B2C vs B2B SEO: What’s the Difference?

All businesses need organic search engine traffic in to thrive.

61 percent of B2B consumers research potential partner companies before purchasing a product or service. Likewise, 81 percent of B2C consumers use Google, Bing, Yahoo, or another search engine to learn more about products they’re interested in.

But take note: SEO isn’t the same across these two industries. B2B businesses deal in specialized content, whereas B2C businesses can utilize broader keywords to attract search engine crawlers’ attention.

Trying to figure out where your business fits, or how to raise your platform’s SERP ranking? Keep the following in mind:

A Glossary of Audiences

What’s the primary difference between B2B and B2C industries, and thereby their SEO usage? Answer: it’s all in the audience.

What is B2C?

Business-to-Consumer businesses primarily sell their products or services directly to a customer audience. Consumers find your B2C content and products by searching for primary keywords. That organic traffic leads to direct sales.

What is B2B?

Business-to-Business operations sell products or services to other businesses, treating corporations as consumers. Unlike direct-to-consumer sales, B2B businesses rely upon reputation to win sales.

Developing a relationship with a potential client can take anywhere from one week to several months. B2B businesses aim to retain these relationships for a long while after that initial contact, too.

So now you know the difference—but how does this impact optimization strategies?

B2C SEO

As a B2C business, you’ll implement an SEO strategy to attract a broader target audience. Your B2C company doesn’t need to maintain months-long relationships with your customers. You have a reputation as a brand, sure, but your overall content takes on a less specific shape with a shorter funnel process than B2B.

B2C Keywords

B2C keywords should be industry-oriented. Consumers will have specific questions they want answered about a product or service, but these questions won’t be overly-technical or bogged down with industry jargon.

Keyword research is especially important for your B2C SEO strategy. Take the time to understand how your average consumer finds you. What do they search for when looking for products like yours? B2C keywords need to be accessible and commonly-used to succeed.

B2C Content

All advertising content needs to be comprehensive. B2C content, though, should have a personality to it. Take your time explaining your industry terms to your consumer audience to nurture your sales.

User Experience

In B2C, you’ll want to focus on a quick and easy user experience. Your content should be eye-catching, exciting, and based around a strong call-to-action to incite that same excitement in your customers.

B2B SEO

As a B2B business, you’ll use SEO to reach a far more specific audience. You have a smaller lead pool, so your SEO elements need to be tighter and directed at a niche group to build the long-term relationships on which your industry thrives.

B2B Keywords

Long-tail keywords come in handy for your B2B SEO. Why? Industry-based audiences will be more familiar with your common jargon, and they’ll use it—as well as hyper-specific questions—in their online searches.

B2B Content

You need your B2B peers to believe in your industry authority. As such, your content needs to be much lengthier than B2C content. Replace explanations of jargon with comprehensive guides that elaborate upon the value of your B2B services.

User Experience

Remember that your content needs to hold consumer interest in the long-term, as B2B sales can take much longer to process. As a B2B business, you’ll need to create content with a conversation funnel in mind to build trust and improve your company’s reputation with consumers.

Where B2B SEO is designed for a hyper-specific audience, B2C SEO casts a wide net to secure sales. Using the appropriate SEO elements for your business will boost your SERP ranking. Make sure you’re tailoring your optimizable elements to your ideal audience, and you’ll find better success in the world of online marketing.

Conclusion

Is your company in need of help with B2C and B2B SEO? MV3 Marketing Agency has numerous Marketing experts ready to assist you. Contact MV3 Marketing to jump-start your business.

Image attribution: Tierney – stock.adobe.com