There isn’t a single, simple SEO approach that will work for every business. SEO success is instead a matter of understanding the unique intricacies of your industry, business, audience and offerings. You must then use that understanding to craft a strategy that earns you a high Google ranking, resonates with your target audience, and overall helps you grow your business.
The need for a bespoke approach to SEO can be seen in the differences between SEO strategies for B2C and B2B businesses. But how exactly do SEO strategies for B2B businesses diverge from SEO strategies for B2C businesses?
In this guide we’ll look at those differences, to help you identify the best approach for your organisation.
What is the difference between B2B and B2C?
B2C stands for “business to consumer”. As the name suggests, this type of business sells its products and services directly to individuals: think retail stores in a mall, ecommerce websites, hotels and restaurants, and consumer-focused service providers like Uber, Netflix and Airbnb.
B2B stands for “business to business”. This type of company sells its products and services to other businesses: think manufacturers and wholesalers, SaaS and professional services companies, and businesses who sell industrial equipment and supplies.
Let’s take a closer look at how these two types of businesses might approach SEO.
What is B2C SEO?
In terms of SEO, B2C businesses are tasked with getting in front of individual consumers and turning them into customers, through a mix of content that makes the audience aware of the brand and its offerings, creates familiarity and trust, and ultimately makes the B2C business the audience’s preferred choice.
Generally speaking, a successful B2C SEO strategy will:
- Build brand awareness, familiarity, authority and trust.
- Seek to gain access to a large audience and drive large amounts of organic web traffic.
- Drive conversions and quick sales.
- Generate positive reviews of the brand and its offerings.
- Encourage customer loyalty.
What is B2B SEO?
A B2B business faces a few unique SEO challenges, from the need to precisely target decision makers to understand how businesses search for the products, services and solutions you offer.
Generally speaking, a successful B2B SEO strategy will:
- Build brand awareness, familiarity, authority and trust.
- Feature plenty of educational content for the awareness and consideration phases of the customer journey.
- More precisely target an audience of business decision makers.
- Establish a brand as a thought leader and expert in its industry.
- Target niche, long-tail and high intent keywords.
- Generate leads rather than direct sales.
What is the difference between B2B and B2C keywords?
Our descriptions of B2C SEO strategy and B2B SEO strategy hint at their differences, but let’s take a closer look at exactly where and how these two approaches diverge.
Target audience
The audiences that B2C and B2B businesses target with their SEO couldn’t be more different.
For the most part, B2C businesses will focus on quantity. They’ll want to get in front of a relevant audience, of course, but the bigger that audience, the better, particularly when a business trades in lower value items.
B2B businesses, meanwhile, will focus on quality over quantity. One of the realities of selling to other businesses is that there are only a handful of people within each organisation who tend to make the purchasing decisions. B2B SEO services and techniques will focus on getting in front of this select group.
Keyword strategy
The differences in keyword strategy reflect the different audiences that B2C and B2B businesses target.
A B2C keyword strategy will tend to focus on broader, high-volume and descriptive keywords and phrases that resonate with individual consumers. Emotionally charged words may also be used to drive consumers toward an immediate purchase.
A B2B keyword strategy will more commonly focus on the more technical, high intent keywords and phrases used by business decision-makers – high-value, low volume search terms that more precisely target the right people, that minimise competition, and that answer key buyer questions in a clear, simple and pragmatic way.
Content creation
The main purpose of content is slightly different for a B2C business versus a B2B business.
B2C content is targeted at a large and diverse group and must therefore answer a large and diverse set of questions. The aim of the content will often be to compel the audience to make a purchase.
B2B content is targeted at a far more precise audience, and is more focused on building trust and familiarity, displaying thought leadership and expertise, educating the reader on solutions and answering specific and often technical questions.
Intent and sales cycle
The sales cycles of B2C and B2B businesses can be very different, which impacts the overall intent of the respective SEO strategies.
B2C sales cycles are often impulsive and driven by emotion. They tend to be relatively short, lasting anywhere from minutes to weeks. Return business will always be the ultimate goal, but it will often be treated as a bonus.
The B2B buying process takes far longer – it takes four or more months to close three quarters of new B2B customers. The customer journey is complex and evidence-based, factoring in a wealth of considerations and moving across the desks of a number of decision-makers.
Growth Partners: B2B and B2C SEO experts
At Growth Partners we have built a reputation for helping businesses grow by solving real-world business problems with targeted data analysis, strategic marketing thinking and best-in-class digital implementation.
No matter your industry or sector, or whether you sell B2B or B2C, our proprietary software and techniques are capable of developing the deep customer insights that form the basis of a sustainable, long-term and truly impactful SEO strategy.
To achieve the results we are known for and provide a blueprint for success, we’ve developed DigitalArchitect® – a proprietary system that uses deep data to highlight online expansion opportunities and determine the strength of your business case for digital marketing investment, laying the foundation for continuous, sustainable growth.
If you’re ready to transform your business with high-quality actionable customer insights, we’re ready to help. Get in touch for an obligation-free chat to kickstart your growth journey.