Why B2B companies should ignore 90% of SEO advice

B2C tactics don't work when your total addressable market is 500 companies globally.

Yet open any SEO guide, attend any conference, watch any YouTube tutorial, and you'll get the same advice: create more content, target long-tail keywords, build more links, optimise for mobile. Brilliant advice if you're selling trainers to millions. Useless if you're selling enterprise software to 500 manufacturing companies with over £50M revenue.

The brutal truth? 90% of SEO advice is written for B2C companies with millions of potential customers, thousands of keywords, and simple buyer journeys. Following that advice as a B2B company isn't just ineffective—it's actively harmful.

You're not competing for eyeballs. You're competing for boardroom attention. You don't need traffic. You need the right traffic. You can't scale content infinitely. You need to make every piece count.

The fundamental differences everyone ignores

Search volume reality check

B2C keyword: "best running shoes"

• Monthly searches: 165,000
• Buyer intent: Individual consumer
• Decision timeline: Hours to days
• Average order value: £100

B2B keyword: "enterprise resource planning for discrete manufacturing"

• Monthly searches: 50
• Buyer intent: Buying committee of 5-7 people
• Decision timeline: 6-18 months
• Average contract value: £500,000

Your SEO agency sees that 50 monthly searches and recommends targeting higher-volume keywords. Idiotic. Those 50 searches represent 25 companies actively evaluating solutions worth £12.5M in total contract value.

The buyer journey complexity

B2C journey: See ad → Click → Read reviews → Buy Time: 20 minutes

B2B journey:

1. Problem identification (3 months)
2. Solution research (2 months)
3. Vendor longlisting (1 month)
4. RFP creation (1 month)
5. Vendor evaluation (2 months)
6. Proof of concept (2 months)
7. Contract negotiation (1 month)
8. Board approval (1 month)

Total: 13 months, 27 stakeholders, 97 touchpoints

B2C SEO advice says "optimise for the buyer journey." Which one? The CFO checking ROI models? The IT director evaluating integration? The end users worried about their jobs? The CEO wanting competitive advantage?

The account-based reality

B2C thinks in terms of personas. "Sarah, 32, yoga enthusiast, shops at Whole Foods."

B2B reality: You're targeting Johnson Controls, Siemens, and Honeywell. Not personas—actual companies with names, addresses, and specific challenges.

Your SEO strategy shouldn't target "manufacturing directors." It should target the Director of Manufacturing at Johnson Controls who just announced a digital transformation initiative in their Q3 earnings call.

The MOFU/BOFU focus for complex sales cycles

Forget top-of-funnel content. AI answers those questions now. "What is ERP?" "Benefits of digital transformation?" ChatGPT handles these queries. Your prospects never reach your website.

Focus on Middle-of-Funnel (MOFU) and Bottom-of-Funnel (BOFU) content that AI can't replicate:

MOFU content that actually works

Comparison content: "SAP vs Microsoft Dynamics 365 for discrete manufacturing"

• Search volume: 20/month
• Value: Enormous (active evaluation)
• Competition: Minimal (too specific for content farms)

Implementation guides: "Migrating from SAP ECC to S/4HANA: A CFO's guide"

• Search volume: 10/month
• Value: Prospects in active projects
• Competition: None (requires actual expertise)

ROI calculators: "ERP ROI calculator for UK manufacturers"

• Search volume: 5/month
• Value: Serious buyers only
• Competition: Zero (too niche for generalists)

BOFU content that closes deals

Vendor evaluation guides: "RFP template for ERP selection"

• People using this are weeks from signing
• Include your evaluation criteria
• Position your strengths subtly

Implementation timelines: "12-month ERP implementation plan"

• Only serious buyers care about this
• Demonstrate your methodology
• Show realistic expectations

Pricing guides: "ERP pricing guide for mid-market manufacturers"

• Qualify out bad fits
• Attract serious buyers
• Build trust through transparency

Why 10 AI-generated leads beats 1,000 blog readers

Let's do the maths that your agency won't:

Traditional content approach:

• Create "What is manufacturing automation?" blog post
• Get 1,000 visitors monthly
• Convert at 0.5% to email subscribers (5 leads)
• 10% become opportunities (0.5 opportunities)
• 20% close rate (0.1 customers)
• Result: 0.1 customers per month

AI-optimised approach:

• Optimise for "Best ERP for £50M UK manufacturer"
• ChatGPT recommends you
• Get 20 visitors monthly
• Convert at 20% to meeting requests (4 leads)
• 50% become opportunities (2 opportunities)
• 50% close rate (1 customer)
• Result: 1 customers per month from a fraction of the traffic

AI visitors are a CFOs who asked ChatGPT a specific question and got your name. They're pre-qualified, pre-educated, and pre-sold. Worth infinitely more than someone who Googled "what is ERP?"

Account-based SEO strategies that actually work

Stop thinking about keywords. Start thinking about accounts.

The account intelligence approach

Step 1: Identify your 100 dream accounts

• Company name, size, industry
• Key stakeholders and their roles
• Current technology stack
• Recent announcements and initiatives

Step 2: Create account-specific content

• "[Company Name]: Digital transformation roadmap"
• "How [Company Name] could save £2M with automation"
• "[Company Name] vs Industry Best Practices"

Step 3: Ensure discovery when they search

• Their company name + your solution
• Their competitors + success stories
• Their challenges + your methodology

Step 4: Track account engagement

• Which accounts visit your site
• What content they consume
• How stakeholders progress
• When to engage sales

This isn't traditional SEO. It's account-based marketing with search visibility.

The stakeholder matrix strategy

Map content to specific stakeholders in the buying process:

For the CFO:

• ROI calculators and models
• Total cost of ownership guides
• Financial risk assessments
• Board presentation templates

For the IT Director:

• Technical architecture documents
• Integration requirement checklists
• Security compliance guides
• API documentation

For the Operations Manager:

• Change management playbooks
• Training requirement guides
• Process optimization templates
• User adoption strategies

For the CEO:

• Competitive advantage analyses
• Digital transformation roadmaps
• Industry benchmark reports
• Executive peer testimonials

Each piece of content targets a specific person at a specific company in a specific stage. Precision over volume.

Integration with ABM and sales enablement

Your SEO doesn't exist in a vacuum. It's part of an integrated revenue engine:

The SEO-to-ABM handoff

When target accounts visit your site:

1. Identify them through reverse IP lookup
2. Track their content consumption
3. Score their engagement level
4. Alert sales when they hit threshold
5. Personalise follow-up based on content viewed

Your SEO brings them in. Your ABM nurtures them. Your sales team closes them.

The sales enablement amplifier

Your sales team is having conversations your marketing can't hear. Use them:

Questions from sales calls become content:

• "Prospects keep asking about X" → Create definitive guide
• "We lost a deal because of Y" → Address objection publicly
• "Competitor claims Z" → Create comparison content

Content becomes sales tools:

• Blog posts become email templates
• Guides become leave-behinds
• Calculators become discovery tools
• Case studies become proof points

The content serves both SEO and sales. Efficiency through integration.

The B2B SEO myths that waste your money

Myth 1: "You need to blog weekly"

Reality: One comprehensive, authoritative piece monthly beats daily fluff. Your 500 target accounts don't have time for your weekly musings about industry trends. They need deep, actionable insights when they're actively evaluating solutions.

Myth 2: "Target long-tail keywords"

Reality: In B2B, the long-tail often has zero volume. "Best ERP software" has volume but no intent. "ERP for discrete manufacturing with multi-site inventory management" has intent but no volume. Target intent, not keywords.

Myth 3: "Mobile-first is essential"

Reality: 73% of B2B research happens on desktop during work hours. Yes, optimise for mobile. No, don't prioritise it over desktop experience where complex research actually happens.

Myth 4: "More content is better"

Reality: Your target accounts will read 3-5 pieces of exceptional content. They won't read 100 pieces of average content. Depth beats breadth in B2B.

Myth 5: "Link building is crucial"

Reality: One mention in Industry Week beats 100 links from generic business blogs. Authority in your specific industry matters more than domain authority scores.

The content strategy for 500 global prospects

When your TAM is 500 companies, every piece of content must earn its existence:

The pyramid approach

Level 1: Foundation (5-10 pieces)

• Complete methodology guide
• Definitive implementation playbook
• Comprehensive vendor evaluation framework
• Total cost of ownership calculator
• ROI modelling template

Level 2: Differentiation (10-20 pieces)

• Industry-specific solutions
• Integration guides for common systems
• Comparison with main 2-3 competitors
• Regional compliance guides
• Size-based recommendations

Level 3: Acceleration (20-30 pieces)

• Customer success stories
• Failure analysis and lessons
• Future-proofing guides
• Change management resources
• Training and adoption tools

Total: 35-60 pieces of exceptional content. Not 1,000 pieces of SEO fodder.

The quality threshold

Every piece must pass the "C-suite test":

• Would a CEO find this valuable?
• Would a CFO bookmark this?
• Would an IT Director share this?
• Would a Board Member reference this?

If not, don't publish it.

Your B2B SEO reality check

Question 1: Are you creating content for search engines or buying committees?

Question 2: Are you tracking traffic or pipeline influence?

Question 3: Are you targeting keywords or accounts?

Question 4: Are you building links or industry authority?

Question 5: Are you scaling content or deepening expertise?

If you answered with the first option to any question, you're following B2C advice in a B2B world.

The 10% of SEO advice B2B companies should follow

From the mountain of SEO advice, here's what actually applies to B2B:

1. Technical excellence: Your site must be fast, secure, and crawlable
2. Search intent alignment: Match content to evaluation stage
3. Authority building: Become the cited source in your industry
4. Conversion optimisation: Every visit must count
5. Attribution tracking: Understand influence, not just last-click

That's it. Everything else is noise.

Your B2B SEO action plan

Week 1: Identify your 100 target accounts. Name names. Be specific.

Week 2: Map your content to the buying committee. Who needs what when?

Week 3: Audit existing content. What serves B2B buyers? What's B2C noise?

Week 4: Create your first account-specific piece. Target one dream client.

Month 2: Build MOFU/BOFU content. Ignore TOFU completely.

Month 3: Integrate with sales and ABM. SEO doesn't exist in isolation.

Month 6: Measure pipeline influence, not traffic.

The competitive advantage hiding in plain sight

Your B2C competitors are following generic SEO advice, creating content for keywords that don't convert, building links that don't matter, chasing traffic that doesn't buy.

Meanwhile, you can dominate the narrow but valuable spaces where real B2B buyers make real decisions worth real money.

Let them have their traffic. You'll take the revenue.

Ready to build B2B SEO that drives pipeline, not pageviews? Let's discuss your account-based strategy.