What is the difference between B2B and B2C SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the battle to get to the top listing on a search engine. 

There are a tremendous number of search engines, and let’s face it, Google is the king of search with a 92.47% market share (Statista). Marketers are constantly seeking the right formula to work with the algorithms (a complex system that allows search engines to find, rank, and return the most relevant pages for a search query) to be at the top of the heap. 

A question we're often asked is, what is the difference between B2B and B2C SEO?  

The Differences Between B2B and B2C SEO

B2B companies seek to increase brand exposure and follow the buyer on the journey to purchase. These companies create content and actions that will inform, engage, and inform action that they hope will eventually lead to a sale. Business to business organizations increasingly faces the reality that buyers are taking longer and longer to reach out to a salesperson.    

The buyer’s journey, or path to purchase, incorporates steps that a buyer takes when moving from awareness to consideration to decision. It's worth noting that B2B businesses typically have more than one person to sign off on a sale, while a B2C purchase is typically a single buyer.    

In the B2B ecosystem, understanding the steps a buyer takes digitally can position businesses to be the SME (subject matter expert) and if you're the source of buyer information, trust is built, and the likelihood of sales dramatically increases.   

B2C companies seek to drive traffic to get visitors to make an immediate purchase. The sales cycle often is shorter in B2C transactions. 

With B2C SEO, you might be mired in a sea of terminology and constant changes that can be overwhelming. Optimizing your social media platforms in the B2C space can drastically impact your sales. The more active you are socially and the more dynamic content you create (video), the better the results. User-Generated Content in B2C can be much easier to obtain and can fuel your ranking in search.  

Keyword Selection Process and Link Building 

As mentioned above, the B2B sales cycle is longer and more complex than B2C, therefore, businesses need to include keywords that resonate with their target persona at different parts of the sales cycle. This means informational and transactional keywords should be targeted. One thing to note is B2B keywords often attract a niche audience — this means more research and technical terminology than B2B keyword research. B2C companies often search for keywords that are common and not too broad. 

Once keyword research is conducted for both types of businesses, the next step is link building

Depending on your business and industry, link building begins with researching where your target audience shows the most interest. Strong B2C marketing tactics to reach a target audience are typically spent on social media, in-store ads, digital ads, and membership promotions. Whereas,  B2B marketing tactics used to find their target audience are often done through personalized, highly relevant content and targeted advertising. 

How to Help Your SEO Strategy 

Here are some things you can do right away to help your SEO strategy regardless of who you're selling to: 

• Site load times matter, remove anything on your site that is slowing you down 

• Write for your buyer first 

• Every page should have a unique and meaningful meta description 

• Create a cadence of one of kind content consistently  

• Optimize images and video