keyword research: A comprehensive guide //

Keyword research is a challenge for B2B companies, and there are many reasons why.

• There is a lack of search volume on their main topic.
• The search volume is concentrated in a small number of highly competitive keywords.
• The search volume is concentrated on top-funnel keywords that do not convert.

Even under the B2B umbrella, every niche and website is different.

After working with B2B companies to help them drive millions of visitors, along with real revenue, I developed a method for collecting a list for keyword targets that will drive real leads, pipelines, and revenue to any B2B site.

This article will guide you through all the steps, including three types that many B2B businesses ignore but you should.

Basics

In the first phase, you will need to create a list with possible keywords.

You can add as many keywords as you like, but not all of them will be considered as possible targets.

Some keywords will be evident. You’re likely familiar with the term “CPQ” if you sell software to help companies with quotes and pricing.

Adding buzzwords that you know your competitors use or that describe your product or service or that you think are obvious terms to add to your list is a good idea.

Questionnaire

We start every new project with B2B clients with a kickoff questionaire that asks them to share certain information.

• The biggest competitors to their product or services.
• Search results for their biggest competitors.
• Publications (online or offline) that prospects and customers can read.
• Attending conferences with their customers and prospects.
• Think leaders in their own space

If you are working within your own company, revisiting and reviewing these lists can provide a good starting point for keyword research.

Historical Data

You can find ideas by looking at the historical data of your site, or that of your client.

If you have an older website, it is worth looking at the specific queries and pages which have seen a decline in traffic.

The assets you have created may need to be refreshed or new content added.

Pain points

You can use pain points to show searchers what you are demonstrating.

• You can relate to their situation.
• You can find solutions.

You can find keywords in several ways:

Forums/message board

Let’s continue with our CPQ examples. I am trying to find topics for my CPQ Software site.

I’m interested in the issues that these users are facing and their questions.

Let’s first look at an extremely basic search in order to understand the “why” behind the process:

I searched for Reddit + my main topic. There are some threads that will be ripe for pain points.

This comment is on the first thread:

User forums for similar or competing products are another excellent place to look for keyword ideas and pain points.

The commenter in this thread mentions that he is looking at the “won’t-fix” issues as well as the “ideas list”.

You can browse through the threads of a competitor’s forum to find out what problems people are having, what features they would like to see.

These are areas that could make good keywords. We don’t have any information about the volume or competition, but you can add these to your list.

Customer interviews, testimonials and reviews can be used to mine customer feedback.

In the same way, analyzing data about customers and prospects can also be useful. Look at:

• Your own testimonials.
• Testimonials from competitors
• Your sales and customer service teams conducted interviews with customers.
• Speaking to representatives from sales and customer service.

You can start down many keyword paths.

Third-party reviews are another great resource. You can listen to real user reviews about your competitors’ products.

TrustRadius aggregates reviews for Salesforce CPQ.

You can filter reviews by best and worst to get an idea of the biggest problems customers face and what your competitors are most proud of.

You can get ideas for topics by browsing through different review sites. :

These aren’t necessarily the terms that we want to create content for, but you can add any topic to our list to be vetted.

Competitors

A common and effective method of keyword research is to use a tool such as Ahrefs or Semrush.

However, there are many different types of competitors.

Search results competitors

Search results can include sites that are not necessarily competitors in terms of product or services.

• You may face competition from publishing sites and Wikipedia for informational glossary terms.
• You may have to compete with other sites for comparisons, reviews, and best-of queries (such as TrustRadius) if you want to compare, review, or review.

Say we are trying to rank for an informational term that is broad, such as “market pricing.”

Here is a screenshot showing the search result with the Ahrefs Chrome Extension enabled to provide some additional information about the site ranking:

This is an excellent example of how “SERP competitors”, as opposed to product competitors, are different.

If we consider this term to be relevant and worthwhile, my fictional company that makes CPQ is competing with a publisher, a job board and a software company.

How do you get the keywords from these SERP competitors?

SERP competitor halo effects

It’s not enough to just enter “Indeed.com”, if you have a small, new site, and your product or prospect focus is limited.

The ideal competitor for me to use as a source of keywords is:

• Sites with many overlaps in terms of target audience, terms and topics.
• Sites with similar domain authority, and sites that link to mine.

Then, I can be sure that my site has a good chance of matching the site’s authority in terms both of domain authority and topic authority.

When I add a URL to the tool I use, I can then add terms to my list.

What I can do with a site as large as the one in the above example is to add filters like:

• Use the keyword filter to find terms such as CPQ, pricing or something more general.
• Difficulty: Again, this is an excellent indicator but does not necessarily mean your site will rank for the keyword in question.
• Depending on a search filter for “Lowest DR”. (And filtering my site’s DR, or slightly higher / lower).

Then you can start focusing on more relevant keywords that you will be more likely to rank for.

If you are unable to find any SERP competitors, then try searching for similar terms in the search results.

Let’s say that after researching the market, I discovered a SERP competitor who was also ranking for “price falls,” a phrase I wanted to target.

Once I’ve determined that this is a good term, I can go to the SERP and check out which sites are ranking.

Now that I know some new sites, I can explore them to get more keyword ideas.

Particularly if my domain authority is somewhere in the range of these sites and they’re covering similar topics (even if their core product/service/monetization isn’t the same as mine).

Competitors in product and service

It can also be useful to look at direct competitors in terms of product and services. Keep in mind some potential pitfalls.

• You may not want the same terms as your competitors, if they are more authoritative.
• Consider the terms your competitors are using to drive traffic, but also consider how you will convert that traffic.
• This may not be effective for your niche if your competitors don’t get much traffic from SEO outside of branded searches.

Note : The sites shown in the example are veryauthoritative in terms of quantity and quality of links, despite the Keyword difficulty for the term being a 2. This shows that keyword difficulty scores may not always be what they seem.

Industry Resources

Industry resources are another great way to collect B2B keyword suggestions.

Mining glossaries

It could be an industry standard glossary, or a glossary for a major competitor.

Salesforce CPQ has a glossary that includes terms relating to its products.

These terms are excellent candidates for adding to your list of possible keywords targets.

Agendas for conferences

The agendas of the conferences that your prospects attend can also help you to understand the hot topics and items that interest them that you can include in your keyword list.

Publication sites

Even if niche publications didn’t appear as “SERP rivals”, they are often good sources of keyword ideas.

You can use the same terms and pages to rank these sites and drive traffic. The sites should have the same topic and authority level.

Keyword opportunities that are often overlooked (and even controversial)

B2B businesses that operate in regulated industries are often very particular about the type of content they create and publish on their blogs.

Many B2B companies ignore certain types of content that are valuable.

Glossary of top funnel terms

Some B2B companies find that “What is X?” content can be too simple for their audiences.

This type of content is useful for a number of reasons:

• It is aimed at different audiences in an organization. The terminology used by a CPQ may be basic to the purchaser, but may not be familiar to other executives or employees in different departments. You can use this content to reach out to executives who are researching specific features.
• When they rank in the search results, these assets often generate “passive” links from authoritative and relevant sites. This helps lower-funnel page rank and generate traffic.
• These pages can also be used to indicate topical authority for Google. You can fill in various topics related to some of your best-converting keywords.

Mentioning competitors

For various reasons, many B2B websites are reluctant to mention their competitors. If you are willing to do so, you can open up new keyword opportunities later in the funnel.

One is the “best of” query. When a user is searching for “best X”, they often want a list.

You may have to name your competitors and give accurate information about them and/or your products/services.

You can still get the top search results for your valuable terms.

Also, the brand names of your competitors and their modifiers are often searched for with a high level of intent and a reasonable volume. Term like:

• Alternatives to Competitor name
• Competitor Name pricing
• Competitor Name vs. Your Brand vs. Another Competitor
• The list goes on.

You can build trust and relevant traffic by writing accurately about your competitors and yourself.

Note: Be aware of potential legal issues. You should run this type of content by your executives before you publish it.

Content plan and mapping terms to topics

You need to start by reducing the list and then put it into action.

Use your keyword tool to prioritize the terms based on difficulty of keywords and volume of searches.

It’s important to also:

• Search results
  
  SERP Analysis
  
  Make sure you are likely to rank.
  • What sites are similar to yours, in terms the types of sites, content and links you create?
  • You can use tools like Ahrefs or LowFruits.io to find keywords that are ranked lower in search results or have weak spots.
• Verify that the terms apply to your website and your audience
• You can also build authority by creating related content on the topic you choose.

This final step is crucial: You’ve essentially gotten a wide range of keyword ideas through the entire process.

Then, build topical clusters based on the most profitable and relevant terms.

Search terms can be found using a variety of tools, such as Ahrefs.io, LowFruits.io. Search Response. AlsoAsked.com, and Google.

The steps above will help you find B2B keywords.

Dig deep: How B2B content can be used to its best advantage (with five examples)

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