It’s a dog-eat-dog world out there for B2B businesses! Success in your market space is all about standing out and wrestling the attention of prospective clients away from the competition. This is the heart of your marketing strategy and any experienced marketing agency will put this at the forefront of their plan.
However, there is a powerful way to become the top dog in the market. When potential clients go looking for your product or service, if you want them to find you and not your rivals, then you need to invest in some excellent SEO. Making Search Engine Optimization a key component of your marketing strategy is the most effective way to stay on top of competitors. Building, launching, and managing a successful SEO strategy requires a huge investment of time and resources. Most companies can’t handle that alone; that’s why B2B SEO agencies are ideal partners for meeting your marketing goals and reaching your business objectives.
Did you know that over 70% of B2B buyers start their product and service research online? Yet another reason you need to use all the best tricks of the trade to land on the first page of Google. Finding an expert B2B SEO agency will unlock the benefits of SEO across all facets of your online marketing strategy from leads to sales–and boost your revenue big time.
Here are some tips on how to make that happen.
What to Look For
First and foremost, you should have in mind some essential qualities that you want in a B2B SEO agency. The ideal SEO marketing agency is results-oriented. Although it can take several months to see tangible results sometimes, your B2B SEO agency should be constantly tweaking and improving its tactics based on data-driven analytics in order to maximize its SEO strategies. You should see results being generated for your online business in the form of regular updates and milestones with breakdowns of how they plan to get you there. Results should begin appearing in the form of more leads generated from SEO content, increased organic traffic driven to your website, and an increase in customers who buy into your B2B product or service.
Do business with a B2B SEO agency with a proven track record. If they can’t show you examples of previous clients for whom they’ve produced significant results, walk away. They should have many (recent) successful SEO campaigns to showcase to you for multiple clients.
Now that you know what you’re looking for, let’s explore how to find the right SEO agency for your business. You’ll need to start with a seed list.
Seed List Basics
Every search for a B2B SEO agency starts here. This is a list of agencies that are possible partners for your business. A seed list is an initial brainstorming starting point. Adding agencies to this list doesn’t mean you need to get a quote from them or interview them. You can create your own seed list from research or acquire already-existing pre-made lists from others in your industry. This can be as easy as typing “best B2B SEO agencies” in Google; the internet is full of resources.
Decide What’s Important to You
Making your own list is a better strategy. Since you’ll be gathering intel on agencies that meet your super-specific business needs, they are more likely to be better candidates than agencies from a third-party list found online.
Think about what matters most to you, and use those criteria to zero in on agencies. Do you want an SEO agency that’s geographically close? Is affordability a big factor? Are you looking for an agency that excels at technical SEO, niche SEO, small business SEO or local SEO? Use these customized keywords when launching your search. When you’ve come up with a seed list with 5-15 names on it, you’re ready to move on to the next step.
Creep Their Website
First, look them up. Any SEO agency worth its salt will rank first when you look up its brand name. If they don’t, you can safely take them off your list.
Take a walk through their website. Read testimonials (there should be a LOT of them) and read a few blog articles (if they don’t have a blog, move on). Their blog should have many recent up-to-date articles related to SEO trends and information. A well-maintained blog with relevant content shows that the agency is staying abreast of current trends and hot topics in the industry.
Take a peek at their About page. It should spell out their core values and give you a feel of the agency’s work environment and overall success. It should also show happy, engaged employees. Employees who love what they do and are happy at their job will work harder for you.
Make Contact
Whether you choose to make contact via email because you’re pressed for time, by phone for more interaction or in person, this meet-and-greet is crucial to deciding whether you want to do business with a B2B SEO agency. You should get a feel for how the agency operates; it will be a good indicator of what you can expect from them going forward. If the rep you deal with is pushy, sales-obsessed, long-winded, or rude, that speaks volumes about the company as a whole.
Ask Questions
While you may have industry-specific queries, there are 5 main questions that you should ask in your initial meeting with a B2B SEO agency:
- How will you improve my website’s rankings? What steps and strategies will you use? How long will that take?
- How will we stay in touch and communicate updates?
- How and when do you report changes in my SEO metrics?
- Do you use tools for your work? If so, which ones and what do they do?
- How do you stay up to date with algorithms and adapt to changes?
Armed with these tips and tricks, you are ready to boost your bottom line and stay ahead of the competition to make your B2B business thrive. Developing, launching and managing an effective SEO strategy requires skill, expertise and hard work. An experienced SEO agency with a great track record can help you scale and reach your business objectives, so long as you choose the right one for your business.
Are you a B2B business looking for an SEO agency that’ll work for you? Megan Killion Consulting is a team of experienced, professional experts who can meet your SEO marketing strategy needs. Contact us today and we’ll develop a unique SEO strategy for your business and make it fit your budget!