The State of SEO for B2B in 2025

Businesses invest in optimizing their websites for Organic Search visibility because no other channel can drive sustained ROI at such a high level.

Why? Because the internet (more specifically, Google Search) is where people go to find what they’re looking for, and this applies just as much to marketing directors at B2B outfits as it does to the everyday consumer.

Still, the peculiarities of the B2B model warrant a tailored approach to Organic Search optimization.

So, what do you need to know about SEO for B2B to truly make your brand stand out from the competition? How should you alter the standard Organic Search optimization tactics and best practices to drive visibility, conversions, and revenue for your B2B business?

Here’s everything you need to know about the state of B2B SEO in 2025.

Although many of the Organic Search optimization fundamentals remain the same, successful B2B SEO campaigns differ from B2C campaigns in a few ways:

Let’s take a look at each of these and how they inform a winning B2B marketing strategy.

Typically, the keywords in a B2B campaign will look quite different from the keywords in a B2C campaign.

First off, it’s important to understand that regardless of business model, few businesses can achieve the ROI required to scale by targeting short-tail keywords.

Yes, these very general keywords tend to have the highest search volumes, but the level of competition is so high that it’s all but impossible to achieve high rankings within a reasonable timeframe.

For B2B and B2C alike, the best keywords are often long-tail keywords targeting a specific search intent.

In B2B, however, there’s a good chance that the keywords most valuable to your business have vanishingly small search volumes. This varies by industry, of course.

Here, it pays to think of keyword search volume as market share. A particular long-tail keyword may not have as much search volume as its short-tail cousin, but it holds more value since it’s highly targeted toward your ideal client profile. If you can rank well for these keywords and maintain your position, you stand to see significant growth.

When it comes to the search intent behind each keyword, informational keywords are especially valuable in the B2B space.

Think of it this way: If searchers visit your site for information, why wouldn’t they come to you for your service offerings in the future? This is just one of many reasons why a well-executed content marketing strategy can drive real revenue results.

Conversion rates are another notable differentiator between B2B and B2C Organic Search campaigns.

While a solid conversion rate for B2C brands would be 2.5 to 3%, B2B sites tend to see lower conversion rates (again, this varies by industry).

Of course, this is offset by the much higher AOV on B2B sites. The desired conversion events are often different, too, typically targeting qualified leads through form submissions instead of direct sales.

It all boils down to the fact that B2B digital marketing is about building and nurturing relationships, while B2C is about generating direct sales.

B2B sites see less traffic, fewer conversion events, and longer timelines. But these differences come with the territory, so to speak; in no way do they inhibit a brand’s ability to achieve its desired results.

In B2B Organic Search campaigns, you’re targeting decision-makers trying to solve hyperspecific problems arising from the state of the industry or the business model behind their brands. This is different from the online shoppers B2C brands target.

In many cases, your users aren’t the sole holders of the purse strings. Often, they must seek approval to spend money on your products or services. That means you can’t just convince them to buy, but you must also turn them into an advocate who will make your case to people in the C-suite.

Achieving that goal requires effort and execution, which leads us to the next element that makes SEO for B2B unique: the complexity of your sales funnels.

The B2B consideration process is much longer and more involved than in the B2C environment.

As they explore their options, your ideal clients will be looking for the perfect fit, which means they’ll have more objections and take far longer to decide.

Whether it’s in your product/service descriptions, blog posts, or thought leadership content on social platforms, your brand should seize every opportunity to extoll your value propositions and overcome your potential clients’ objections before they even arise.

You can also expect greater gaps between engagements as your potential client’s internal stakeholders research and confer during the decision-making process. You might go weeks or even full quarters before hearing anything from a prospect.

They may even decide your offerings aren’t a good fit at the moment, but that doesn’t mean they won’t be back after the next earnings call, leadership change, or strategy pivot.

Now that we understand what makes B2B SEO unique, here’s what you’ll need to succeed in 2025.

As discussed earlier, it’s crucial to select the right keywords.

Your targeted keywords should:

It also pays to conduct a robust competitor analysis. The data you glean here will help you maximize the ROI of your Organic Search efforts.

For instance, identifying keyword gaps (keywords your competitors aren’t trying to rank for) can give your brand a shorter path to Organic Search visibility.

Similarly, regular keyword research will allow you to seize emerging opportunities and meet the needs of your potential customers before your competitors.

B2B brands simply can’t compete online without industry-leading thought leadership content.

It’s typically the most effective vehicle for attracting new traffic, and by consistently posting new content with unique, leading-edge insights, you can keep those users coming back to your site, ensuring your brand stays top of mind during the consideration process.

Ideally, your brand's content should be written by legitimate industry experts, speak to a target persona, and demonstrate Google’s E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.

Consistently publishing informed, high-quality, user-oriented content requires a fair amount of bandwidth, so it’s vital that all of your content is designed to achieve specific goals. Publishing content for its own sake won’t drive results.

Outline each piece of content to answer the questions that users in your target audience ask when they search.

Then, optimize your content to appear in Google’s rich results and AI Overviews, and thoughtfully include each piece in your site’s internal linking structure to enhance your funnels.

Your backlink profile is your brand’s reputation in the eyes of search engines. A healthy, natural backlink profile shows Google that you are, in fact, a valued part of the web ecosystem, which is an important factor used to rank Search results.

Link building efforts are crucial, and your content should be at the heart of this work.

Don’t just settle for publishing blog posts. Conduct outreach to industry publications and ask them to republish your articles in their entirety or at least link back to them to support claims made in their content.

Use publicly available tools to monitor your backlink profile. If you notice a high proportion of toxic backlinks, you may need to take action.

But make disavowing those links your last resort, and only do so if you receive a manual action from Google or you notice sudden, dramatic declines in traffic and rankings. There’s always a risk with disavowing links, so it’s not something to undertake lightly.

No brand can expect to drive growth without an optimized website. However, no matter how well you optimize your landing pages and content, they can be only so valuable on their own.

To see real results, all of your content and pages need to work together, with a focus on pushing prospective customers through your funnel and achieving your business objectives.

That means reaching the right users at the right moments with answers to their questions and unique insights they didn’t know they needed.

A thoughtful internal linking structure is vital to helping users find what they need quickly, which keeps funnel friction to a minimum and encourages them to keep coming back to your site. This includes clean, clear header and footer navigation menus.

For lead generation, keep your forms clean and simple. The more time and effort required to fill them out, the lower your conversion rate.

That leads us to our final point, which has several targeted and holistic benefits, including keeping your funnels greased.

If your site performs poorly from a technical standpoint, it will struggle to rank well in Organic Search results and show users your brand doesn’t care about providing them with a quality UX.

This begs a common question: If this brand’s site is no good, why should I expect their products/services to be worth the expense? This is especially true for SaaS and tech brands, where customers are dependent on your app or software.

First and foremost, it’s wise to perform a site audit to identify deficiencies. Once you’ve collected all the issues across your site, prioritize resolutions based on severity, scale, and required lift.

For individual pages, use Google tools like Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, and Search Console. Start with your revenue-driving pages and do what you can to maximize your Core Web Vitals scores.

When building new pages, be judicious in your use of JavaScript and pop-ups.

Keep your URL structure clean, ensure your robots.txt file is set up correctly, and use Google Search Console to upload a current site map.

Avoid duplicate page titles, meta descriptions, and on-page content.

In addition, pursue accessibility optimizations to ensure everyone, regardless of ability, can enjoy a premium experience when they visit your site. This includes using proper heading tag hierarchy, alt text for every image on your site, properly sizing touch targets, and more.

As you’ve just read, there’s a lot that goes into a B2B campaign. It’s easy to simply go through the motions, but to drive real results, you need expert insight and implementation. That’s why leading B2B brands trust VELOX to build the online visibility they need to scale.

As a Google Partner, VELOX is ranked among the top 3% of digital marketing agencies globally. We’re ROI-focused, devising and executing fully customized campaigns to help our clients build more profitable businesses.

See what sustained search dominance can do for your B2B brand. Contact VELOX today for your free marketing plan.