B2B keyword research is done correctly through practical examples

Let’s get it straight… there is no such thing as B2B Google algorithmHowever, when your SEO work is aimed at businesses rather than consumers, the situation is quite different.

B2B keyword research is best for precise positioning, low search volume, and healthy creativity.

In this article, you will learn how to use B2B modifiers for B2B keyword research, discover the potential of Search Console and internal search, and most importantly, use insights from sales and customer success.

Challenges of B2B Keyword Research

B2B keyword research can be tricky. Some common challenges include:

Target the right audience

You need to understand the company’s decision makers and the people who actually use your products or services.

Compared with marketing managers who use software, managers may have different needs and problems.

You need to be clear Different target audiences And their search behavior, because everyone has unique needs.

The more senior your target audience is, the more important your expertise in their field.

Here are a few questions that can inspire your research:

• What type of business is your goal? What team size? nation? industry?
• What kind of role do you aim for in these companies? The executor or the executor?
• What challenges do decision makers face? What are they trying to achieve?
• Who are the main competitors?

Low search volume

Here is an example: According to Ahrefs, the B2C keyword “to-do list application” has 5,400 searches per month.

The very targeted B2B keyword “enterprise project management software” has 250 searches per month. Some B2B keywords have only 10 to 50 searches per month.

For B2B SEO, we must reconsider the goals related to search volume and traffic potential. Certain keywords usually lead to more qualified potential customers and revenue-but it looks scary in the keyword research file.

Small keyword database

Have you ever played targeted, Long tail keywords Enter your SEO tool and receive zero results? Well, if you really understand the target audience and their needs, this will happen in B2B.

Most SEO tools do not have the correct keyword database for these niche topics, and even if people are searching for them, they will not show any results.

In B2B, you almost always want to combine multiple SEO tools (such as Ahrefs, SEMrush, Search Console, and Google Keyword Planner To better understand the keyword universe.

The art of using B2B keyword modifiers

The trick to finding good and targeted keywords for B2B is to use modifiers that are not normally used in the context of B2C. You can try the following modifiers:

• Company or enterprise, such as enterprise project management software.
• SME or small business, such as performance management software for small companies.
• Start, for example, start a work culture.
• Online business, such as online business accounting software.
• RFP, such as construction RFP.
• Procurement, suppliers, suppliers, such as procurement project management.
• Product modifiers, such as software, tools, solutions, systems, platforms, such as project management solutions (usually “application” implies B2C intent).
• Competitor name + alternatives, such as Microsoft Teams alternatives.
• Competitor name + vs/versus, such as Asana vs Monday.
• Review, such as Asana project management review.
• How to choose/buy guide, such as how to choose CRM.
• For business, such as Whatsapp business.
• In the workplace, such as the diversity of the workplace.
• Employees, such as how to welcome new employees virtually.
• Your target industry, such as retail trends, restaurant employee engagement ideas.
• Your use case, such as an onboarding process template.
• The problem you are solving, such as reducing unplanned downtime.
• Trends, such as trends in office management.
• Statistics, such as travel management statistics.
• Challenges, such as internal communication challenges.

To use modifiers, enter your seed keywords in the SEO tool and use the filter function to narrow the results:

Then add keyword opportunities to your list or keyword research document:

Author screenshot, November 2021

View hidden opportunities in Search Console

For more keyword ideas, be sure to check Google Search Console.

Here is an example: Ahrefs said that the keyword “operations management trends” has 50 searches per month in the United States. However, one of our customers receives thousands of clicks on this keyword every month.

In Google Search Console:

• Go to: Performance-Search Results.
• Choose a time frame (at least 3 months).
• Add clickthrough rate and average position.
• Use filters to remove brand names and variants from the results.

Author screenshot, November 2021

Now, view the “Query Report”.

Author screenshot, November 2021

Don’t forget your competitors

Your competitors may have some great Keyword ideas. Make sure to check their keywords and backlinks in SEO tools to understand what is useful to them.

You can try the following reports in Ahrefs:

The latter not only provides you with keyword ideas, but also highlights the idea of ​​creating backlinks.

Pay attention to these:

• List.
• Statistical data.
• the best.

Author screenshot, November 2021

Bonus: add your Google Ads keywords

Make sure to add the keywords with the highest conversion rates from Google Ads to your SEO research. You already know that these topics and queries are useful to you, so make sure to include them in your organic strategy.

Bonus: use internal search

If your website has Internal search Features, make sure to check the most frequently asked questions for interesting queries.

Leverage insights into sales and customer success

Now, this is where it gets juicy. I found some of the best keywords by looking at sales promotions, agreements, and FAQs.

Sales and customer success are the first lines of interaction with ideal customers. They understand their needs better than any Quora or Reddit.

To leverage their insights on SEO, make sure:

• Interview sales staff on frequently asked questions or mentioned competitors.
• Successfully discuss the most common use cases with customers and which types of customers to use.
• Watch recordings of sales calls or read sales agreements.
• Check out the tutorials or knowledge bases of those articles that get the most traffic, and expand the question outline there.

Similarly, some of these keywords may be very niche, but when you do let these visitors visit your website, your chances of making a good impression on the right people are the highest.

Choose the right target keywords

Remember, keyword research is your market research and analysis. In the beginning, no matter how difficult it is, you want to add all your ideas to the target list.

Once you have a large number of potential target keywords (hundreds to thousands), please add the following data to make a final decision:

• Monthly search volume.
• Keyword difficulty.
• Current ranking position and URL.
• Ads and cost-per-click in search results.
• Business value: A scale of 1 (small) to 3 (high) indicates the impact of this keyword on your business in terms of revenue/prospective customers.

Now, you can check keyword difficulty and correct target keywords in two ways.

Choose low-difficulty keywords first

If you’ve never done SEO before and don’t have a benchmark for the types of keywords you can target, start with low-difficulty keywords. In Ahrefs, an SEO tool, this usually means a KD score below 10.

Before making a final decision, be sure to check page 1. You will want to see other sites with similar domain ratings and backlink profiles in the top position so that you have actual ranking opportunities.

Benchmark your keyword difficulty score

Calculate the average keyword difficulty of the best performing keywords to understand the difficulty suitable for your website.

This is how you do it:

• Extract the report of the best performing keywords: positions 1 to 3. (Or 1 to 10, otherwise if you don’t have enough data.)
• Remove all Brand Keywords.
• Add the keyword difficulty score of the remaining keywords.
• Calculate the average keyword difficulty score.
• Calculate the median keyword difficulty score to be cross-checked.

Author screenshot, November 2021

This benchmark tells you that if you choose a keyword with a similar difficulty score, your chances of ranking are very good because it has been useful to you in the past.

If there is no keyword data

If you find keywords without search volume or difficulty data in SEO tools, you must check page 1.

Similarly, you want to ensure that you see sites with similar permissions to you in the top position to measure whether you are also ranking.

A word about B2B keyword mapping and content type

Now that you have a list of target keywords, you need to map them to pages and articles.

The first rule of SEO is one keyword cluster per page; per page Keyword cluster.

Make sure your Site structure By specifying a specific location for each set of target keywords, Google is easy to understand.

Since we are in B2B, you would like to ask yourself what type of content is suitable for query, tactics or strategy?

• Tactical content The work is a practical guide for showing the process or method. They are interesting for those who use your B2B services or products. They allow readers to implement new processes.
• Strategy content The work teaches mental models, frameworks and strategies. They are usually used by executives and managers. They teach new ways of thinking and decision-making.

For each target keyword, you will decide whether they are aimed at decision makers or implementers.Then choose the right Content type (Tactical/strategic) accordingly.

in conclusion

Usually, we like to talk about B2C and your marketing audience. Remember, B2B also means marketing to people (people inside the company).

These people need you to address their pain points and desired results, communicate clearly and produce compelling content.

Armed with these tips on B2B keyword research, you should be able to create a Content calendar This applies to your ideal client and your SEO strategy.

More resources:

Featured image: Shutterstock/thodonal88