnel as your “how do we fix this” content. You’re comparing solutions here.
For decision-makers who are ready to purchase, capture the “best VoIP providers” (110 searches/month) search. This is your “how much will it cost” content. Show off your product and pricing.

Notice those search volumes? Monthly searches will get smaller and smaller as you move down the funnel, but the keyword that will drive the most leads will be “best VoIP providers,” even while driving 20% of the traffic.
Why?
Because searchers looking for “best VoIP providers” are showing high search intent. They’ve done their research, narrowed down their options, and are actively looking for a provider—which means they’re ready to make the purchase.
Let’s break down your full-funnel keyword strategy process:
1. Audit your current keyword portfolio
Starting with step one, open up your SEO toolset to see how your current content is doing. You can use a tool like Semrush combined with a bit of Google Search Console and Google Analytics 4.
Here’s what you should look for:
- What keywords drive converting traffic?
- What content is ranking well that could use more buyer-focused optimization?
- What keywords are your competitors ranking for that you aren’t?
Identify at least 10-20 keywords for each of these specific categories and the pages ranking for these terms. Some overlap is okay, especially if those keywords appear across multiple categories.
For example, take a keyword like “best customer support software.”
You’ll likely see your competitors ranking for this, and you might already have a demo page ranking highly for it. Double down on targeting the keyword by creating a new comparison page to better prepare you for going up against competitor rankings. As long as you’re approaching the page from a different content angle than the demo page, you should be fine.
On the other hand, if you have three category pages ranking for “customer support software,” you have a problem. These pages are all serving the same search intent: trying to get a user to buy the product.
You’re left with a keyword cannibalization mess, where all three pages are competing against each other for the same keyword rankings. The pages will likely confuse both your users and search engines, and you’re splitting potential ranking value across multiple pages instead of focusing on one page to optimize.
2. Map your competitor content
Now with this new list of pages, take a closer look at your competitors. Don’t just focus on their keywords—look at their content strategy as a whole:
- What buyer concerns are they addressing that you’re missing out on?
- How are they creating content for different stakeholders?
- Which of their pages are getting the most backlinks?
Use this information to inform your list of target pages and keywords. Focus on how you can bulk up pre-existing content and what new content you’ll need to close competitor gaps.
3. Validate keywords with internal teams
With step three, you’ll want to set up some meetings with your internal team. Your sales team will have especially valuable information.
Ask them questions like:
- What things do prospects want to know during discovery calls?
- What competitors do prospects mention most often?
- How do prospects talk about our product vs. how marketing talks about our product?
Use this information to expand on your list of long-tail keywords. Think about how you integrate customer-focused language to improve click-through rate. Or expand on your FAQ sections.
4. Organize your keyword list based on priority
Review your keyword list now. It’s probably getting pretty unwieldy.
Here’s how to cut it down. Sort your keywords based on high, medium, and low priority:
- High-priority keywords are those that are low volume but high intent, indicating a later stage in the buying process. These are the terms that are going to bring in your leads.
- Medium-priority keywords are usually those that your competitors are ranking for but you’re missing out on.
- Lower-priority keywords are often those higher search volume, lower relevancy terms that can help build brand recognition but might not be as great with capturing leads.

Grade your list of terms based on these priorities. Focus on keywords that you can see immediate traction with—they’ll make it easier for you to get leadership buy-in.
5. Build topic clusters around buyer intent
With your new updated list of target keywords and pages in your back pocket, it’s time to bring your strategy to life. And there’s no better way to do that than with content clusters.
What are content clusters?
Content clusters are how you go from targeting individual keywords to building content ecosystems. They’re the best way to take a brand, no matter its previous rankings, and start creating authority.
Make your content clusters by making a:
- Central pillar page designed to target a broad, top-of-funnel category term
- Supporting middle- and bottom-of-funnel content that answers user questions
- Interlinking system that connects all pieces of content
Say you’re looking to rank for “marketing automation.” Your content cluster might look something like:
- Central top-of-funnel pillar page: What is marketing automation
- Supporting middle-of-funnel content: Marketing automation ROI calculator
- Supporting middle- to bottom-of-funnel content: Marketing automation implementation checklist
- Supporting bottom-of-funnel content: “[Your product] vs. [Competitor]” comparison
Use these content clusters to develop strategic, persona-targeted content for all areas of the funnel.
Winning B2B search SERP features
B2B searchers want immediate answers. That means SERP features (elements that appear in addition to those “10 blue links” to help satisfy user intent) are critical real estate to grab their attention and build brand authority.
Here’s how to create or optimize your pre-existing content to appear for the most popular B2B featured snippets:
- Target “what is [industry term]” and provide a clear, structured definition
- Include comparison tables for “X vs. Y” queries
- Use numbered lists for process explanations
- Include comprehensive FAQ sections to address buyer concerns (answer questions about things like implementation, pricing, and ROI)
Content strategy alignment
Now you need to take your pre-existing content and make it into exactly the thing your buyer is looking for.
Do this by aligning your content with these three core tenets:
1. Decision-maker pain points
Take a look at how you can map your content to decision-maker pain points first.
Depending on the stakeholder, you’ll want to change your value proposition and how technical your language is.
- Technical stakeholders want something easy to work with that won’t break. They’ll look for in-depth implementation guides, technical documents, integration abilities, security and compliance performance, and case studies.
- End-user stakeholders want something that’s easy to use and makes their workflow easier. They’ll need content about technical workflow examples, training requirements, demos, and peer reviews.
- Managerial and C-suite stakeholders want to prove why this product is worth investing in. They want high-level overviews, ROI calculators, industry-specific case studies, and cost comparisons.

When creating and optimizing content, think carefully about who you’re speaking to and why they want your product. A technical stakeholder will need the nitty-gritty, but a managerial prospect will focus on ROI.
Here’s an example of how this would work for a cybersecurity platform.
You’re targeting three customer personas: the company’s CIO, an IT director, and a security analyst.
For the CIO, you’ll want to:
- Create content about the “Hidden Costs of Data Breaches: Complete Guide to Cybersecurity ROI”
- Target keywords like “cybersecurity budgeting” and “data breach financial impact”
For the IT director, you’ll want to:
- Create content like “SIEM vs. SOAR vs. XDR: Complete Technical Guide”
- Target keywords like “SIEM integration features” and “XDR comparisons”
And for the security analyst, you’ll want to:
- Create content like “How XDR Reduces Alert Fatigue For Analysts”
- Target keywords like “false positive reduction”
2. All areas of the funnel
B2B buyers are unlikely to convert on a single visit. They’ll need support throughout the entire customer journey. Your content needs to reflect that support from the initial early awareness stages to the final decision.
Here’s how to approach that at each stage:
Top-of-funnel (awareness)
- Content type: Blog posts, educational guides
- Example: “What is XDR?”
- Goal: Introduce your product category and tell the reader why it matters
Middle-of-funnel (consideration)
- Content type: Comparison pages, webinars, whitepapers
- Example: “XDR vs. SIEM: What’s right for your business?”
- Goal: Help readers understand their options and prepare them for a final purchasing decision
Bottom-of-funnel (decision)
- Content type: Case studies, pricing pages, demos
- Example: “How company X reduced incident response time by 60%”
- Goal: Push user toward conversion by proving ROI with real-world results
3. Authority-building topic clusters
The best way to start ranking consistently, even for more difficult terms, is by building topical authority.
Do this by creating your site content in clusters around specific topics and buyer problems.
- Create a central pillar page targeting a broad keyword (e.g., “cybersecurity for SaaS companies”)
- Support it with cluster content (e.g., “what is XDR,” “data compliance for SaaS,” “XDR integration checklist”)
- Link these pages together so users—and search engines—can easily navigate between pieces of content
This approach helps you build credibility in the eyes of users and search engines. Don’t be afraid of creating similar content—B2B buyers often research the same topics multiple times as they bring in new stakeholders.
Technical SEO readiness
You have an idea of who you’re selling to, what they’re looking for, and what kind of content you should build. Unfortunately, your B2B SEO strategy isn’t done just yet.
Now it’s time for a little B2B technical SEO.
Why bother with technical SEO?
Because B2B sites face unique technical challenges:
- Massive content libraries
- International versions for global markets
- Complex site architectures
- Content designed to appeal to everyone from C-suite executives to technical implementers
The technical foundation of your site has to be able to support this complexity while maintaining a strong user and crawler experience.
Just as we did with our B2B keyword strategy, let’s break down this technical SEO readiness into a five step checklist:
1. Review site crawlability
Crawlability is how easy it is for a search engine to move through your site. If search engines can’t reach those important new pieces of content you’ve added to your site, you won’t get better rankings. And no rankings mean no leads.
Improve crawlability by:
- Identifying orphan pages (pages that aren’t linked to anywhere on your site)
- Finding hard-to-find high-priority pages that have high click depth
- Reviewing disruptive links like 404 pages
- Submitting an XML sitemap to help search engines discover and crawl important pages, making it easier for your new (and old) content to rank
Now that you’ve identified these issues, take a look at your internal linking structure. Are you making it easy for search engines and users to find high-priority pages? Keep your most valuable pages easily discoverable by:
- Adding internal linking from high-traffic pages to hard-to-find pages
- Updating your navigation or footer to include new pages or remove outdated pages
- Fix or redirect broken links to improve user experience
2. Review site indexability
Search engines first crawl your site. They then have to index it to commit your site to memory so it appears for user queries.
Audit and improve indexability by:
- Reviewing your usage of no-index tags (a meta tag added to a page’s HTML that tells search engines not to index a certain page)
- Auditing your robots.txt file (a set of instructions that tells crawlers how to navigate your site and what URLs they should avoid)
- Optimizing your internal linking structure
- Avoiding duplicate content
- Improving site speed (we’ll get into this in a moment)
Once you’ve identified these issues, you’ll want to:
- Update or remove noindex tags for any pages you want to rank
- Revise your robots.txt file to unblock priority content
- Consolidate duplicate pages with redirects or canonical tags
- Resubmit your sitemap to help re-index your new and improved site
3. Review website structure
Set your website up for success by creating a clear page hierarchy. Group similar pages into categories and subcategories.
For example, if you’re a telecommunications company offering VoIP services, you would want to build out a general “services” page and then nest your “VoIP services” page beneath your “services” URL.
Clearly show this mapping on your main navigation. The easier it is for users to navigate your site, the easier it is for search engines like Google to navigate your site.
You can also improve your site structure with a well-built URL.
Be thoughtful when creating page URLs. Use keywords when you can, but the most important thing is to keep URLs short, simple, and to the point.
Say you have a page about “VoIP services for small, local, healthcare businesses.” The best URL to use would be “voip-for-local-healthcare.” While more accurate, “voip-services-for-small-local-healthcare-businesses” is too long.
This kind of structure makes it far easier for your website to scale. It gives you a solid base to expand and add new pages—like content designed to support six month-long research journeys—to your site.
4. Review schema usage
Schema is a piece of code you add to a page that’s only visible to search engines. This code tells the crawlers what the page’s contents are.
Why is schema so important for B2B?
B2B schema makes it easier for search engines to tell what your page is about. The more search engines understand your content, the more likely it is that your content will appear for things like rich snippets. This means increased click-through rate and better organic visibility.
Include these types of schema in your B2B strategy:
- SoftwareApplication schema: Shows off your software application features and is best for SaaS platforms looking to appear in software comparison searches
- Product schema: Showcases product description, brand, and price (e.g., product schema for a software solution)
- Service schema: Highlights the name, description, and cost of a service (e.g., service schema for consulting offerings)
- Article schema: Helps long-form content by displaying the author and date the content was published (e.g., whitepapers)
- Organization schema: Explains who your company is, contact information, what kind of work your company does, and information that adds to your overall brand and authority
5. Review site performance
Search engines like Google care about the kind of user experience your site provides. One of the ways that experience is measured is via page load times.
Use a free tool like Page Speed Insights to measure things like your:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How long it takes for the largest visible element (like a hero image) to load on your page
- First Input Delay (FID): How quickly your site responds when a user first interacts (like clicking a button)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How much visible content shifts as the page loads (like links jumping around)
Keep an eye on these metrics, and look to see how you measure up with your competitors.

Other site performance metrics you should carefully monitor are:
- Scroll depth: Tells you if users are actually reading that massive guide you wrote or if they just skimmed the first paragraph and bounced (bad scroll depth tells you that your content wasn’t engaging enough or a good fit for your users)
- Pages per session: Indicates how effective your internal linking strategy is and that users are enjoying and want to consume more of your content (low pages per session could indicate that your internal linking strategy needs work)
- Bounce rate: Shows if people immediately exit the page upon landing and if your content is a great—or awful—fit (a high bounce rate could mean your page loaded too slowly or your content wasn’t what users wanted)
- Unique visitors: Tells you if you’re attracting a lot of new people or return visitors (a decline in unique visitors could mean a drop in rankings)
Authority building
The average consumer cares somewhat about who they’re buying from. A new parent looks at the reviews of a stroller they’re considering. A runner may look at reviews and also check to see if any other prominent athletes have tried out the shoe.
A B2B buyer? They need to know you’re worth a million-dollar decision.
The good news is that there are a few different ways for you to take your off-page SEO to the next level and build that kind of authority:
- High-quality B2B guest posting: Producing thought leadership content for respected industry blogs or publications (like a cybersecurity VP writing a post on The Hacker News) proves you’re a trusted, authoritative figure in your field
- Digital PR: Quotes from media outlets (like an email automation service getting quoted in the New York Times) improves your brand visibility and adds credibility
- Blogging: Consistently blogging about industry-relevant topics positions your brand as a thought leader (like a martech company writing a series of blogs on “Marketing Automation for Startups”)
- LinkedIn marketing: Posting regularly on LinkedIn lets you share insights and directly build authority and trust with your audience (like if a CMO regularly posted industry-specific trend predictions)
- Speaking at conferences: Establishing a presence at industry events puts you and your brand in the limelight and makes you out to be a go-to expert in your field (like if a healthcare SaaS company presented their new product launch at HIMSS)
- Creating webinars: Offering regular high-value-prop content like webinars and white papers educates your audience and shows off your expertise (like if a data analytics platform ran a “how to visualize revenue data in real time” webinar for data engineers)
Make the best use of your time by focusing on areas where you know your customers will be.
If you’re working on guest posting, target publications you know your target personas are reading.
For speaking engagements, focus on podcasts your customers listen to or webinar partnerships with complimentary tools.
Use these different tactics to build a reputation for your brand, or, in SEO terms, to build E-E-A-T (expertise, experience, authority, trust). This means customers and search engines have a better idea of what you’re selling and why you’re the best person to buy from.
Common mistakes in B2B SEO
SEO for B2B can be hard to get right. Many fall into the trap of optimizing for volume rather than value. Others neglect the middle of the funnel. Or they fail to tailor their content to the distinctly unique pain points to their range of target persons.
Here are the most common B2B SEO mistakes to watch out for as you get started.

Ignoring search intent
Search intent tells you what a customer is looking for when they click on your page. If you’ve designed a product offering page but are targeting a term like “what is an SDK,” a bunch of people who are ready to research, not buy, are going to start throwing off your data.
An indicator of mismatched search intent is a high page bounce rate—a visitor comes to your page from a web search, quickly scans your content and finds it to be irrelevant to what they were searching for, and immediately leaves.
What to do instead
Reevaluate the keyword you’re targeting. Consider what exactly users are looking for. Review top-ranking pages. Optimize your target page to better match search intent by:
- Rewriting the headline and intro
- Updating the CTA
- Adjusting on-page copy
Focusing only on high-volume keywords
Yes, those 1000+ monthly search volume keywords are very tempting, especially if you’re pitching to your boss who’s desperate to get traffic up.
But just because a keyword has high search volume, doesn’t mean you’ll get to see any of that traffic.
The sad likelihood is that if you’re targeting a high-volume keyword that’s hardly relevant to your site, you’re likely not going to rank well. And even on the rare chance that you do, you’re probably going to only capture poor quality traffic that isn’t looking to convert.
What to do instead
Focus on lower-volume terms that better align with your product offering. Always prioritize relevance over reach—that way, you’ll attract visitors who are more likely to convert.
Creating generic content
Creating generic content happens far more than you think. This problem is especially prevalent for companies who are targeting a wide range of very distinct customer personas.
On one hand, you might be looking to sell your product to a 20-something living in the Bay Area who just started their new managerial job in software engineering.
On the other hand, you might be trying to catch the attention of a 50-something in Utah who sent her kids off to college and recently started her own company.
It may seem like the best way to speak to both of these very different users is by creating a generic piece of content. Don’t fall into that trap.
What to do instead
Content that speaks directly to your buyer persona is the best way to capture organic B2B visibility. For the above examples, try creating targeted content for each of your personas that addresses their unique pain points.
Ignoring middle-funnel assets
Middle-funnel assets tend to fall by the wayside. They don’t have the same search volume weight of top-of-funnel content, but they also lack the conversion rate of bottom-funnel content.
That doesn’t mean you should forget about them. Middle-funnel content is how you nurture a qualified lead into a conversion.
What to do instead
Create middle-funnel assets like comparison pages, implementation guides, webinars, and product demos designed to move visitors further down the conversion funnel.
Overlooking niche vertical link authority
When you’re looking at building links and authority to your site, it can be tempting to skip right to the big numbers (large, well-known websites with soaring traffic numbers and high Domain Ratings, or DR).
This is a major mistake.
There’s no better place to build links than with small, niche verticals. Smaller websites are usually more approachable and responsive than larger corporations, so it can be easier to form more lasting relationships. And you can capture authority from a brand that’s relevant to your product.
But make sure you’re selective. Not all niche sites are created equal. Avoid low-quality or spammy directories, forums, or link farms which will hurt your rankings more than they help.
What to do instead
Seek out trustworthy, topic-relevant industry blogs or associated sites. Use tools like Semrush or Ahrefs to uncover opportunities.
Dig into your competitors with the Backlinks Analytics tool. Look for what kinds of sites are linking to your competition. Is the same site linking more than once? Are there any broken links? Use that information to build out a niche link building strategy.
Recommended tools for B2B SEO
Building an effective B2B SEO engine requires a modern martech stack that goes beyond a Looker Studio ranking report.
To make any progress, you’ll need tools for research, planning, performance tracking, and content optimization, including:
Keyword and intent tools
There’s no better tool to help your B2B keyword strategy. These are tools that give you valuable insights into:
- Search volume: How often a term is searched in a month
- Keyword difficulty: How difficult it is to rank for a term
- Keyword search intent: Intention behind a user’s search (navigations, commercial, transactional, or commercial)
- What pages are ranking for that term
The best tools to get this data? Semrush and Ahrefs.
Use the Keyword Magic Tool to find those low-volume, high-intent terms designed to drive conversions, not traffic.

Or cut to the chase with your keyword research strategy and filter any informational queries that won’t convert.
AlsoAsked is another great place to mine new content. It shows what users are looking for when they’re searching target terms.

Use this information to build out FAQ and how-to content to improve your chances of appearing in the People Also Asked box and Featured Snippets.
Just make sure to cross-reference any questions you find here with your sales team. Make triple certain your customers are also asking any questions you find.
Content intelligence
Worried that, despite your sparkling new B2B content strategy, the copy you churn out won’t be up to snuff?
You’re in luck—there’s a tool for that.
If you’re still staring at a blank screen trying to churn up optimized content, start with MarketMuse. It’s an AI tool that compares top-ranking pages so you can see what’s ranking and build an even better piece of content.

If MarketMuse isn’t working for you, try Jasper instead. It can help you create any kind of content like blog posts, emails, video scripts, or even headlines. Just make sure you have a human on standby to review the final results for accuracy.

If you have the content down but are struggling with keyword optimization, try Clearscope, which is best for optimizing for any semantic terms.
Say you’re optimizing for “marketing automation platform.”
Clearscope will make sure you also include semantic terms like ROI measurement, change management, integration capabilities, and any other terms that could help improve ranking and address stakeholder concerns.

Analytics and reporting
Analytics is especially tricky when it comes to B2B. Because the sales cycle is so long, you’ll need to have carefully set touchpoints so each channel gets the right amount of attribution.
Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the best places to get organic data directly from Google. Don’t be afraid to poke around its indexation report to see how your site’s technical health looks, either.
Go to GSC for page or site data on:
- Clicks
- Impressions
- Click-through rate
- Average rankings

Google Analytics 4, or GA4, gives you data on all of your site’s channels. It can be overwhelming for new users since it’s so customizable, but there’s a goldmine of data if you’re willing to dig.
When it comes to SEO, you can use GA4 for:
- Customizable reporting
- GSC integration
- Event tracking
- User engagement (e.g., page views, scroll depth, video plays)
- UTM parameter tracking for long sales cycles

While Looker Studio should not be your whole reporting suite, it is a great place to build reports and automate tracking data from GSC and GA4.
Look Studio is best used for:
- Interactive dashboards
- Customizable report templates
- Easy sharing and collaboration

Beyond Google tools, there’s also call tracking platforms like CallRail.

It’s a useful tool if a lot of your prospects are dialing in. Call tracking platforms show you data like:
- Call source (e.g., social media, ad, post, email campaign)
- Conversation records
- Call volume
- Call duration
- Call location
- Keywords used on the call
CRM integration
CRM integration is essential to B2B SEO because it enables you to track the path from site visit to qualified lead. Use tools like HubSpot and Salesforce to track how users interact with your site.

This data is one of the best ways to get buy-in for top-of-funnel and middle-of-funnel optimization because you can prove that prospects have been circling glossary, webinar, and comparison content for months (or years) before finally setting up a demo call.

Those kinds of content engagements are an indicator of interest worth pursuing, so make sure you’re tracking accordingly.
The future of B2B SEO
The B2B search landscape is evolving faster than most marketers realize. And those changes that are coming? They’re going to fundamentally reshape how businesses discover and evaluate solutions.
There are four main things on the horizon of B2B SEO:
1. AI-powered search
Google’s AI Overviews have already changed how B2B buyers— who have always wanted immediate, authoritative answers—interact with search.
How does this change SEO for B2B?
You need to be the source AI references. When someone searches “best CRM for hardware companies,” AI will pull that content from pre-existing authoritative sources. That means you need to have content optimized and ready to answer those questions.
AI content optimization is still a growing field. For now, the advice is very similar to feature snippet optimization: use data tables, clear headings, and skimmable content.
2. Zero-click results
Google is well aware that the more work a user has to do, the less likely they are to do it. That’s why Google has been pushing for more and more zero-click results—and this future will only get more challenging with the increase of AI Overviews.
If you’re measuring clicks as a KPI, there’s no doubt you’ve been impacted by this.
Here’s how to pivot:
- Focus on more concrete APIs like conversions and revenue
- Optimize for multiple SERP features (People Also Ask, AI Overviews) to improve visibility
- Test ways to improve click-through rate, like A/B testing page titles and meta descriptions to better match user intent
3. Emergence of new discovery platforms
As AI systems continue to evolve—and clicks continue to drop—companies are broadening their horizons beyond Google, opening up shop on LinkedIn and industry-specific platforms like G2 or Clutch.
There are fewer places for B2B to go than B2C, but it’s still worthwhile exploring strategies for these new places.
AI, especially ChatGPT, likes to pull information from authoritative, third-party sources, and you can get a leg up on visibility by making sure all of your G2 information is up to date.
4. Evolution of attribution and measurement
If you’re looking at a zero-click SERP and your manager is still demanding your performance be evaluated by your QoQ (quarter-over-quarter) click growth, something will have to change in how your company measures user engagement.
Trends you can expect to see in this area include:
- AI-assisted attribution modeling that uses machine learning to identify patterns across the B2B journey
- Content engagement scouring to better track how prospects interact with content
- Intent data integration that combines search behavior with intent data to better understand when prospects are actively or passively consuming content
Preparing for this changing landscape can be scary, but at least B2B SEO will never let you be bored!
If you want to come out at the top of search in this new world, focus on making your content as authoritative, true to your brand, and targeted for user search intent as possible.
And try not to stress too much about it—SEO changes so frequently that even the B2B SEO agencies can struggle to keep up.
If you’re reading this now, you’re already ahead. Want to dig deeper? Dive into how you can optimize your B2B site for LLM-powered search.