5 SEO copywriting tips for B2B companies
I love working with B2B companies. Many times, they have scads of unique content opportunities – they just need someone to point them out and send them in the right direction.
If you work for a B2B company and you’ve been wondering, “Why are people bouncing out of our site so fast” or “Why don’t we position for X keyterm,” read on. You may benefit from one (or all) of these five SEO copy tips.:
- Do you know who you’re writing for? Who is your target audience? Do you serve multiple target audiences? For instance, you may serve real estate agents, solopreneurs and large corporations. That means three different audiences (or personas) – and each persona will have different goals, motivations and needs. Creating personalized content for your company’s different personas allow you to customize the content around what they need to see – and can help conversion rates skyrocket. For instance, Paymo clearly outlines their target markets on their home page, and lists persona-specific benefits.
- Qualify your keyphrases for the B2B market. Many B2B keyterms can cause “keyphrase confusion” if they aren’t qualified for your market. For instance, when you think “blades,” you may think “server blades.” However, “blades” could also mean “hockey blades,” or “razor blades.” If you were a B2B company focusing on the single term “blades” when you really mean “server blades,” you’ll be missing the search engine boat.
Adding the qualifying word (in this case, “server”) will help the page position for the B2B phrase. Here’s how Dell does it:
- Consider your tone and feel. One of the easiest ways a B2B company can differentiate itself is through well-written, engaging copy. That doesn’t mean that the content should sound “fluffy” or be inappropriate for the brand. But it does mean that you probably have more room to move than you think. For example, check out FreshBooks’ home page. I never thought an invoice could “Earn the awe of your clients,” but hey, the copy gets the point across in a fresh, snappy way.
- Create clickable Titles. A common B2B Title is structured like this: keyword | keyword | keyword| (insert company name here.) You wouldn’t write a headline like that – so why would you let the first opportunity for conversion (getting the click from the search engines results page) pass you by? Create a compelling, “clickable” Title by including a benefit statement or even a call to action. For instance, check out this example from PSPrint. Their Title has keyphrases. It has a benefit statement. And it positions in the top ten, too. Triple score!
- Leverage the content you have. B2B companies tend to have many content opportunity. For instance, newsletter content can be re-purposed for a blog post. You could create transcripts of past Webinars and post them online. Existing site copy could be transformed into top-positioning SEO copy through strategic keyphrase editing. The possibilities are out there – it’s just uncovering them, setting an editorial calendar and making it happen.
Great points about narrowing the focus to a phrase that is accurate for what your client is actually selling. When I write something for real estate I will put in not just ‘city’ home for sale I will write leawood ks two story plan or overland park ranch etc. More targeted phrases that sorts through the clutter.
Titles with CTA is always good.
Good titles are very important but the description should be just as compelling with a strong CTA since your message can be more than twice as long (as the title).
Hmmm. let me first thank you for your excellent post.
I am small Slovenian SEO blogger, on furniture market here in Slovenia, where I am writing daily, mainly to BTC market. But, since I have also one site for btb furniture bussines, I would say that the main difference between writing for btb vs. btc, that one simply need to understand what btb is searching for.
I am saying this from experience in 4 years writing on a furniture market for both, BTB and BTC markets.
I used to write content for btb (joiners, furniture sellers, etc) and my content was mainly about how those companies can achieve better results through web.
Through years I found out they are not even close interested in that.
On my market, BTB buyers (joiners,…) are interested in hooks, suplly material, logistic solutions, etc…
So, what I’ve learned is – not to write about what a like or what BTC market likes. Write simply about what BTB market likes. Regards, M
Great post! It’s important to know your target audience. It enables you to create personalized content your readers can relate to. If you tell them what they want to know – the key to success is in your hands.