B2B SEOs should know when to chuck out best practices

SEO in B2B hits different.

Unimaginative, short-sighted B2B SEO goes after traffic for its own sake.

But B2B buying isn’t a volume play: it’s about using really sophisticated qualitative insights and data to pinpoint what your best prospects actually search for. The real SEO magic trick is what comes next: fueling as many of those searches as possible to honest, insightful content that meets experts at eye-level and convinces them to buy.

Symptoms of low-functioning B2B SEO

B2B needs to take SEO very seriously while understanding it’s not a standalone discipline solely that exists to game search engine algorithms. No keyword strategy, technical tweak or off-site SEO program  will compensate for low-quality content that fails to meet prospects at their level of expertise. Symptoms of underperforming SEO include: 

• Low organic visibility despite endless effort
  Languishing within the forgotten pages of Google means no impressions or traffic despite time and money you’ve spent.
  
• SEO efforts that drive traffic but no pipeline
  Over-reliance on top-of-funnel, or worse, irrelevant terms, that don’t map into a logical next step for the user, so traffic drops off.
  
• A focus on buying traffic rather than earning it
  Paid costs are astronomical and results are often disappointing. And it’s about to get worse:  Google is increasing the costs of ads and reducing SERP space for organic results. And integrated SEM is somewhat of a pipe dream.
  
• An over-reliance on branded or irrelevant search
  Generating organic traffic driven via branded terms, meaning you’re only visible to those that know you already. Or worse, gaining visibility for keywords that don’t bring in revenue or are irrelevant altogether.
  
• Content that fails to make an impact
  Potentially reliant on AI or resource with scant knowledge of your industry, your content lacks depth and credibility needed to raise eyebrows, attract audiences and gain industry respect. And Google guidelines are clamping down on crap now more than ever.
• Over-indexing on vanity metrics with unclear ROI
  Reporting on meaningless metrics, like bounce rates and average ranking position, which don’t showcase the true impact organic search has on your business.

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B2B SEO services: Baked in, standalone or cherry on top. 

SEO best practices aren’t just for SEO: Search-centric thinking grounds our strategy blueprints and campaigns in the terms customers are actually looking for (which is a way to weed out marketing bullshit your audience will smell from a mile away). But we also offer standalone B2B SEO and organic services for B2B tech or SaaS clients, from audits to production, distribution and setting up your search dashboard. Either way, we can manage big, hairy complexity. The uglier, the better.

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B2B SEO strategy

B2B SEO and organic search strategy is the bit where we go deep on research and thinking and get creative on recommendations to fill your pipeline. A lot of folks come to us when they’re launching a new brand, driving a significant market shift, or need big ideas to enhance their already killer search ops. We plant programs that bare fruit short-term, such as creating killer, ICP-driven content assets to fuel paid channels, but also sow seeds for a future-proofed and compounded long-term program.

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Technical SEO

A great B2B search strategy doesn’t just help experts find you — it uses technical SEO for SaaS and B2B to help search engines find you too.

Technical SEO for SaaS and B2B is the fun, nerdy part for the creative problem solvers. Let’s best-practice the hell out of page speed optimization, visual and semantic hierarchy, and other nitpicky things that’ll turn your Google Lighthouse all green. We’re just as happy building a full site from scratch as parachuting in for a site rescue.

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B2B SEO content strategy

This right here — B2B SEO content strategy and execution — is our absolute favorite stuff. SEO that brings together data and digital chops with deep insight and huge personality is going to win the street fight for competitive terms. The left and right brain stuff.

Whether it’s a hub of articles, ongoing content calendar or full-fledged campaign, a B2B SEO content strategy with mojo will bring outsized returns. 

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Our off-site organic play

Old-school B2B link building is out. The best play is to create heart-skipping content that creatively addresses an opportunity, like a problem your buyers are researching or a search gap — and then promote it with organic, partner and influencer campaigns, and earned partnerships.

Let’s turn your insights, original research and stakeholder expertise into content and experiences your PR team will be itching to pitch (and we can help) and take to market, fast.

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Who we work with

We only do B2B tech. Everyone from scale ups and startups come to us for B2B and SaaS SEO services.

Our sweet spot is helping ambitious marketing teams scale midsized companies—either carving out new categories with no obvious keywords or going after Goliath-sized competitors.

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