Two Types of SEO Content Critical To B2B Marketers

We’ve all heard it before… Content is King! In the SEO world, one of the best ways to boost a website’s ranking is to have an abundant amount of unique, valuable content on your site. But, what do you suggest when the CEO or marketing team does not want to add keyword-rich content to your site? Perhaps they want to keep the copy light, or focus on impressive graphics – yet, they also expect improved search results.

Anyone working in the SEO industry, in-house or at an agency, knows that content really is essential, but quite frankly, this may not matter to marketers or executives. SEO experts must develop content strategies that keep internal teams happy and simultaneously improve search visibility and results.

Content strategies to boost organic search results

Two highly successful content-development strategies that B2B marketers should consider are (1) adding a keyword-rich FAQ page, and (2) implementing local or regional content pages. I’ve found that these techniques tends to be less invasive than adding a significant amount of keyword-rich content to existing pages, and are more likely to be accepted by various stakeholders associated with a corporate, B2B focused website.

Create keyword-rich FAQs

It makes sense for nearly every website to have a Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ page. This is a golden opportunity to create keyword-rich, targeted copy to help increase your rankings and provide your website visitors useful information.

Here are some ideas to help create a FAQ section of a website:

• Ask your sales team what the most common questions are that they receive in the field and expand upon those.
• Use social media to monitor what your customers are saying on blogs and forums and if the same questions keep popping up, address them on your FAQ page.
• Check your Web analytics data to find very specific keyword phrases and questions. I recommend that you look particularly for long-tail phrases that include three or more words. These phrases may not generate a significant amount of traffic, but they do provide great clues into customers’ needs and wants.
• Make sure you target non-branded keywords. The point is to be found for more than just your brand. Look for very specific questions and topics and then expand upon each by including multiple non-branded keyword phrases.

Another benefit of a FAQ page is that it allows companies to promote multiple topics, and optimize for multiple keywords, on a smaller scale. You may not have enough content to develop an entire page devoted to a single subject, but creating a question and answer section still allows you to incorporate these important keywords into your site.

Capitalize on local keywords

Even national firms need to reach customers locally (or regionally). In fact, according to the Kelsey Group, 74% of Internet users perform local searches. In addition, 61% of local searches result in purchases (TMP/comScore).

It’s not hard to rank well for branded keywords because they are naturally used frequently throughout a B2B website. But if/when an executive asks, “why aren’t we ranking for relevant local search queries?” the likely answer is—there just isn’t enough local content on the site.

Focus on the most important locations

At least initially, most B2B marketers must decide where to focus their local SEO efforts. How do you determine the best locations to create content for?

Start by using tools such as Google Insights. The tool provides insights into the terms people search for in Google by creating a visual representation of regional interest on a map. You can type in a keyword and it will display the top regions that have an interest in that keyword topic.

Then, ask your sales or marketing team for the top zip codes where you have the most customers or have gained the most sales. Use your Web analytics data to parse out the top locations of qualified visitors.

Create unique content for each region

Once you narrow your list of top locations, be sure to create unique content speaking to each of these regions individually. If you’re a global company, create pages that speak to the challenges, customs, or standards of each particular country. The same could be applied on a national level, targeting regions in the U.S. and creating localized pages that address particular states, metro areas, cities, or even neighborhoods.

As unique local content is created, optimized for geo-targeted keywords and incorporate these words into your site; this will increase the visibility of your website within organic search results when localized B2B searches are conducted. Along with an effective navigational structure on your website, and with the support of link building efforts for these local pages, your company has a great opportunity to increase organic search rankings for local search queries.

I’ve seen a significant increase in organic visibility and traffic once keyword-rich content has been added to FAQ and local pages. For example:

• Search visibility increased 45% within 30 days of content implementation
• Organic visitors increased by 15% with new content
• Organic listings within the top three pages of the search results increased by 200%

If key stakeholders are resistant to adding keyword-rich content to existing pages, SEO Experts must “think outside the box”. Content is definitely king… but B2B marketers must focus on finding a balance of content that will be palatable to executives and valuable to customers. Implementing a FAQ section and developing local/regional content are two such tactics.