B2B and B2C business models both have the same goal of selling products and services, but approaching their SEO the same way could prove disastrous. 

What Are the Surface-Level Differences?

Although both business models sell products and services, the people who benefit from them are vastly different. B2B, or, business-to-business, is a model where one business sells its goods and services to another business that needs them for professional growth.

A great example of a B2B model is a mergers and acquisitions broker that sells urgent cares to larger companies. The average consumer would never need this type of service, but it is an excellent means to an end for an urgent care owner that is selling off their legacy.

B2C, or, business-to-consumer is the more traditional business model of a company selling products and services the average consumer uses (I.e. pest control, plumbing services).

Both B2C and B2B are very different business models, and that’s why the SEO approach your brand takes is so important to its success. 

Here are some of the biggest differences between B2B and B2C SEO and how your brand should take its model into account when developing a digital marketing strategy.

Both Have Different Marketing Campaign Goals

Generally, B2B SEO campaigns involve selling a more expensive service that requires a long-term investment on the part of the buyer. So, a B2B SEO campaign will be very detail-oriented, authoritative, and raise awareness that helps a buyer make an educated decision on their purchase.

While B2C businesses still focus on authority and raising awareness about their industry, the marketing approach for a B2C is more urgent and creates immediate purchasing decisions.

Each Model’s Keyword Research Takes a Different Approach

Even the keyword research approach is different between these two business models. With B2C, the keyword approach links back to the immediacy of their tactics. As a B2C, the goal is to rank for medium difficulty keywords that help get a brand in front of a search engine audience as quickly as possible. With B2C, there is generally one person making the purchase decision and the right keyword in the right content could be enough to make a lucrative sale.

However, when it comes to B2B, remember, your brand is playing the long game, with more funds at stake for your customer. There is most likely a chain of command that leads to the final purchase decision. So, during the keyword research process, you’ll need to take each potential decision-maker’s individual needs and concerns into account.

B2B is also going to be a much smaller niche, so aiming for general keywords as your “big winners” isn’t always the right approach. 

As you keep all of these considerations in mind for your B2B research, the following keyword elements should be your priority:

• Technical terms
• Keywords that focus on different parts of your industry’s sales cycle
• Informational keywords
• Keywords that focus on the transactional search

Different Yet Similar Content Goals

While this is more of a similarity than a difference, we felt that each model’s approach to successful content was a key point of discussion. The biggest difference between B2B and B2C content is the depth of the model’s sales cycle. 

Where a B2C can get away with writing a fun, entertaining, piece about a general service, B2B content hones in on one aspect of the industry and delves deeper into the concepts that matter to their target audience.

Remember, content is the heart of your SEO campaign, so, no matter your business’s approach, you want it to always follow these guidelines:

• Regardless of the subject matter, your content must be compelling and entertaining. Work with your content team to come up with an innovative way to present what could be a monotonous subject. From weekly videos to podcasts, and a blogging series, there is always a way to make your content something that audiences will want more of.
• Make your content interactive and pull your audience away from being passive. Infographics, quizzes, and blog posts that leave audiences eager to respond can go a long way towards encouraging a conversion with an immediate and long-term audience.
• Above all, your content needs to be relevant and valuable to your target audience. Even if you are a B2B talking about a detailed topic that only interests a specific audience, make sure that topic is something your target audience is actually searching for. Fortunately, your keyword research, as well as the help of a professional SEO team can help you push your content’s relevance in the right direction. 

Different Branding Approaches

Branding is important to any organization trying to cultivate an audience. However, each business model has its own way of approaching branding to grow a loyal customer base.

B2C marketing focuses on emphasizing a brand’s message of delivering a quality product or experience. This is a great marketing strategy for these brands because their customer interaction is immediate and sometimes a one-time encounter. The long-term value of their services matters to a customer, but the “now” of their branding is what they emphasize.

On the other hand, long-term value is something that a B2B business would want to emphasize within its branding. If a company can prove consistency, growth, and a successful position in its market, the brand is more likely to form long-term relationships with customers who view their company as a partner, rather than a one-time experience.

Keep Your B2B Strategy on Track With Dallas SEO Dogs

If you’re a business owner that knows your brand needs to shift its SEO strategy but doesn’t know where to start, Dallas SEO Dogs can help. Our SEO experts have experience with helping both B2B and B2C business models meet their strategic goals. 

SEO without a team on your side can be a difficult road to travel, but SEO Dogs ensures that your digital marketing strategy doesn’t have to be. 

Our teams utilize their experience in content, paid advertising, social media, and, of course, technical SEO to professionally handle your rankings while you deal with your day-to-day operations.

Contact us today to learn more about our services and to schedule your free consultation with a member of our team.

The post What Are the SEO Differences Between a B2B and B2C Strategy? appeared first on Dallas SEO Dogs.

SEO campaigns can provide hope and excitement for increased leads. Unfortunately, many agencies often start them by giving the client unrealistic expectations. SEO isn’t an overnight process, and it can take several months or more to see a substantial shift in rankings and site traffic from optimization. 

If you’ve just signed on with a new SEO company or are considering working with one for your brand, keep these five facts about the process in mind during the first few months of strategy implementation.

1. SEO Success Takes Time

As much as SEOs and clients want to see immediate results after the first few weeks of a project, the process takes much more time and patience than that.

The amount of work required just to get a website in a position for success depends may be substantial. It depends on the initial state of your website. 

The first month (or more) of SEO should focus on different audits, research, strategy and priority corrections to your website. From there, your team should consistently track keywords, create valuable content, and ensure that your site doesn’t get hit with Google penalties as it climbs its way to the top of rankings. 

In short, SEO is something that snowballs into an avalanche of gains over time. With the right team on your side, your project will eventually meet, get close to, or even exceed its marketing goals.

2. SEO Work Goes way Beyond Keyword Research

Don’t get us wrong, keyword research is an important part of SEO. In fact, at Dallas SEO Dogs, it’s something we perform before the project kick-off meeting with a client as a way of getting a head start on the campaign. 

We constantly track changes to your top keywords and frequently update the list, but our success comes from using the targeted keywords in the right way. Great keyword use makes you more visible in Search Engine Results Pages and attracts more qualified traffic. The end result is more conversions for your company. 

In the image above, the site’s average position in Google dropped. But site still generated many more leads. Why? Because we improved our client’s visibility not by targeting more keywords, but by targeting the right keywords.

Here’s what you should expect in the first few months of your SEO campaign:

• Service page creation/expansion
• Location page content creation
• Google My Business listing optimization
• Sitemap optimization
• Technical SEO Audit (404 errors, bad links, etc.)
• Initial title and meta description optimization

3. We Create Initial Content for Google

Creating and optimizing content is one of the biggest improvements an SEO company can make on a website. However, especially in the beginning stages of a project, content creation is more for appeasing Google than a specific audience.

At the start of a project, the main focus of content creation should be on the following criteria:

• It hits keywords a site needs to build its rankings
• It is linkable for future internal links
• It meets current Google algorithm standards

Right now, Google has its eye on websites with lengthy, conversational, and accurate content that answers common user questions about a topic. As seen in the pictures below when we compare 2 different reports within Google Search Console. 

The Coverage report tracks the new pages added to our client’s site over a 3-month period. We can see that there are new pages added regularly to the site and how this has a direct correlation to the increase in clicks and impressions shown in the performance report during the same time period.

Yes, eventually your project’s content will veer into topics that you really want your SEO team to discuss. But during the first three months, it’s always best to let the SEO team guide your content towards creating a stable launching point for future industry topics.

4. Everyone is a Professional in Their Own Industry

Your SEO provider should specialize in all of the essential areas of site optimization strategy. If they’re an experienced, reputable company, trust them to make the right decisions for your website; even if it’s something that seems out-of-the-box for your tastes.

An experienced SEO team will take into account that you’re the authority in your industry. They should listen to your ideas, soak in your knowledge of your industry, and apply the results of successful communication to your SEO project. This teamwork approach leads to the best results and builds trust early on in the SEO process.

5. SEO is Ever-Evolving

Over time, you may start to see an improvement in rankings, site traffic, and conversions. While these changes are great, now is not the time to rest on your laurels. 

Search engine requirements are always changing, keywords don’t always stay in the top ten lists, and your audience interests could unexpectedly shift gears. That is why the need for SEO services is endless. If you take a moment and stop while you’re ahead, your competition will quickly move past you and push your achievements back to square one.

A great SEO team will keep up with the latest changes to search engine optimization and SEO tools to ensure your website is competitive and authoritative during search queries. 

Dallas SEO Dogs Helps Your Website Make a Long-Term Impact

Our best advice is to find an SEO team you can trust, let the project evolve as it must, and rest easy knowing that your specialists prioritize all of your site’s optimization needs.

At Dallas SEO Dogs, we specialize in every area of SEO and keep each of our clients in the loop about our practices and the “why” behind our actions. If you’re ready to work with an SEO team that tailors to your brand and website’s needs, we want to meet you!

Contact us today to learn more about our services and schedule your free consultation with one of our specialists.

The post 5 Things to Keep in Mind During Your First 3 Months of SEO Services appeared first on Dallas SEO Dogs.

Give Enhanced CPC a Chance!

This summer, consider taking advantage of the enhanced CPC option in your Google Ads campaign. Right now, even the keywords that convert throughout the rest of the year may be getting lower than desired impressions. By turning on your enhanced CPC, Google increases your bid by 30 percent on keywords that are historically more likely to convert. This helps your ads show more impressions at higher positions over the competition on your account’s most coveted keywords.

Experiment With Broad Matching

When your PPC management has hit a stride, you may be tempted to keep your matching phrases and keywords tight over the summer. Why fix what isn’t broken, right? Wrong! We suggest keeping your tighter keywords that work but don’t be afraid to expand your repertoire with modified broad match keywords that will reach a wider audience in your time of need. Modified broad match keywords have a “+” sign in front of each word, telling Google that you want your ad to show as long as each word with the plus sign in front of it is somewhere in the query, regardless of where each word appears. For example, the keyword “+iphone +x +case” will show for queries like “black case for iphone x,” “iphone case x model,” etc. Even if you bid lower on broad matches, this move can give your account the boost it needs to keep your ads in front of potential customers until business begins to pick up again. Some other ways that broad match benefits your brand include:

• The discovery of useful, new keywords
• The discovery of which keywords to avoid at all cost without utilizing much of your PPC budget

Get Socially Engaged

Stepping away from PPC, let’s take a look at what advertising you can do on your social media channels. Yes, even other businesses surf social media from time to time, so this summer, try to pump up the engagement. Through consistent, attention-grabbing posts, you can easily keep your audience interested in the services you’re able to provide. Promote that guest blog you participated in, or hold a contest that rewards other businesses for participating. Staying active⁠—even in the slower sales months⁠—helps keep your brand at the forefront of your audience’s minds when the need for your services arises.

Line Up Your Fall Content

Planning ahead with your SEO campaign is essential, and your content marketing schedule should always be a step ahead of where your business currently is. Take the summer to plan your fall content marketing schedule. Poor preparation is the downfall of most business content strategies, so keep yourself ahead in the game by:

• Researching the keywords you could be ranking for but aren’t
• Discovering what people are talking about in your industry
• Looking into what industry topics upcoming fall conventions and webinars are covering

Take Inventory of the SERP Landscape

Summer’s here, so SERPS up, dudes! You don’t have to have the number one search engine spot to show up in some of the most noticeable search engine results. Work with your digital marketing team to discover how the competition has paved the way for your imminent SERP domination. Remember, holding a featured snippet spot isn’t permanent, and when Google discovers more relevant content, that’s what takes the spotlight. Give your site a fighting chance! Optimize your content with the right keywords, formatting, and relevance in order to snatch up featured snippets this summer that will help get your brand noticed in search results.

Heat Up Your SEO This Summer With Dallas SEO Dogs

Don’t fall victim to the summer slump this season! Let Dallas SEO Dogs help you focus on keeping your brand a success year-round. Our experienced digital marketing team has the tools and knowledge to easily navigate the changing SEO trends in your industry throughout the year. Contact us today to schedule your free consultation and learn more about how our brands can team up together to help you soar to the top of search engine results.

The post Simple B2B Digital Marketing Tips to Hurdle Over the Summer Slump appeared first on Dallas SEO Dogs.