How B2B Companies Should Think About SEO

When you’re watching the Grand Prix on TV, and your mind wanders to B2B SEO, is it time to worry?

Probably.

When the specific thought is whether blue chip accounting companies use SEO, should you worry more?

Definitely, but let’s go with it.

SEO for SME accounting firms is a total no-brainer. The competition is terrible, and terms are abundant.

See how it’s done well HERE.

But for large companies, the picture isn’t as straightforward. They’re only working with other huge businesses, so the pool of buyers is relatively small.

Let’s take a closer look at UK accounting powerhouse PwC. Last year, they turned over $45bn in its worldwide operations.

A quick look at the UK SEO efforts tells us SEO isn’t a focus

Traffic is high, but there isn’t growth.

All the top traffic-generating terms are branded. This is to be expected, PwC almost certainly doesn’t prioritise SEO. The interesting question is: should they? Five Reasons PwC Should Deploy Some Resources to SEO 

1. They have a very high DR, so any content they create will rank fast.
2. They have a high-quality in-house content team to manage or create content.
3. Buyers will use Google as a discovery channel (more on that below)
4. They have the financial resources to absolutely kill this.
5. ROI will be easy to measure.

The most challenging question is what terms to target. Many terms won’t be relevant for their ICP, and their buyers will be incredibly diverse.

• Every position in the C-Suite
• Tons of industries

The key to winning at SEO for them is the following:

1. 1. 1. Pick a specific service line.

   Let’s choose something that’s likely to grow.

1. Define the ICP. PwC probably have a pretty clear idea of who they are selling to here, I’d be guessing, but probably the CFOs of large companies.
2. Build a funnel. With the resources PwC has, I’d be looking at creating a high-quality weekly newsletter aimed at green tax issues—let’s call it Green Tax Global.
3. Ensure the website is driving traffic to the newsletter.
4. Pick some nice SEO terms that will drive traffic

A series of reports on different taxes will drive some relevant traffic.

But is it really worth it? The numbers are pretty low, and most of the traffic is probably students trying to get an assignment written.

True.

I’d still go ahead for these three reasons:

1. The content will be useful, and it can be distributed across other channels.
2. ICPs will use Google. Everyone thinks people in big companies don’t use search engines and social media—they do.
3. You only need to make one sale a year to pay these efforts back 20/30x or more.

So, if you are running marketing at a big company, consider SEO. Pick a niche and kill it in six months.