Just as Ascend2 and Research Underwriters stand out, Search engine optimization (SEO) continues to be one of the most important digital marketing tactics for both B2C (business to consumer) and B2B (business to business) companies.
Both companies have conducted a survey in June 2013 comparing companies around the world according to their self-definition of SEO performance, “very successful” or “unsuccessful.” The study found that companies with superior SEO strategies were more concerned about increasing their traffic conversion ratio, while those with lower SEO strategies were more concerned with increasing traffic to their website in general. Companies with stronger SEO performance emphasized efforts to increase content development compared to those with poorer performance.
Examining how B2C companies rated SEO tactics as more effective and more complicated, updating the content of the web page ranked the most important for 50% of the answers, while its ratio of difficulty or complexity only reached 20%.
Keyword management and the creation of original content are also seen as very effective, for 44% and 40% of responses, respectively. However, B2C companies placed the creation of original content as one of the most difficult SEO tactics to achieve, with 39% of responses. Only the integration of social media and the building of external links achieved a higher number of responses as more difficult tactics, with 41% and 42% respectively.
Blogging and adapting were the tactics that obtained lower levels of interest for B2C companies, with 16% and 9%, respectively.
The percentages of SEO tactics in B2B companies were similar to those of B2C companies, with the update of the website ranked number 1 (45%), followed by the creation of original content (44%) and keyword management (36%). The optimization of meta labels obtained a 9% in the B2B that in the B2C (27% and 36%).
Blogging and adapting existing content did not rank high among B2B companies (20% and 15%) but they were above that of B2C companies. Together with the emphasis on original and up-to-date content, the results highlight the importance of the various types of content in the SEO efforts of B2B companies.
Most B2B companies cited the construction of external links as the most difficult SEO tactic (44%), followed by the creation of original content (38%) and integration of social media (31%). The content is clearly at the heart of both the success and the challenges of B2B and B2C companies.
When deciding and analyzing your SEO strategy is working, almost half of the companies both B2B and B2C claimed that the conversion rate was the most appropriate metric. Visitor traffic to the website and its trend as well as keyword search rankings also showed a similar level of interest from both types of companies, being cited by 2 out of 5 survey participants.