B2B SEO vs. B2C SEO

Written by Nick Stamoulis

Categorized in: ,

SEO Text With Shapes ColorfulBusiness to business and business to consumer markets are treated differently in many ways, including the ways in which that they are marketed. In fact, because the two types of business are different, the two approaches shouldn’t be the same. Each market includes very different target audiences and this needs to be reflected in all business decisions that are made.

As Internet marketing and search engine optimization become increasingly more important in both sectors, it’s necessary to understand that the strategies for each should differ.

Here’s how the SEO process for B2B and B2C companies differ:

Marketing Campaign Goals

The main difference between B2B and B2C SEO is the goals of the campaign. The decision process in the B2B market is often much longer than that of the B2C market, often due to the higher cost of a product or length of commitment to a service.

Therefore, a B2B SEO campaign needs to raise awareness and generate leads that will turn into sales in the long term. The goal is often to get the visitor to sign up for a newsletter, download a white paper for more information, or fill out a lead form that the sales team can use to follow up.

On the other hand, the goal of most B2C websites, specifically those with an e-commerce component, is to get the visitor to make an immediate purchase from the website. These differing goals affect all decisions made throughout the SEO process.

Keyword Selection Process

One of the most important parts of an SEO campaign is the keyword selection process. Because the buying cycle in the B2B sector is longer and more complex, a B2B company needs to include keywords that attract an audience at different parts of the cycle.

This means that keyword research is more extensive and should incorporate keywords for both informational and transactional search. Since B2B keyword research often attracts a smaller, niche audience the terminology can often be more technical.

The B2C keyword research process can also be complex because of the higher search volume. A B2C company needs to find the right keywords that aren’t too broad or too niche and find that “sweet spot” in the middle that will lead to quality traffic that will result in conversions.

Link Building

Referral LinksAfter keyword research has been completed and selected keywords have been implemented on all pages of the site, the next step in the SEO process for B2B and B2C companies is ongoing link building. B2C links tend to grow at a faster rate since there is a wider audience.

B2B companies need to work harder for their links. In addition to attracting the attention of the search engine spiders, link building is about attracting attention of your target audience. A B2C audience and a B2B audience have different online behaviors.

It’s important to do research to find out where they are most likely to “hang out” and actively pursue getting links in those places. A B2C audience may spend more time using social media to find products and a B2B audience may spend more time browsing blogs to find more information. A diverse link building strategy improves the chances of being seen.

Here’s a list of the elements of B2B SEO marketing and B2C SEO marketing that are the same:

On-Site Optimization

No matter what type of business you have, the process of on-site optimization remains the same with few differences. While the strategy taken to research keywords can differ between B2B and B2C companies, the other elements that need to be optimized are still the same. This includes:

  • Title tags. Every page on the website should have a unique title tag.
  • Description tag. Even though this isn’t a ranking factor, it’s still an important element that does help generate click-throughs.
  • Heading tag. The <h1> tag should be the same, or similar, to the page’s title tag.
  • Body content. No matter if you have a B2C or B2B website, the body content should be optimized.

Content

The process of writing excellent content is an important part of a great SEO program. Regardless of whether or not you have a B2B company or a B2C company, the rules for great writing still apply. You will want to create content that targets potential in every part of the sales cycle while also writing pieces that existing customers will find useful. By doing so, you’ll not only be creating content that will bring people to your website from the search engines, but it will also increase engagement on social media.

There are some elements of each SEO program that will stay the same regardless of whether or not you have a B2B or a B2C company. However, there are slight differences between certain parts of the SEO process between the two, including with the way you research keywords and build links.

 

 

LIKE AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE:



How Brick Marketing Can Help Your B2B Company

Brick Marketing, is a Boston-based B2B digital marketing agency of B2B Digital Marketing strategists that solve your marketing challenges. We can help you find the best B2B marketing solutions for your company, such as: SEO management, content marketing, social media management, digital ad management (PPC), email newsletter marketing, website maintenance/web development and fractional CMO solutions.

About Our Agency

Contact Us for More Info


Digital Marketing Solutions Include:


Brands & Clients Brick Marketing Has Helped:


Read some Brick Marketing Client Testimonials:

Brick Marketing has increased our website traffic by 315.43%

Great Results, Responsive Team, Ethical Strategies: The Brick Marketing team has become an invaluable extension of our marketing team, and one that has delivered steady growth from the get-go. The results speak for themselves – over the last two years, Brick Marketing has helped increase our websute traffic by 315.43%. From the solid SEO foundation Brick Marketing built for GrowthForce during our initial onboarding, to our ongoing daily/weekly tasks and our monthly analytics and check in calls, our Brick team keeps us on track and up to date. They take the headache out of digital marketing so we don’t ever have to spend time in the weeds learning about the latest rules or digital challenges, and they are quick to answer any of our questions.

Kelly Boros

Marketing & Communications Manager, GrowthForce

Our web traffic overall has risen more than 30%

Silvon Software teamed up with Brick Marketing to deploy a digital marketing strategy that would generate greater visibility for our company within a highly competitive market and drive more prospects to our website as a result. This has included website optimization based on a well thought out keyword strategy, launch of a corporate blog, and the promotion of Silvon content via industry forums and numerous social media sites. In just a few months, Brick Marketing’s efforts has Silvon showing up higher in organic searches. Our web traffic overall has risen more than 30% and continues to grow. We’re seeing consistent month-to-month growth in the amount of organic traffic coming from Google. And, our referral traffic from LinkedIn has been phenomenal — with initial increases as high as 468%! We couldn’t be more pleased with the results that Brick Marketing has achieved so far and highly recommend them as a strategic marketing partner that knows how to put SEO best-practices to work for its clients.

Pat Hennel

Director, Global Marketing Services, Silvon Software, Inc.

We saw a significant improvement in our B2B marketing results

Brick Marketing was great at guiding us along from the ground level on search & how to create more content which lead to more internet generated leads. We saw a significant improvement in our B2B marketing results after working with Brick Marketing. We could not have been more pleased with their work.

James Berry

HT Berry Company, LLC

Extremely happy with the overall quality of the writing provided by Brick Marketing

We were extremely happy with the overall quality of the writing provided by Brick Marketing. The team was thorough and quick to respond to our needs as they fluctuated with seasonality. Their attention to detail and collaboration efforts helped us deliver great content for our client’s ecommerce brands.

Joe Spada

Director of Creative Services, Helm

Brick Marketing has done a great job with our SEO efforts

Brick Marketing has done a great job with our SEO efforts so far! They work closely with us to find the best course of action to take with our website and also guide us through the strategic implementation of the plan, Their team has worked closely with ours to learn about our business and create the most critical information we need to create rich, engaging content and increase our visibility across the web and social media. We look forward to continuing this journey with them!

Dean Bubello

Founding Partner, Xavinci

Traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year

When we started working with Brick Marketing, we had just been subjected to a Google algorithm update and our websites both took substantial hits to traffic. Within a few months, Brick has taken both of our websites to pre-algorithm traffic and conversion levels, and for the CallFinder site, the traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year. Their expertise in SEO, responsive design, and content marketing helped us turn the situation around, and we could not be happier with the results we’ve seen in just our first four months of working with them. The team we work with at Brick Marketing is always available for off-the-cuff consultations and are at the ready to provide recommendations and suggestions to improve our site’s appearance and performance. They are truly a hands-on partner, which is immensely valuable to our business.

Jeanne Landau

Director of Marketing, 800response.com and MyCallFinder.com

When I think of Brick Marketing I think Thank You!!!

When I think of Brick Marketing I think Thank You!!! We had previously used another digital marketing firm and although I think they were doing their job, it never felt right. But we didn’t quite know why. I did a lot of research and was drawn to Brick Marketing because of their customer feedback, white hat philosophy and TRANSPARENCY. 

Adam Reed

Foundation Support Specialists

Increased our search engine traffic

We engaged Brick Marketing for digital marketing related activities for our website B2B.com and they did a fantastic job in assessing our website and finding out what was needed to optimize content and improve search engine traffic. In a short span, they improved the quality of in-bound links and increased our search engine traffic by over 100%. I highly recommend Brick Marketing for any SEO or digital marketing related projects.

Navdeep Sidhu

Director – B2B Product Marketing, B2B.com

Delivered a 59% increase in our organic web traffic

Initially, when we sought out assistance in SEO, we felt the Brick Marketing search engine marketing offering may be too robust for the needs of our website. In hindsight, I am very glad that we decided their digital marketing services were worth the investment as they have proved to be an extremely valuable partner. Their tremendous expertise in b2b SEO practices and content strategy has already delivered a 59% increase in our organic web traffic. Brick Marketing has worked in close collaboration with our marketing team, tailoring their efforts to our specific needs as an FDA regulated company to ensure we are putting forward the highest quality content. I look forward to continuing our partnership with the Brick Marketing team to surpass our digital marketing goals!

Brett Prince

Vice President of Marketing, Corindus Vascular Robotics

Superior knowledge of marketing on the internet

I have had the good fortune to work with Nick Stamoulis and his team at Brick Marketing and it was clear form the get go that Nick had superior knowledge of marketing on the internet. The SEO campaign and technical writing that Brick Marketing provides has been impressive, where in the past we struggled to find the high levels of competence in these two skill sets. Were only just beginning with Brick Marketing and look forward to growing with their expert guidance. Thank you Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team!

Craig Raubenheimer

President, Roan Solutions

Raised our digital marketing efforts to a new level

When we began searching for an SEO service provider, our team had a limited understanding of what SEO entailed. After interviewing other digital marketing companies, it was clear from speaking with Nick that Brick Marketing does more than add keywords to your web content. By examining our trade show presence, blogging practices and other listings, Brick Marketing has helped us work through industry specific obstacles to raise our digital marketing efforts to a new level.

Catie Moyer

Charles River Laboratories International

Brick Marketing’s digital marketing strategy has leveled the playing field

Brick Marketing’s well researched digital marketing strategy has provided Fishman Corporation with visibility and excellent leads. Fishman Corporation competes in a niche industrial segment that has been dominated by one corporate conglomerate for 50 years; we were specifically looking for a marketing partner that understood how to leverage SEO, pay per click advertising and social media to gain us visibility. We wanted to compete on the same level as the corporate giant. Brick Marketing has done this for us. We routinely show up high in organic searches, our web traffic has doubled and the leads that come in are well targeted. Brick Marketing’s digital marketing strategy has leveled the playing field; now the Davids’ can be as visible as the Goliaiths.

Scott Beebe

President, Fishman Corporation

We highly recommend the Brick Marketing team!

We interviewed several SEO marketing companies and from the very first discussion with Nick at Brick Marketing, there was a meeting of the minds. As a small company that prides itself on “a personal touch”, we found that and much more with the Brick team. Shortly after we engaged with Brick to update our brand and marketing approach, which included refreshing our website, adding SEO, social media, a blog page and all the other elements needed for a B2B company, the Brick team got to work delivering results right from the beginning. They have a “lean and mean” collaborative process and are skillful and adept at gathering the key information needed to generate creative ideas and a resulting look-and-feel to match our business…

Eileen Smouha

Director Client Services and Recruiting, Information Integration, Inc. (i3)

Brick Marketing is simply the best.

After struggling for years to find the right web marketing firm, it was a breath of fresh air to discover Brick Marketing. On my initial call with Brick Marketing President, Nick Stamoulis, it was immediately obvious that he genuinely cared about helping our company, not just bringing another client on board. Since then, their work with us has been fabulous. Our dedicated specialist always takes the time to explain every step of their efforts. In addition to SEO, content marketing and PPC, we also chose Brick Marketing to handle our website migration to WordPress, and once again, couldn’t have been happier with our decision to do so. The Brick Marketing team made the process easy and painless, and made many helpful suggestions to improve our website that we would have never thought of on our own. Brick Marketing is simply the best.

Kristen M. Steele

Director of Marketing, Bookmasters

Brick Marketing uses an ethical, strategic approach to SEO

We have worked with a few other SEO firms and consultants in the past, but, by far,
Brick Marketing has been our best experience. They are very knowledgeable about the search engine landscape, and help us respond to what seem like constant changes to the algorithms. They have helped our company correct some of the issues created by prior SEO firms, both in terms of on-site optimization and off-site programs. I appreciate the fact that Brick Marketing uses an ethical, strategic approach to SEO that creates a solid, lasting foundation for the future. They are reliable, responsive, and the quality of their deliverables is top-notch. We are happy we chose to work with them, and I would recommend them to anyone looking to engage a new SEO firm.

Bob Bennett

Owner/Manager, Bennett Awards

Our website’s manual penalty action was successfully revoked

Brick Marketing impressed us from the get-go with their enthusiasm, know-how and commitment to upstanding SEO techniques. They were communicative, responsive and transparent throughout, detailing an extensive game plan and delivering on every count. Thanks to effective collaboration and their meticulous methodology, our website’s manual penalty action was successfully revoked.

Laura J Lowe

Marketing Manager, EMDAT

Our website traffic has increased

The Brick Marketing team, was critical to ensuring that our new Web site is optimized to drive maximum traffic. Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased thanks to their assistance and advice. In addition, they executed a strategic digital marketing program that helped further increase web traffic.

Lauren LaFronz

Director of Marketing, enChoice

cost effective “answer” to creating a viable web presence

From the beginning, our new company, AA Global Printing, has provided a superior global service, backed by a solid operations team. What we didn’t have were marketing resources to support the growth of our client base and to build a strong online presence. Fortunately, Brick Marketing has given us a structured website development process/solution and a cost effective “answer” to creating a viable web presence. Moreover, our account rep has been a professional and knowledgeable resource at every turn. Thanks to Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team, AA Global Printing is marketing with all the right tools ranging from SEO, strong content, a weekly blog, and easy site navigation for our visitors.

Adam Gould

Cofounder, AA Global Print

Brick Marketing helped us meet our goals

We turned to Brick Marketing to assist in driving traffic to our website and we weren’t disappointed. The flexible approach of the digital marketing firm Brick Marketing helped us meet our goals, drive traffic to our website, and increase the number of calls we received regarding our services. Thank you!

Ken Burt

Marketing Manager, Affiliated Physicians

We’ve seen unbelievable success & owe much of our online lead generation to Brick Marketing’s efforts

I didn’t realize how much we were missing from not having an online presence until I started working with the digital marketing firm Brick Marketing. The Brick Marketing team took the time to guide us through the digital marketing process and helped bring our company into the online world. We’ve seen unbelievable success with our new website & owe much of our online lead generation to Brick Marketing’s efforts.

George Athanasiadis

CEO, Somerset Industries

Our goal for better presence on the internet has been achieved!

I had worked with at least three other digital marketing companies before I was introduced to Brick Marketing. But when I met Nick Stamoulis at Brick Marketing, I knew that I was working with an honest and reputable company that would guide me through the world of search engine marketing. In the six months since working with Brick Marketing, our goal for better presence on the internet has been achieved!

Peter Feinmann

Feinmann, Inc.

Brick Marketing has gotten me results

I have been working with Brick Marketing for over 4 years now. Brick Marketing sends me the reports every month, but I don’t need to read them.  I have worked with many other companies that made promises they could not keep. Brick Marketing has gotten me results and that is why I continue to work with them. I don’t have to micro-manage anything they do. I know that they always do what they say they are going to do. If you are looking for an website marketing company, I would say, look no further as you have found the one that will do the job right! In addition to doing an excellent job, Nick Stamoulis is a pleasure to work with.

Alan Cline

1-800-PLUMBING

Love working with the team at Brick Marketing!

Love working with the team at Brick Marketing! They are always available to answer my questions and assist with any concerns. I am very impressed with their thoroughness and ability to stay organized. Their passion and energy is always shown during conversations on our account.

Corey Savage

CEO, Suncoast Identification Solutions, LLC

Highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients

After working with many other website marketing firms and not being satisfied I finally was introduced to the Brick Marketing President and Founder, Nick Stamoulis. Nick Stamoulis has educated me about search and has provided me with a well rounded digital marketing package, not only does he offer top quality services he also educates his clients and spends the time to explain everything and their  pricing is competitive. I will highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients. Brick Marketing is an A+ for web marketing.

Mike Cardella

Integrated Computer Services

Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business

Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business. Through their expertise with the ever changing world of digital marketing, our web presence is as strong as ever. Our working relationship with Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team has been outstanding. Thank you Brick Marketing!

Ellen Parlee

Parlee Farms

Went above and beyond to help us with any digital marketing issues

We hired Brick Marketing to manage our SEO, but they ended up also managing our company blog, social media marketing, helped us launch a pay per click advertising campaign, migrated our website to a new domain and so much more! Our dedicated Marketing Manager at Brick Marketing is always quick to respond whenever we had a question and went above and beyond to help us with any digital marketing issues.

Mory Creighton

CEO, Pinpoint Laser Systems

Dependable, professional digital marketing company

Brick Marketing has been a dependable, professional digital marketing company that has helped us get results. In the last 6 months of using their services, visits to our website have increased by almost 30%. Our dedicated digital marketing manager was pleasant to deal with. Her suggestions for articles and press releases were industry specific. Brick Marketing always answered our phone calls and emails within an hour which made us feel valued as a client. I would recommend Brick Marketing to all businesses to handle their SEO and digital marketing needs.

JoAnne Loftus

Archival Designs, Inc.

Brick Marketing is rock solid and essential in building a strong marketing foundation

Though we have a relatively new working relationship with Brick Marketing, I can still wholeheartedly endorse and recommend them as sincere, knowledgeable people who, I believe, can be of great value to any business. For my small business, I view Brick Marketing as an additional employee, effectively fulfilling a role that no one else in the company has the time or expertise to properly execute. I think the true value of having Brick Marketing as this additional (low cost) employee and advisor will become clear over the course of this year…

Jeff Nicholson

President Freely Creative, Inc. / Websticker.com

I couldn’t give a stronger recommendation; they are simply great!

When we came to Brick Marketing initially, we had a small subset of challenges we didn’t have the bandwidth to tackle in house. Our idea was simply to send out the work and be done with it. A one-shot deal. What we found mid way into the first project, was that Nick Stamoulis and Brick Marketing had a depth of understanding and approach to solving our Search Engine Marketing problems that we had not considered; solutions that dramatically improved our search engine ranking position on terms and improved the overall size of our index listing (by more than 25% in the first two months)…

Connie Childrey

DataDirect Technologies/Progress Software

Professional, timely, thorough

After searching extensively for a firm to aid in ramping up our Social Media efforts we choose Brick Marketing and have never looked back – plus, enlisted their services for SEO, Social Media, PPC and more. The Brick Marketing team are professional, timely, thorough and take the time to work through and explain each task step by step. In my experience in working with many outside agencies who over-promise and under-communicate, I can truly state that Brick Marketing is levels above all others and vested in our relationship. We feel they are not just a consultant, but an integral part of our team.

Jodi Murphy

Director of Marketing, SportsSignup


THE LATEST B2B MARKETING ADVICE FROM OUR BLOG: