What If B2B Keyphrase Research Doesn’t Work?

Looking for B2B keywords?

What do you do when conventional keyphrase research tools do you wrong?

Here’s what I mean.

Last February, I spoke during AWAI’S Web Content Intensive (woot — what a fun event!) During my presentation, a woman asked how she could find reliable keyword research metrics for her niche B2B.

Her problem? Conventional research tools, like SEMrush, told her there was “no data” for her B2B keyphrase searches.

The offering was so niche, and the keyphrases received so few searches, that conventional keyphrase research tools didn’t help.

Maybe that’s happened to you too.

B2B keyphrase research is quirky.

I’ve discussed before how many B2B searches receive low search volume. One keyphrase may drive just 20 searches a month — but, those searches represent a highly-focused and motivated audience.

You won’t necessarily see high numbers with B2B keyphrase research, but that’s OK. The keyphrases are often highly profitable in terms of lead generation and sales.

But, sometimes, there’s NO data to work with — and you have no idea how people are searching for you, what words you should include in your copy, or what to do next.

Fortunately, there’s always a workaround.

Here’s how to do it.

Chat with your prospects and customers.

Sometimes, the easiest ways to learn how prospective customers are searching for a company like yours is to simply ask. For instance, when talking to a prospect, ask, “What search terms did you type into Google to find me?” Or, include the question on your “contact us” form. While you’re chatting with your prospects, you can also…

Peruse their pain points.

Discovering your target customers’ specific pain points is a great way to unearth useful blog post ideas. Plus, when you interview your target customers, you can hear the verbiage they use to explain their problems. This allows you to write extremely laser-focused and customer-focused content using the terminology your readers use every day.

Review specialized forums and check out the discussions.

This isn’t quite as good as speaking to a customer, but it still gives you an idea of what’s on your target audience’s minds, their pressing pain points, and what’s important to them. Plus, mining specialized discussion lists for your industry is a great way to brainstorm blog post ideas.

(Bonus tip: industry publications can give you some insight too — although they aren’t quite as good as mining discussion list data.)

Check out the competition

Fair warning: take this advice with a grain of salt. Some competing sites are bad, and you won’t learn anything useful by surfing around. Having said that, you can (sometimes) learn a lot by checking out a competing site. Look at how the competitor structures their content, review their blog post topics, and try to reverse-engineer their keyphrase focus. You can also use tools like SEMrush to see what phrases your competitors are ranking for.

Type your keyphrases into Google and see what happens

Google some possible search term ideas and look for competing sites. If you see some competitors — and the search results are relevant to what you offer — look for “searches related to [your search term]” at the bottom of the page. Voila! Those phrases are all possible keyphrase ideas.

Analyze your analytics

Unless you’re writing for a brand-new site, you should have some clickthrough data. Check out Google’s Search Console and Google Analytics to get a sense of how people are finding you now. You can even attribute exact keywords to URLs in Google’s Search Console — here’s how.

Checking out your analytics is always a smart move. Why guess at how people are finding you when the data is right there? To paraphrase a BuzzFeed headline, what you find may surprise you.

What do YOU think?

Are you stuck in a B2B keyphrase research rabbit hole? Does keyphrase research freak you out entirely? Let me know in the comments!