The B2B keywords do not have a pre-mix, in fact, these are most difficult to find until you’ve opened the right door.
This flow chart will set up the basic steps, after which you would be ready for a deep dive, to get the keywords that would convert the most!
It’s important to understand that getting keyword ideas and creating keywords that match your objective are two different things.
Keyword ideas can give you a direction to think, but it’s your own data and your own team that will build upon those ideas to help you create the keywords that will bring the best conversion.
How to select the B2B keywords from a keyword bunch?
The keywords mix provided by any tool (keywords planner, SEMrush, Alexa, Ubersuggest and others), would have B2B and B2C keywords, so it’s important to keep in mind the customer purchase journey (businesses, government organizations, retailers etc in this case).
Top of the funnel (ToFu) keyword type
High conversion or low cost per conversion keywords mainly relate to the top of the funnel customer activities, e.g. research, discovery and interest seeking actions.
- long-tail search query
As it is the awareness and discovery phase of the customer journey.
- Advantages of
- Benefits of
As people seek unbiased comparison
- Services
- Solutions
- Development
- Management
- Maintenance
- Procurement
Target the searcher instead of search
Example of Google Ads Keyword Planner tool
Design your customized B2B keyword strategy
Super specific keywords which include your brand name, slogan, product terms and other such elements.
These are easy to rank, have low difficulty score and low search volume, but may bring about higher conversion, as it tells that the customer is in the consideration stage of decision making.
Example: fidget toys
These keywords characterize or categorize your product, for example, project management software, vitamin pre-mix, plant growth regulator.
These are high volume and high difficulty keywords, which may have a high CPC (depending on the category). It is important to rank for at least one of the category keywords to drive better conversion.
These keywords usually relate to the awareness stage of the customer journey.
Example: iPhone
These are broad keywords which are relevant to your industry but do not relate directly to your product.
Ranking for these keywords will help establish industry authority and brand recognition.
Example: Cars for sale
The B2B customers look for neutral advice before taking a decision. The informational keywords play a very important role here. Informational keywords are the search terms used by customers to find advice, knowledge or compare/evaluate.
Ranking for some of these keywords can work wonders in driving conversion.
Example: How to create a WordPress blog
Ahrefs can give you a sneak peek into the competitor keywords. You can write your blogs or use the keywords in your ads to divert some of the competitor traffic towards your ads or website.
The catch is to try for a keyword which is not very popularly associated with the competitor brand, as you may find it difficult to rank for that.
Example: For Nike, a competitor keyword could be Reebok running shoes.
Website content is one of the most powerful tools for B2B lead generation. If you have both B2B and B2C business, its best to have a separate landing page for both. The landing page for a B2B sale should clearly indicate that the page contains information relation related to B2B sale only. This will help you further niche down to get the leads that matter. The content on every page of the website should work like a lead generation content (even though there may not be a lead generation form on every page). Title of page URL should have the most important keyword of the page. The H1 and H2 headings of the page should also bear the most important keywords of the page.
Other segments of keywords that you can use are
- Operations (think about terms related to efficiency, management, operations).
- Growing (think about terms related to scaling and growth).
- Turnaround
- Cost Management
- Learning
- Recommendation
- Outsourcing
- Product of a specific country of origin (e.g., American Gibberellic Acid)
