Search engine optimization (SEO) is vital for every single business or person with an online presence, but it’s especially helpful for B2B businesses. You know that your customers and clients are business savvy already, which means they might be judging you by your own online prowess. If they know about SEO (as they should) they probably found you because your own SEO was decent. However, if they came from word of mouth or another networking type of source, that may not be the case.
Don’t assume that your customers are loyal just because they’re fellow business owners. Sticking with the same thing and expecting different results is madness, and when it comes time for them to re-evaluate their vendors or suppliers, you might not make the cut. Here’s why SEO for B2B matters, how to improve yours, and figure out where you stand.
Keeping up with SEO best practices is similar to making sure you’re on top of social media management or online reputation management. It puts you at the forefront for your field or industry, and Google is a great tool for seeing “the best” of businesses at a glance. If you skip SEO entirely and are buried on page 10 of Google, that might be showing your clients that you either don’t care about your online brand or (worse) that you don’t know how to handle it.
At any moment, your customers might be perusing Google looking for your replacement or just to see what’s out there. Don’t let them get swept away by someone else just because their SEO game is better than yours. If you’re prevalent on the first page of search engine results, it will remind your clients of your status and just how good you are. That’s the ticket to getting and keeping customers.
Likewise, when potentially new customers are looking for the services you provide, you need to be front and center. The only way to do this is with SEO, so stop putting it off. If you’re not on the first page of search engine results, you might as well not exist and many B2B companies have learned this the hard way. Don’t think that your reputation and/or word of mouth will do the trick.
B2B companies are in a unique position of having to prove themselves sometimes amongst their peers. Use SEO wisely, and it’s the secret sauce that can keep you ahead.
