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10 Must-Have AI SEO Tools to Boost Your SEO Rankings in 2025
December 6, 2024
The role of an SEO strategy and B2B keyword research in a business’ growth is undeniable. In fact, 89% of B2B marketers use content marketing to achieve their lead generation goals. But breaking into any industry where established brands have a strong SERP presence and a large pool of resources can often seem like an uphill battle.
If you identify with this issue, we’re here to tell you it’s not as bad as it seems. Recently, people have been questioning the reliability of search results, as many websites focus on optimizing for search engines rather than providing genuinely helpful content.
Shifting focus from traditional metrics like keyword difficulty and competitor analysis can help you fill this void created by generic, run-of-the-mill content. In this blog, we'll explore how to do keyword research for B2B while gaining a deeper understanding of Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) and buyer intent for a profitable content strategy.
B2B keyword research identifies the specific words and phrases business buyers use to find products or solutions for their organizations.
While keyword research is highly beneficial, it only yields results when combined with acute business acumen and domain knowledge to deliver desired results. It's easy to get caught up in optimizing for search engines and neglecting the bigger picture. Instead of solely focusing on metrics like search volume, a successful content strategy combines keyword research with a deep understanding of your business and target audience.
For example, an IT services company might be inclined to create content around ML and AI tools due to their current popularity and elevated search volume. However, if the company also offers services like cybersecurity or cloud infrastructure, focusing solely on ML and AI in their content strategy could lead to missed opportunities. By understanding the specific needs and pain points of their target audience through keyword research, the IT company can create content on topics like "Best practices for cloud migration" or "Defending against emerging cybersecurity threats." These topics will be more relevant to their package of services that are in demand with their target audience.
Similarly, targeting all potential customers with a one-size-fits-all approach leaves money on the table from subgroups not directly targeted. By identifying specific use cases and addressing the unique needs of each segment, the company can create precisely relevant and engaging content.
For instance, a marketing automation platform serving both small businesses and enterprise clients might focus on:
The erosion of cookie-based targeting has made paid channels less efficient and increasingly expensive, leading to higher CAC (customer acquisition costs). Organic strategies like SEO and content marketing offer a cost-effective approach to reaching your target audience without burning a hole in your pocket.
Besides saving money, accurate keyword research is fundamental to building a strong brand presence. By consistently delivering valuable content aligned with relevant search terms, your brand becomes a reliable thought leader in your industry, fostering trust and loyalty among potential customers.
Additionally, keyword research is not a solitary process (only contributing to SEO efforts). It primarily helps identify key themes, pain points, and even uncover the vocabulary your customers are inclined to use. While the keywords itself may not be used for other channels, keyword research helps establish a strong base of marketing messaging. Such in-depth understanding of the customer allows you to tailor your marketing communication to your customers’ and leads’ precise preferences, regardless of the marketing channel.
Whether it is a tutorial video, a webinar, a social media post, or a Discord discussion, you can use SEO keyword research to generate ideas for other channels.
The B2B sales cycle is notoriously complex and time-consuming, making every step in the process critical to maximizing ROI. In the past, when digital marketing channels were less competitive, keyword research was a relatively straightforward process. Focusing on primary and long-tail keywords with low keyword difficulty was often sufficient.
We are all aware of Hubspot's astronomical success using this strategy. Currently, Hubspot is the biggest corporate blog. They published 128 blog posts in May 2024 alone! They have the liberty to target low-intent, loosely knit keywords and increase traffic on their website. They can afford to do it because of their size and resources. They can afford to feed their content machine, even if the traffic it generates does not impact the bottom line.
Unlike Hubspot, however, startups can't afford to waste resources on content that doesn't directly drive results. Every piece of content needs to contribute to revenue growth. Basing your keyword research on vanity metrics like search volume and keyword difficulty isn’t enough. To truly succeed, B2B marketers must align their keyword research with their target audience's needs and intent. Let's explore how to achieve this:
Understanding your target audience is the first step to building an effective keyword strategy. By clearly defining your ideal customer, you get a better understanding of the specific segment you are targeting in your market, what their pain points and needs are. This process helps cut through the marketing clutter that your audience is exposed to. This leads to more efficient resource allocation and sets up your marketing ecosystem for increased conversions. Here are the parameters to consider during audience research:
To create a comprehensive audience profile, consider segmenting your target market based on the following:
Identifying your target audience's pain points is crucial for understanding their search intent. What challenges are they facing? What problems are they trying to solve? By understanding their motivations, you can develop content that directly addresses their needs.
Focus on the outcomes your target audience desires. What tasks are they trying to achieve in their job role? How can your product or service help them accomplish their goals? Understanding their desired outcomes will help enrich your keyword selection.
Anticipating potential objections is essential for crafting persuasive content. What concerns might your target audience have while buying a product/solution like yours? By addressing these objections upfront, you can build trust and credibility.
Pro Tip: While it may seem counterintuitive, do not focus solely on ticket size or potential revenue when defining our target audience. Instead, analyze your existing customer base to find your most successful customer segments. These customers are more likely to become long-term clients, advocates, and generate higher revenue in the long run.
Consider a CRM software company targeting small businesses. They’ve published blog posts like '5 Tips for Improving Customer Retention in a SaaS Business.' This content might spark interest in a small business owner who is struggling with customer churn.
As the business grows, the entrepreneur looks for 'best CRM software for small businesses' or 'how to choose a CRM system.' If your company's website appears in these and similar search results over time, you've positioned yourself as a potential solution. When they’re ready to buy a software, your company is bound to cross their mind. So they’ll consider your solution when they’re ready to purchase and may even compare you to competitors.
Still confused? Here’s a breakdown of all the stages of the buyer’s journey and the intent signals to look for in each stage to evaluate the effectiveness of the buying funnel:
While it’s easier to understand the buying funnel as a linear phenomenon, the actual buying journey may end up looking something like this:
Often unpredictable and dizzying to many! Hubspot defined another way to understand the buying funnel, they compared it to a flywheel. Every flywheel has 3 areas: engagement, attraction and delight. While the traditional funnel shows a linear, simplified version of customer acquisition, it fails to put customers at the forefront, discounting their contributions to help your business grow.
Whether it is clothing, a bar of soap or B2B services you're looking for, you’re bound to ask around or look for genuine reviews online to make your decision. It's no brainer that customer advocacy should be given equal if not more importance than marketing. Flywheel expands the scope of your marketing team to customer advocacy. Which means, to realize the advantages of social proof and superfan customers, you should invest in multi-channel support, refine your onboarding process, create loyalty programs and try to maximize customer delight. Because your “funnel” does not end at acquisition and your “flywheel” is fuelled by customer delight. All in all, the success and growth of your customers can be equated to your growth.
Moving on- while understanding the general stages of the buyer's journey is essential, tailoring your keyword research strategy to your specific business goals is equally important. These business objectives include - but are not limited - generating awareness about your offerings or increasing number of MQLs through organic channels:
Pro Tip: Leverage performance marketing concepts like customer lifetime value (CLTV) and customer acquisition cost (CAC) to refine your understanding of the buyer's journey and optimize b2b keyword research accordingly.
Once you have a deep understanding of the groups and sub groups within your target audience, it's time to identify the core themes that will underpin your content strategy. These themes can be classified based on different buyer personas, different stages of the buying cycle or even different industries you wish to target. Here's how to go about it:
Determine the primary subjects that resonate with your target audience. These core topics should align with your business goals and address the pain points of your ideal customer.
Develop in-depth, authoritative content pieces that cover all facets of your chosen core topic. Google search rewards comprehensive content, as it demonstrates your expertise and establishes you as a trusted source. Interlinking different topics within your pillar content further enhances your website's authority.
Create more focused content pieces that delve into specific aspects of your core topic. These subtopics should provide additional context and enriched value to your audience and support your overall content strategy.
For example, Salesforce has created a comprehensive guide on “what is CRM?” which acts as a content pillar for various topics related to CRM. They have then linked different blog posts such as “benefits of CRM” “AI in CRM” etc from this pillar piece. These individual topics act as supporting subtopics and increase Salesforce’s authority on the topic - for the visitors and search engine algorithms.
Prioritize your content themes according to their potential impact on your business objectives. Consider the following:
Apart from conversion potential you can also look for commercial intent in your searches. Does the topic have strong potential for B2B lead generation through SEO or direct sales? “What is a sales cycle” is a top of the funnel topic and has less commercial intent compared to “salesforce vs SAP”
Begin by brainstorming core industry terms and thoroughly analyzing your website's existing content to generate keyword ideas for your business.
Here's a detailed breakdown of the process that highlights how to incorporate customer research into the process:
To truly understand your target audience and their needs, it's essential to explore deeper than surface-level data like search volume and keyword difficulty.
Develop a more holistic approach that leverages customer insights available within your organization. These sources might include customer interviews, data from organic campaigns in the past, or your website etc:
Competitor analysis is crucial to developing a profitable keyword strategy, but content managers must remember that it's just one piece of the puzzle. It's equally important to bring your unique perspective and insights to the table. Your competitor may have a different USP, target different audience segments, or even cater to different industries. By analyzing their approach, you gain insights and identify opportunities to differentiate your brand and capture a larger market share.
Begin competitor analysis by identifying your primary competitors in the industry. Once you've established a list, explore their SEO strategy and keyword usage. Use free SEO tools like Google Analytics and Bing Webmaster or paid tools like Moz, Semrush, and/or Ahrefs to uncover the specific keywords driving traffic to their website. Analyze their content to understand how they're incorporating these keywords and the overall tone and style they employ.
It's crucial to consider the search intent behind these keywords. Understanding why people are searching for these terms will help you create content that truly addresses their needs. Finally, compare your initial keyword list to your competitors' to identify gaps or opportunities. By focusing on underutilized keywords, you can position your content as a unique and valuable resource.
To effectively identify and prioritize keywords, leveraging dedicated SEO tools is essential. These platforms provide valuable insights into search trends, competition, and keyword performance. Take, for example, SEMrush’s Keyword rank checker which allows you to check your own google rankings compared to your competitors.
However, relying solely on tool-generated data can hurt your SEO strategy. For instance, a keyword with low search volume might hold significant value for your business. For example, a travel agency specializing in budget European trips might find that 'Budget trips to Spain' or 'Budget travel itinerary for Italy' have lower search volumes according to SEO tools, but these are high-intent keywords for their business
Combining tool-generated data with insights from customer pain points, competitor analysis, and industry trends creates a more comprehensive and effective keyword strategy.
1. Google Keyword Planner: It allows you to search volume data, keyword ideas, ad group ideas, and bid estimates. It does however limit the number of keyword ideas and search volume data.
2. SEMrush: Basic keyword research, competitive analysis, and site audits. Shows limited keywords (typically 4-6) with their respective search volume
3. Ahrefs: Basic keyword research, backlink checker, and site explorer. Shows very limited results for keyword searches (typically 4-5 results)
4. Spyfu: Basic keyword research, competitor analysis, and PPC data. Shows limited results containing keywords and their search volume. (typically limited to 2-3 keywords)
5. Moz Keyword Research Tool: Keyword difficulty, search volume and organic CTR. Limited to 3 keywords a day.
6. Ubersuggest: Shows keyword difficulty score, cost per click, and search volume. Limits information for historical search trends and number of keyword suggestions.
7. KeywordTool.io: Keyword suggestions, related keywords, and phrase match ideas. Does not display search volume, average CPC, or competition in the free plan.
8. Soovle: Keyword suggestions from multiple search engines. No information on search volume, difficulty, or any other metric.
9. Answer the Public: Keyword suggestions based on questions people ask. No limits on number of searches but only shows query related terms.
Almost all of these require you to purchase a paid plan after you reach their limits or they have restricted daily or monthly usage.
As mentioned above, it's essential to prioritize keywords based on their relevance to your target audience and their potential to drive conversions. Here are some ways to achieve this result:
By carefully planning your content, you can ensure that their publication timeline aligns with your overall business objectives and resonates with your target audience. A well-structured content calendar is essential for maintaining consistency and maximizing the impact of your content marketing efforts.
Overwhelming your audience with content can be counterproductive, while posting too infrequently may lead to missed opportunities. Determining the optimal posting frequency requires a balance between consistency and quality. Consider your target audience's consumption habits, industry standards, and your team’s available resources.
A variety of channels, such as blog posts, case studies, whitepapers, infographics, videos, and webinars, can help you reach a broader audience and cater to different preferences. You can also repurpose across formats to suit the channel. Consider your target audience's preferred content consumption habits when choosing your formats.
Regularly auditing your existing content is essential for identifying high-performing pieces and areas for improvement. Analyze metrics such as engagement, shares, and conversions to understand what resonates with your audience. Use this information to inform your future content creation and optimization efforts.
While having an in-house team may seem cost-effective initially, it can quickly become a drain on resources. Dedicated SEO expertise is often required for successful keyword research, and hiring and retaining skilled professionals can be challenging. Additionally, staying informed about the latest SEO trends and best practices so you don’t lose your rankings can be a demanding task and requires niche expertise.
There are several benefits of outsourcing your keyword research to a specialized B2B SEO agency. You gain access to a team of experienced SEO professionals without the overhead costs of hiring and training in-house staff. SEO agencies typically have access to advanced tools and software, providing deeper insights and more accurate data. By outsourcing, you can focus on core business operations while experts handle the complexities of keyword research.
TripleDart is a leading SEO agency with a proven track record. Our success with clients like Rezolve.ai is a testament to our expertise. Despite good initial traction, Rezolve struggled to convert website traffic into leads. After partnering with TripleDart, they revamped their content strategy, optimized existing pages, and improved the site's technical aspects. These efforts resulted in a 99% increase in organic traffic and a 136% increase in leads within six months.
Month on month increase in organic traffic
Month on month increase in leads generated
The initial cost of outsourcing keyword research may seem substantial. However, the long-term benefits often outweigh the initial investment. By avoiding costly mistakes, improving search engine rankings, and increasing organic traffic, you can generate a higher return on investment. Additionally, outsourcing can free up internal resources to focus on other critical business areas.
By carefully evaluating your team's capabilities and the complexity of your keyword research needs, you can make an informed decision about whether to handle the process in-house or outsource to an agency. Looking to boost organic conversions for your B2B website? Get in touch with us today!
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