What are the most difficult SEO challenges for B2B marketers to overcome?

Keyword research in B2B SEO is intricate. Unlike B2C, B2B buyers seek specific, complex solutions. Success demands a deep dive into the niche, understanding buyer personas, and employing tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to uncover long-tail keywords matching intent and funnel stage. It's about comprehension, not just keywords, a journey to decode intent intricacies and craft content that anticipates questions. In B2B, precision is key, and long-tail keywords become bridges to authoritative, problem-solving content. B2B SEO's challenge is the pursuit of profound understanding, not quick wins, forging potent strategies through comprehension.

It really depends for WHO in the funnel you're trying to target. - Problem unaware? Long-tail descriptive keyword phrases - Problem aware? Informational searches related to solving the problem - Solution aware? Comparison searches or direct keyword search ex. best seo platforms, top seo platforms, seo platform You can use all sorts of tools - like ChatGPT or Keyword Planner - to brainstorm the many ways to phrase each type of keyword string, then cross-check the search volume with something like Ahrefs. I always recommend starting with solution-aware keywords because they have the highest buying intent and are more likely to immediately convert. That being said, they can also be the most competitive!

Late mover disadvantage. Lets say you have built a great product. For eg an HR management software. The market is already saturated with such products with several funded alongwith legacy businesses. Replicating their authority to rank on Google for key terms is often a losing battle unless you are very aggressive with SEO. The content route could also be taken but again in this industry, the competitors usually have great content to go with great visuals. When you are looking for quick results and the business KPI is to close x leads quarter on quarter, SEOs could have their work cut out.

Leveraging tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs is crucial, but it's just the start. It's about getting into the mindset of our buyer personas, understanding their pain points, and anticipating their questions. This is where my B2C background kicks in—I use the narrative-building skills honed in B2C to craft content around these long-tail keywords that doesn't just rank well but speaks directly to the buyer's concerns, aspirations, and needs.

Keyword research in the B2B SEO landscape can be particularly challenging due to the distinct nature of B2B buyers. Unlike B2C consumers seeking quick solutions, B2B buyers are in pursuit of specific information, answers to their pain points, and proof of your expertise. To address this, a deeper dive into your niche and a comprehensive understanding of your buyer personas are crucial. Leveraging tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs can aid in unearthing long-tail keywords aligned with the buyers' intent and funnel stage, facilitating more effective B2B SEO strategies.

The advice I most commonly give is flip the 'funnel' (I use this loosely with the lack of linearity to B2B buyer journeys) and start with the fastest route to revenue. That's the categories your product/service is in — the software/services/solutions your audience are searching for today — you want to be appearing in these searches with 'best of' articles or product/service pages. From there, map the pains and challenges you solve for your target audience related to each of these categories and build structured paths to purchase: 1. Ways to solve their challenges (all approaches) 2. Solutions to solve their challenges (push your core category as favourite) 3. 'Best of' content for your core category (pushing you as the favourite)

Crafting B2B content is an art. It's not just about hitting keywords but creating a narrative that educates and engages. Drawing from B2C, we make complex info accessible, blending expertise with storytelling. SEO is our framework—keywords to meta tags—it's about strategic alignment. Yet, it's an ongoing dance, a commitment to regular updates and adaptability, ensuring our content doesn't just rank but resonates and compels, mirroring a bespoke suit: fitting perfectly, serving a purpose, and impressing at first glance.

Creating content involves understanding your target audience—𝐍𝐎𝐓 based on who they are, but on the questions they’re asking and the problems they’re trying to solve. Enter 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐲𝐬𝐢𝐬. Deeply understanding why people search for specific information online opens a world of insight into your buyers’ needs and pain points. Then, create "𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫" content that positions your brand as the "solution" to their questions and problems. That said, structure your content for readability to help search engines understand what the page is about. Make sure related keywords are placed in: • Page title • Section headers • The first paragraph • Link anchor text

For companies with a large product/service offering, it requires an extensive amount of content. Balancing with informative pieces that will get traffic and help your site gain authority, with thought leadership pieces to display expertise, and conversion pieces that will help prospects understand how your product/service can help them solve their problem. Sticking to only a few strategic subjects is key on the long run. However, staying agile and pivoting to a topic that is underserved by competitors will pay off. And stay alert of new trending topics so that you can jump on the occasion to position your brand first and own the space. That’s gold!

The biggest SEO-challenge for most companies is creating high-value content. Researching keywords, technical SEO and setting up an analytics tool are one-time efforts, which can all be outsourced to decent agencies or freelancers. But creating content is an ongoing process, which requires at least half a person's time to get it done. You need to have at least 20% more content than your competitors, to see an impact on your rankings. Btw, this does not mean word count - it means superb and useful insights, trends and tipps distilled into snackable on-point texts with a great page design.

Qualifying who you want to connect with is essential. There is no point in having 1,000,000 segments if they are not your target. Therefore, we must have a very clear vision and purpose to be able to qualify the public and set up a content strategy and targeted approach.

Content writers are always on the lookout for real subject matter experts who can add depth and credibility to their work. Adopting a helper's mentality positions you as a valuable resource. Actively seek opportunities to assist writers and bloggers in developing compelling content. Be generous with your expertise, providing insights that go beyond the surface level. The more you contribute to their success, the more likely they are to reciprocate. You need to provide an answer that isn't something anyone can just Google and write in. It's a great way to showcase thought leadership, build legitimacy, and generate backlinks to increase DR. Don't be annoying, just support them. Do NOT use AI as it's obvious and unhelpful.

In the world of B2B SEO, link building stands out as a crucial yet formidable task. Links serve as indicators of trust and authority for search engines, offering the potential to enhance rankings and traffic. However, obtaining high-quality links from credible and pertinent sources is a challenging endeavor. It necessitates the creation of content that naturally attracts links, outreach to industry influencers and reputable publications, and the leveraging of established relationships and networks. At the same time, one must be vigilant to avoid spammy or low-quality links that could tarnish one's reputation and search engine rankings.

The most effective thing you can do if you want links, is to create content that people want to link to. Literally, plan your content with a criteria on linkability/referenceability - what great value, data, graphics etc will you include that people will want to link to? An easy example is benchmark data - people reference that in other articles all the time. Great infographics are often reused, and if someone uses it without linking, you have a valid reason to connect with them and ask for a link.

Aim to publish content as early in a keyword's lifespan as possible to indicate to search engines your brand's authority on the topic. Watch out for new industry trends, tools, strategies, etc. that you can create content around; if you can get that content to rank high on Google early on, it's likely to get backlinks from other brands and writers as they start writing about the topic, too.

Technical SEO is a mixed bag. There are some things that are important, and some that don't matter much. If you examine the websites that outrank you for the keywords you want, many of them will have the same or more technical SEO errors. Most common website CMS will be fine for SEO, eg wordpress + yoast or an seo plugin, webflow etc. If you are using static pages or a static site generator then you'll need a little more work. Spending lots of time on correcting endless small errors will not propel you to the top of the rankings. Try to take a common sense approach rather than 'best practice' - are the errors impacting crawling of your content? are they impacting how you appear in search results?

Technical SEO is the backbone of your online presence and performance, addressing critical aspects that influence usability, speed, security, and crawlability of your website. For B2B marketers, it poses a challenge as it demands technical expertise and skill, alongside consistent monitoring and testing. Technical SEO encompasses various factors such as site structure, URL configuration, navigation, mobile responsiveness, page loading speed, HTTPS, robots.txt, sitemaps, schema markup, and canonical tags. Mastery of these elements is essential for achieving optimal online visibility and search engine rankings.

Core web vitals exists now. It's never going to be a critical ranking factor - but it is going to help (or hurt) you. Experience has so much to do with how people interact with your website. Speed, ease of use, are table stakes now. If you're lacking here - chances are your content doesn't even matter.

Measuring and analyzing the outcomes of your SEO efforts is a daunting challenge for B2B marketers. SEO is a complex and non-linear process, often requiring significant time and resources before yielding results. To tackle this challenge, you must rely on tools like Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and dedicated SEO software to monitor and assess key performance indicators, including rankings, traffic, conversions, bounce rates, and dwell time. Furthermore, a crucial aspect of this challenge is identifying and rectifying any issues or errors that might hinder your SEO performance and adapting your strategy accordingly.

GA4. Curse it all you will, but it's here now. Learn to adapt to keep measuring what's working and what's not. Also, lean heavily into search console. The reports here are the most transparent data we get from Google on what they value in SEO (markup, valid indexing, keyword trend data). You could argue that the data in SC is more important than any other platform. Straight from the source and immediately impactful when acted on.

Natureza Não Linear do SEO: O reconhecimento de que o SEO não é um processo linear ou previsível é crucial. Os resultados podem levar tempo para se manifestar, e a natureza dinâmica dos algoritmos de busca pode tornar a previsão de resultados específicos desafiadora. Isso destaca a necessidade de uma abordagem de longo prazo e paciência na avaliação do impacto das estratégias de SEO.

Don't undervalue existing content and pages. Optimizing old content can be just as beneficial as developing new pieces. And it can take a lot less time and energy—it's usually easier to get a piece of content from page 3 to page 1 of SERPs than it is to create something from scratch that immediately ranks in the top results.

Limited keyword volume, long sales cycles, competitive landscapes, technical intricacies, and the need for high-quality, personalized content, along with niche keywords with low search volume, extended sales cycles, and the requirement for in-depth, authoritative content make it tough. The competitive landscape often features established giants, making it difficult for newcomers. Technical SEO issues, like managing complex product catalogs, are common. Building backlinks is a struggle due to limited opportunities. Global B2B companies must manage local SEO, and content personalization is crucial but complex. Compliance with industry regulations further complicates the picture. Measuring ROI is intricate due to the extended sales cycle.

Strategic planning your SEO efforts can be difficult for B2B as the tracking of returns typi ally is not immediate as it is in a B2C add to cart scenario. Many times you need to plan ranking for different stages in the marketing funnel. Content creation to reinforce the message will be needed with emphasis on ranking for those pieces of content. Many business don't plan their SEO. Rather they rank based on search volume and popular terms with no intention.