30-second summary:
- B2B conversion funnels are long and unpredictable, and your SEO strategy should reflect that
- Because it takes several touchpoints for a buying decision to be made, a B2B SEO strategy should focus on both informational and commercial phrases
- Brand-driven search is crucial for your conversions because B2B customers tend to careful consider all options
- While optimizing for informational queries is important, make sure you have distinct conversion paths on each page
- Create consistent visual identity across on- and off-site channels to improve brand recognizability at each touchpoint
There’s one key difference between B2B and B2C conversions[1]: B2B shopping is almost never spontaneous. It takes several decision makers (which are collectively referred to as a decision making unit or a DMU) to review several options and make a choice.
A B2B shopping journey can thus take weeks and months.
Obviously, the organic search optimization strategy[2] should address that challenge ensuring that more of those clicks driven by organic positions result in leads and sales.
1. Create SEO-driven landing pages for both TOFU and MOFU parts of the sales funnel
Fundamentally, a B2B marketing funnel consists[3] of three stages: top, middle and bottom. The final stage is where the final sale happens, and may take eight touchpoints (i.e. a potential customer seeing or interacting with the site in some way or another) for a buying decision to finalize.
Traditionally, when it comes to SEO, businesses tend to prioritize landing pages that drive direct sales. In B2B it is hardly possible because customers tend to make lots of searches prior to making a purchase.
This is why informational search queries (those driving top of the funnel) are as important in B2B as commercial queries are.