B2B SEO consultant

SEO for B2B companies

SEO for B2B companies works differently from SEO for online shops. Search volume is low, but a single enquiry can be worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of CZK. So the goal is not as many visits as possible, but for the right people to find you at the right stage of their decision.

I have worked with B2B companies for a long time, mainly in finance, investment and services. I know that several people make the buying decision, it takes months, and the sales team needs high-quality enquiries from the website, not traffic charts.

I'm interested

What SEO for B2B involves

Demand and the buying process

I find out what the people who make buying decisions search for, and at what stage. From the first problem to choosing a supplier.

Service and industry pages

Separate pages for individual services, industries and customer types. These are where queries with buying intent land.

Content for decision-making

Comparisons, prices, case studies and answers to the questions asked by the engineer, the manager and the director.

Authority and trust

Links and mentions from industry media, associations and partners. In B2B, trust plays a particularly big role.

Visibility in AI

So that ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google mention you when someone asks them about suppliers in your industry.

Measurement all the way to the deal

I don't just measure traffic, but enquiries and their quality. Ideally all the way to a closed deal in the CRM.

Who have I provided website and SEO consulting for?

Why B2B SEO works differently

For an online shop, more visits usually lead to higher revenue. That is not true for a B2B company. A website about industrial compressors or accounting software for construction companies will never get tens of thousands of visits, and it doesn’t need them. A few dozen of the right people a month is enough.

That is why keywords are chosen differently in B2B SEO. A query searched by twenty people a month can be worth more than one with a thousand searches, if it is searched by buyers or business owners in your industry. Tools often show zero search volume for such queries, even though the demand exists.

Content for the whole buying process

A B2B purchase rarely starts with a search for a supplier. It starts with a problem, continues with a search for possible solutions and a comparison, and only at the end comes the choice of company. At each stage people search for different things, and often they are different people within the company.

So the website needs content for every stage. Articles and guides for those who are only just exploring the problem. Solution comparisons, prices and case studies for those who are choosing. And service pages with a clear call to action for those who are ready to make an enquiry. I describe how I work with this in marketing generally in my article on the customer journey.

Pages that buying queries land on

The most common weakness of B2B websites is a single generic “Services” page that has everything on it. Someone looking for a specific service for their industry won’t find such a page, or will leave it.

Every main service deserves its own page, and if you serve different industries, so do they. With specific references, the process, an approximate price or what the price depends on. This is exactly the information people want before they get in touch, and it also helps the page in search.

Authority and trust in B2B

In B2B, people buy from companies they trust. The same applies to search engines and AI. What helps: mentions in industry media, articles and commentary from your experts, speaking at conferences, membership of associations and case studies naming clients.

Links from such places carry more weight than dozens of generic articles on directory websites. I describe how I get links on the link builder page.

B2B companies in AI answers

Today people also ask ChatGPT and other AI assistants about suppliers. “Who do you recommend for SEO for a B2B company” or “which agency should I choose for industrial marketing”. Similarly worded queries, written as questions for AI, also appear in my website’s Search Console.

In its answer, AI mentions companies it consistently reads about online in connection with the given industry. What helps is a clear topical identity, mentions on websites that AI cites in the industry, and content that answers specific questions. You will find more details in the article How SEO and GEO work.

How to measure B2B SEO

In B2B, traffic and rankings are only an intermediate step. The real measure is the number and quality of enquiries, ideally linked all the way to deals in the CRM.

When you know that an enquiry from the website came through a specific page and ended in a deal, you can judge SEO in money rather than by impression. With longer sales cycles, it is also worth tracking assisted conversions, because the first visit from search and the signing of the contract are often several months apart.

How we work together

Analysis. A review of demand in your industry, the competition and the state of your website. The output is a list of opportunities ranked by their value to sales.
Structure. A plan for service pages, industry pages and content for each stage of the decision.
Content and links. Copy written together with your experts, case studies and links from industry media.
Measurement. Linking enquiries to their source and regular evaluation based on sales results. If you have a CRM, I will help you link enquiries to deals.

You can also see the whole plan on the SEO strategy page. You can start with a no-obligation consultation. In the form at the bottom of the page, write what your company does and for whom, and I will get back to you with a proposal for the next steps.

Is SEO worth it for a B2B company with low search volume?

Usually, yes. In B2B, what matters is not the number of searches but the value of the customer. When a single contract is worth hundreds of thousands, a few enquiries a year from search are enough for SEO to pay for itself.

What matters is whether people in your industry look for suppliers online. A demand analysis will show this.

How long does it take for B2B SEO to bring in enquiries?

The first improvements in rankings and traffic to service and industry pages usually come within three to six months, and enquiries follow. Content for the earlier stages of the decision and authority take longer to build.

On top of that, you need to add the length of the sales cycle. An enquiry from January may only become a deal in the autumn.

Does a B2B company need a blog?

Not as a goal, but as a tool. Articles make sense when they answer the questions customers ask before buying and lead them to the service pages.

A blog written for the sake of regularity, with no link to demand, usually brings nothing in B2B.

How does SEO relate to B2B marketing?

SEO is one of the channels of B2B marketing, alongside sales, LinkedIn, events and direct outreach. It works best when it shares content and messaging with the other channels.

I cover B2B marketing more broadly on the B2B marketing specialist page.

How much does SEO cost for a B2B company?

It depends on the number of services and industries, the competition and how much content needs to be created. I go through indicative prices in the article SEO pricing.

In B2B, it pays to start with a demand analysis. It will show whether and where SEO makes sense for your industry.

What is B2B SEO

B2B SEO is the optimisation of the website of a company that sells to other companies. It focuses on the queries of the people who make buying decisions, on service and industry pages, on content for the whole buying process and on measurement based on enquiries and deals, not traffic.

Whether you are a client or an SEO specialist, feel free to create something like a maturity model. Look at which stage you are at in each pillar. Especially on larger projects, the marketing manager can then show this status to management and explain how certain steps can make sense and move everything forward. For example, in technical SEO, well-designed filtering that is fully indexable and covers hundreds of relevant keywords would help us significantly. On some projects you simply get on with it, but on others it remains a forgotten task somewhere. An SEO consultant also has to fight for their priorities and not let them die.

Patrik Pilous

Who B2B SEO is for

B2B SEO makes the most sense if your company sells services or products with a high order value and a longer sales cycle, and if your sales team relies on enquiries rather than on walk-in customers. Typical clients are firms in finance, investment, professional services, industry and software.

Company owners who want the website to bring in enquiries without depending only on personal contacts and referrals.
Marketing leaders who need a clear plan they can defend in front of management and sales.
International companies in the Czech Republic that want to be found by local decision-makers, not only through a translated version of their global website.

Common mistakes in B2B SEO

Most of the problems I see on B2B websites are not technical. They come from approaching SEO as if the company were selling to consumers.

Chasing broad keywords. General terms bring visits from students and competitors, not from buyers.
Writing without your experts. Copy that a generalist writer produces in an afternoon rarely convinces an engineer or a finance director.
Translating content from another market word for word. Buyers in each country use different terms and ask different questions.
Leaving sales out. Your salespeople know the objections and questions that the website should answer before the first call.
Judging results too early. Evaluating SEO after a few weeks, before the sales cycle has had time to play out, often leads to stopping work that would have paid off.

B2B SEO as part of your wider marketing

I do not treat SEO as an isolated task. Besides SEO, I also work as a B2B marketing consultant and fractional CMO, so I look at how the website fits with your positioning, sales materials, LinkedIn and events. The same case studies, arguments and answers to objections can then serve several channels at once.

For you, this means one person who understands both search and the commercial side of the business. You do not have to coordinate separate suppliers for SEO and strategy, and decisions about the website follow from what helps your sales team close deals.

Questions about B2B SEO and B2B marketing consulting

What does a B2B marketing consultant do?

A B2B marketing consultant helps you decide which customers to target, how to describe your offer and which channels to use to reach the people who make buying decisions. In my work, this includes positioning, the plan for individual channels and cooperation with sales. SEO is often one of the main parts, but it is not the only one.

Do I need a B2B SEO consultant or an agency?

It depends on how much work you need done and who in your company will manage it. As an independent consultant, I work with you directly and focus on strategy, priorities and the quality of the output. If you need a large volume of content or development, I can work alongside your internal team or other suppliers.

What do you need from my team for B2B SEO?

Mainly access to the people who know your customers, usually someone from sales and one or two experts. I need their input for service pages, case studies and answers to buyers’ questions. A short regular check-in is usually enough, so the work does not take up much of their time.

Can B2B SEO work for a company that sells in several countries?

Yes, but each market needs its own approach. Buyers in different countries use different terms, compare different competitors and trust different sources. I start by finding out how people in each market search for suppliers, and then adapt the pages rather than simply translating them.