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B2B Keyword Strategy: How to Choose Your Most Valuable Keywords

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B2b Keyword Strategy Tn

Last Updated: January 2, 2024

B2B marketers often base their keyword strategy on the keywords with the highest search volume in their industry. However, this strategy ultimately fails because it overvalues traffic volume as opposed to ROI. A better approach is focusing on the nexus of keywords with the highest commercial value and keywords with the highest buying motivation. To succeed with this strategy, your team must spend time understanding the intent behind each keyword you choose to target.

But where to start? In this article, we share the results of 12 years of research into B2B keyword strategy. We’ve found that there are 9 categories that high-ROI keywords tend to fall into. In the chart below, we list these categories, rating each one based on a 100-point Commercial Value Score that is comprised of:

  • Transactionality: 65 points for keywords that indicate a readiness to buy, and therefore have a high likelihood of becoming an MQL after visiting your website
  • Motivation: 25 points for keywords that indicate the searcher has a significant problem to solve or a more time-sensitive situation
  • Engagement: 10 points for keywords that simply drive high visitor time on site

The Most Valuable B2B Keyword Types

Below is a breakdown of the most valuable B2B keyword categories, the companies that benefit most from targeting them, and that keyword’s Commercial Value Score.

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score (1-100)
Products/ServicesIncludes a clear transactional element such as “services”, “company” or
“solutions”
“wealth management services”All B2B companies except those in industries their customers don’t know exist95
SuperlativesIncludes a superlative like “top” or “best”“best webcam for business”Companies that offer products or services in saturated markets92
Problem/SolutionAddresses a pain point or issue that a potential client faces.“how to keep projects on track”Companies that offer very innovative products or services that don’t yet have a common industry name87
Cost/valueAsks if a product or service justifies its cost“is ppc worth it”Companies in low-trust industries, or industries with nonstandard pricing models84
Purchase-relatedRaises a question about the purchasing process for a specific type of service“where to buy heavy equipment”Companies in industries where there are significant barriers to conversion, e.g. the purchase process is complicated, or prices are highly variable80
Research/LearnIs primarily information-gathering; indicates that a searcher has little familiarity with the market“types of commercial insurance”Companies that offer complex products or services whose customers or clients don’t understand what they’re purchasing.77
Reviews or “Vs”Can be either a branded search of reviews for a specific company, or for the type of service they offer.“dropbox reviews” / “dropbox vs google drive”Companies that have high name recognition in their industry.72
ClarificationIndicates that a searcher isn’t sure if a specific product or type of product is the right for their application“does thermal paste help with overheating”Companies that offer products with a very wide range of use cases.68

B2B Keyword Types, Explained

In this section, we expound upon each keyword type listed above, breaking down the Commercial Value Score for each.

Products/Services Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Products/
Services
Includes a clear transactional element such as “services”, “company” or
“solutions”
“wealth management services”Any B2B company whose products or services fall neatly into a highly-searched category.95

These are our top rated keywords for a simple reason: they have both high search volume, and they indicate highly transactional intent which leads to excellent conversion rates. They should be the foundation of almost any B2B company’s keyword strategy, with a page for each variant of that search.

Because the searcher who types one of these keywords into Google is ready to commit to a purchase, these keywords should be targeted by landing pages rather than the blog articles or less conversion optimized content. Your goal when creating pages for these keywords is to provide the visitor with exactly much information as they need in order to make a decision.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 65
  • Motivation: 25
  • Engagement: 5
  • Total: 95

Superlative Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
SuperlativesIncludes a superlative like “top” or “best”“best webcam for business”Companies that offer products or services in saturated markets92

Someone who searches for a superlative keyword has already done some research and knows what category of products or services they’re looking for. The next stop on their journey is to determine which company or product to learn more about.

Because these visitors are still trying to figure out their best options and they will appreciate information that sorts through the details and provides the best options. Visitors will reward a company that answers their questions in a thoughtful, respectful and non-sales-focused manner.

There can be a lot of information to convey to these searchers so it’s important to think about graphs, tables and other visually appealing forms of communication.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 65
  • Motivation: 24
  • Engagement: 3
  • Total: 92

Problem/Solution Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Problem/SolutionAddresses a pain point or issue that a potential client faces.“how to keep projects on track”Companies that offer very innovative products or services that don’t yet have a common industry name87

Most often, people who use these search terms are near the beginning of their journey. They are in a different place than the researcher (below) because these searchers know they have a problem and know they need help, but they don’t necessarily know what that help is.

These visitors present you with a golden opportunity to go into detail with a blog post. Even more than with other keyword types, quickly grabbing their interest is extremely important, whether that be a table that shows potential root causes and their solutions, or an infographic that explains how different services will address the issue.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 59
  • Motivation: 22
  • Engagement: 6
  • Total: 87

Cost/Value Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Cost/valueAsks if a product or service justifies its cost“is ppc worth it”Companies in low-trust industries, or industries with nonstandard pricing models84

When a searcher uses words like “cost” or “price” or “value,” they are customers who have decided on a product or service. They just need a little extra push to make the purchase.

Cost is pretty clear cut — $5 or $5 million — while value is harder to convey. The good opportunity here is to create a white paper or case study to demonstrate for these searchers exactly what they are buying and how it can help them and their business. Testimonials from other clients can help here too: “If it works for X, it must be a good value.”

A sales-oriented product page might also work with these potential customers too; they’re likely to be more open to marketing language since they’ve made the decision to purchase, you just need to give them enough reasons to believe your company can provide value to fulfill their needs.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 58
  • Motivation: 22
  • Engagement: 4
  • Total: 84

Purchase-related Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Purchase-relatedRaises a question about the purchasing process for a specific type of service“where to buy heavy equipment”Companies in industries where there are significant barriers to conversion, e.g. the purchase process is complicated, or prices are highly variable80

When someone has narrowed their search down to price or location, they are ready to make a purchase. These are the people you want!

What differentiates these visitors from those above who use the “Cost/Value” search terms, is that here, price or location (possibly for convenience) are the most important considerations. If your product is not the cheapest, or if the visitors are not located near you and there is no viable mail-order process, these likely are not searchers you want to put too much effort into.

On the other hand, these searchers who have already committed to buying, they’re just looking for a place to spend their money.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 60
  • Motivation: 18
  • Engagement: 2
  • Total: 80

Research/Learn Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Research/LearnIs primarily information-gathering; indicates that a searcher has little familiarity with the market“types of commercial insurance”Companies that offer complex products or services whose customers or clients don’t understand what they’re purchasing.74

The searcher of this keyword, someone who is in the research or “learning” phase of their journey, is further away from making a purchasing decision. Rather than an immediate sale, this instead is an opportunity to establish your expertise and develop a level of trust that comes from thought-leadership rather than conversion-oriented content.

On pages that target these keywords, your goal is to demonstrate your unique expertise. For instance, consider publishing white papers using anonymized customer data to explain to readers how your product or service helps in the real world. When you provide these less transactional visitors with valuable information, they are more likely to remember your business and return when they are ready to make a purchase.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 54
  • Motivation: 10
  • Engagement: 10
  • Total: 74

Review/Versus Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
Reviews or “Vs”Can be either a branded search of reviews for a specific company, or for the type of service they offer.“dropbox reviews” / “dropbox vs google drive”Companies that have high name recognition in their industry.72

These keywords indicate that a searcher has a specific product in mind, but aren’t quite ready to commit. What they’re looking for are reviews of your specific services or products, or direct comparisons with your competitors.

While this initially seems like an excellent opportunity, their commercial value is limited by two things. First, the searchers are primarily looking for unbiased information and will be turned away by sales oriented language—though you can still build trust with them by presenting your products in an honest light. The second issue is that, as these are branded searches, the additional value you gain from targeting them is limited because the searcher is already considering your business specifically.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 58
  • Motivation: 11
  • Engagement: 3
  • Total: 72

Clarification Keywords

Keyword TypeDescriptionExampleBest ForCommercial Value Score
ClarificationIndicates that a searcher isn’t sure if a specific product or type of product is the right for their application“does thermal paste help with overheating”Companies that offer products with a very wide range of use cases.68

When someone types in a clarification search, it means they’ve done some initial research but need more information to know if a product will help them in their specific, often niche use case.

This is your chance to provide clear answers in describing the benefits of your product and even compare it to others on the market. Pages that target clarification keywords should show step-by-step instructions to demonstrate to readers how easy, or difficult, the solution is to reach. Video content and clear infographics are invaluable on these pages.

Commercial Value Score Breakdown:

  • Transactionality: 45
  • Motivation: 16
  • Engagement: 7
  • Total: 68

Implementing B2B Keyword Strategy

Once you understand which keywords to target, the next step is to plan the practical steps that you’ll take to implement your strategy. The best approach we’ve found is the Hub & Spoke model, which has gained significant popularity in the SEO sphere in recent years. Below, we go through the four steps of implementing Hub & Spoke SEO, using our own website as an example.

1) Define three or four broad keywords, for instance:

These are the hubs. They form the essence of your Web site content, each slightly different from the next, but similar enough to paint a unified picture of your products. The hub pages on your Web site offer high-level descriptions of your work or product and link out to other pages with more specificity.

2) Create longtail variants of those broad keywords. These are your spokes. Under our SEO Agency Hub, three of our spokes are:

It is essential to the SEO strategy that the spokes meet specific criteria, including

  • Contain the hub keywords, or very closely related keywords that Google will interpret as being a part of the same niche expertise as your hub
  • Have individually high search volume. A quick test is whether or not they autocomplete in the Google search box)
  • Have a chance of ranking within 2-3 years. This depends on the competition in your industry, and requires a great deal of SEO experience to determine accurately.

3) Assign a customer persona to each keyword. By developing a model of who your customers are, and how they find your products, you can develop better content that results in more conversion. Some examples of our personas are:

  • A CEO at a midsized company who seeks high-level consultation
  • A busy CMO at an enterprise charged with increasing the bottom line
  • A marketing manager who needs to know the nuts-and-bolts of a B2B service

4) Organize all of your keywords into an editorial calendar, along with its assigned person, and the most appropriate page type for that keyword. Only after all of the above should you start content production, and begin publishing thought leadership content that targets those keywords at least twice a week.

Getting Help with Your B2B Keyword Strategy

Given the long-term ramifications of getting your keyword strategy correct, most B2B companies hire an outside agency before taking the process in-house, primarily to gain knowledge. First Page Sage has been that resource for a wide variety of B2B companies, from startups to midsize companies and even enterprises such as Salesforce and Logitech.

If you would like to learn more about partnering with us to create and implement your keyword strategy, you can reach out to us here.

Evan Bailyn

Evan Bailyn is a best-selling author and award-winning speaker on the subjects of SEO and thought leadership. Contact Evan here.

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