Relevant content will become more and more important in the area of search engine optimization in the future. However, B2B companies in particular often find it difficult to display the right content on their own website. Taking off your own company glasses and specifically responding to the information needs of users is currently the greatest challenge. Whether machine manufacturer, sealing company or engine developer – relevant content is decisive for success on Google!
Why do B2B companies struggle with good content?
Many B2B companies have long-standing business relationships and often have less market pressure to acquire new customers. In addition, the focus of many companies is still very much on offline business. If the company website is one of the only online advertising measures, the great potential of SEO, SEA, social or programmatic is wasted unnecessarily. Rigid hierarchical levels, long decision-making processes and often poor marketing know-how make the successful implementation of digital campaigns difficult.
Technically highly complex products make it difficult to create good content. In addition, advertising measures are often created from your own point of view and not from the point of view of the potential target group. The products are often only briefly or very technically described in the “engineer style”. In many B2B companies, content production usually only consists of a dry description of the most important product data.
Content measures for B2B companies
Which content measures are decisive in order to get qualified leads and achieve good rankings on Google?
1. It all starts with proper keyword analysis
Keyword analysis in the B2B segment can sometimes turn out to be difficult. Specific product names or complex product descriptions can and should be part of the final keyword set. Here, too, it is important to take off your own company glasses and think carefully about which terms the target group would be looking for. Those responsible for marketing and SEO have to think about whether their own product names are even familiar on the market. The analysis should be carried out in close coordination with technical sales, as the employees work closely with the customer and therefore know their wording.
2. Structure the content neatly – revise the information architecture
The best content can only work as well as the page structure allows. A clean information architecture is the basis for correctly providing the content for the respective products. B2B companies often make the mistake of summarizing several product areas on one page. According to the monothematic approach, all product areas must be neatly separated. For example, if a company has bundled the menu item “Sawing machines & milling machines” on one page, it would make sense to create two separate areas, “Sawing machines” and “Milling machines”.
The URL structure can usually be used to tell whether a website is properly structured. If a company owns several products of one product category, this should also be implemented accordingly in the URL structure.
www.beispielunternehmen.de/fraesmaschinen/fraesmaschine-produkt-1/
www.beispielunternehmen.de/fraesmaschinen/fraesmaschine-produkt-xy/
Another mistake that B2B companies make when building their website is incorrectly naming the menu items in the navigation. A manufacturer of helical geared motors should also name their menu item this way and not simply speak of “motors” as one often sees in practice.
3. Explain complex products simply and comprehensively
Many B2B websites have very little content. Landing pages for complex products are often provided with a short text and a maximum of a small product image. Most of the time the text is written in a very technical way. The greatest lever in SEO for B2B companies is to write good texts that describe the product adequately, but above all address the information needs of the user. Of course, the technical specifications need to be dealt with comprehensively. USPs, areas of application or application examples are rarely integrated on the landing pages. Ideally, the products are vividly presented in the form of storytelling. This is the only way for the user to visualize the complex product on the website.
4. Answer questions from users
With the use of FAQs, exactly the questions that users ask about the product can be answered on the website. Google is also increasingly including user signals when evaluating a website. Before creating FAQs, you should carefully consider which questions are important. Here, too, it makes sense to talk to the sales department, as the employees struggle with customers’ problems on a daily basis. FAQs are also ideal for elegantly integrating long-tail keywords on the page. In the area of ”Voice Search” too, it can be assumed that user-relevant content will become more important. In the Google Answer Box, many user questions are already displayed on “Position 0” on Google. Google’s voice assistant uses this answer box to answer voice searches.
5. Content classics: Clear images & product videos
Machines and other technical products can often not be represented very vividly visually. However, B2B companies should try to provide high quality images of the products on the website. What is still often neglected are pictures that show the product in use.
Videos can also communicate and visualize the technical properties and advantages of the products in an excellent way. Depending on the product, technical sketches and illustrations that specifically illustrate and explain the specific subtleties of the machine make sense.
6. Make content accessible (correct handling of PDF data sheets)
B2B companies often work with product data sheets that are integrated into the website in the form of PDF files. It is problematic if the actual content for a product is not integrated on the website, but only in the PDF file. All search engine relevant content must therefore also be integrated in the content area of the website so that it can be crawled and indexed properly by Google. Although Google can crawl PDF files, many users are usually lost because they cannot return directly to the website and may jump off.
7. Further content ideas: Advice texts & case studies
Due to the technical SEO complexity of the products, B2B companies have the advantage of ranking at the top of the search engine with good content on Google. User-friendly product texts and clear images would be the first step in setting up a content strategy. Nevertheless, those responsible for the web should also keep an eye on other content formats. Depending on the target group, it makes sense to test these or to include them directly in the action plan. Clear advice texts that describe a problem and its solution can be dealt with on the website, for example. Or does a case study on a successfully completed project make sense in order to clearly communicate your own performance area again?
SEO for B2B companies – conclusion:
Many B2B companies assign great potential in the area of content. The focus should be placed more on the entire online area in order to be able to remain competitive in the future.
