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When I decided to refresh this post, I considered a few different approaches. I first published it in 2023, and simply slapping on a ‘2025’ label with a few obligatory AI angles didn’t feel true to my current perspective on modern B2B SEO.
For that reason, I won’t start by defining what B2B SEO is or how it differs from B2C SEO—there are already plenty of resources on that if you need a refresher!
Instead, I’d like to share my personal outlook on B2B SEO strategy as we move into 2025, one that goes beyond a standard, AI-generated rundown.
If that’s what you’re looking for, read on…
First, let’s address the big question: Is SEO still worthwhile for B2B businesses in 2025?
With AI overviews appearing to ‘steal all our clicks’ and some experts declaring that SEO is dead, it’s reasonable to wonder if it’s worth making a substantial upfront investment for a return that might take a while.
Should marketers put their energy elsewhere?
If your customers use search, SEO can still be a wise decision. Historically, it has yielded one of the lowest customer acquisition costs (CAC) among marketing channels and delivers the best return in the long term.
However, the way we measure success in SEO has changed. Keyword rankings and raw organic traffic are no longer the primary benchmarks. With the SERP now featuring a plethora of information formats, from AI overviews, videos, and ‘People also ask’, even a top-ranking page may be buried beneath the fold.
As AI overviews increasingly syphon off organic visits, relying on traffic alone isn’t enough to gauge performance. Instead, we should focus on visibility—impressions on the SERP and appearances in AI-driven tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity.ai.
Shifting to this broader view of search visibility is essential for thriving in the new SERP paradigm.
Traditional search engine optimisation doesn’t fully capture what I now provide for B2B clients looking to attract online searchers.
B2B prospects today use AI-driven chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.ai to research their challenges at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Although the buyer’s journey itself hasn’t changed—people still need to gather information before making a purchase—the ways they search have evolved.
A 2024 Forrester survey highlighted the rapid adoption of generative AI among B2B buyers, with a clear majority now using AI throughout their purchasing process.
Buyers rely on these tools not only for discovery but also for evaluation and justification, leading to more informed, efficient decisions. As a result, B2B providers are seeing shifts in website traffic patterns and lead generation.
To keep pace with these developments, any modern B2B SEO strategy must adapt, rethinking tactics, content, and the overall customer experience.
Modern B2B SEO must address three major challenges:
Relying on outdated strategies—like creating top-of-funnel, high-volume content with low commercial impact—no longer works. After all, why click through to a 5,000-word article if AI can provide the key information right in the search results?
Instead, B2B SEO should focus on improving visibility across evolving search platforms, in addition to the traditional SERP.
Here are some B2B SEO tactics that I pick from as part of a well-rounded strategy for clients.
Too often, SEO strategies are built entirely on keyword research tools and competitor analysis. While these have their place, they miss the most crucial source of insight: your actual customers.
In my years working with B2B companies, I’ve found that a 30-minute conversation with a customer can provide more actionable SEO direction than a week spent in keyword research tools.
Why? You can learn what customers search for, why, what frustrates them about the solutions they find, and what language they prefer.
Before launching into any SEO campaign, I schedule at least 2-3 customer interviews. If you’re thinking we don’t have time for that, I’d argue you don’t have time not to do it.
These conversations reveal the actual terminology your buyers use—which often differs significantly from your internal company language.
If customer interviews aren’t possible, your next best option is to speak with your customer-facing teams. Sales reps, support specialists, and account managers interact with prospects and customers daily and have absorbed their language patterns, pain points, and buying motivations.
When conducting these interviews, focus on questions like:
The insights gained from these conversations should form the foundation of your entire SEO strategy.
They reveal the genuine business challenges your potential customers face—challenges that SEO can help your business solve by connecting searchers with your solutions at precisely the right moment.
Now that you’ve gathered customer insights, your keyword research takes on a whole new dimension.
Trust me, interviews change everything!
I remember working with a B2B software client who had spent months chasing high-volume keywords, only to see minimal conversions. When we actually spoke to their customers, we discovered they were using entirely different terminology to search for solutions.
That’s precisely why customer conversations need to come first.
Google Search Console’s ‘Search Results Report’ provides invaluable insights. I’m consistently struck by how many companies overlook the obvious—actual search queries that are already driving traffic to your website—while fixating on potential keyword opportunities.
GSC Search Terms Report
This isn’t just another keyword tool; it’s real data specific to your business.
Be careful with competitor keyword research, though. Too many marketing teams have made the mistake of assuming that just because Company X is ranking for a term, they should also target it.
However, in reality, their domain authority, content resources, and market positioning might be entirely different from yours. If a startup with a new domain attempts to compete directly with an industry leader for the same keywords, they are unlikely to succeed.
In today’s AI-dominated search world, I’m finding the traditional keyword approach needs flipping on its head.
Instead of starting with those high-volume, top-of-funnel informational keywords (which, let’s be honest, AI is increasingly answering directly in search results), I’m advising my clients to prioritise middle and bottom-funnel keywords that signal genuine buying intent:
Despite having a lower search volume, these terms are highly valuable. A prospect searching for enterprise CRM implementation best practices is much closer to a purchase decision than someone looking up what is a CRM, and they’re more likely to click through rather than being satisfied with an AI overview.
I saw such an approach play out recently with a client in the HR tech space. We shifted their content strategy away from basic informational content toward comparison and implementation topics.
Traffic declined by about 15%, but qualified leads increased by over 40%.
That’s the kind of trade-off I’ll take any day!
The SEO metrics we were obsessed with over a decade ago no longer provide a complete picture.
I was recently reviewing results with a client who was discouraged by flat organic traffic, until we dug deeper and discovered their organic conversions had nearly doubled. They were getting fewer clicks, but the right clicks.
This perfectly illustrates why our measurement approach needs to evolve.
Organic traffic has been the key metric by which to measure SEO performance for years. Now that we have AI overviews and AI chatbots competing with traditional search, people are increasingly likely to get the answers they seek without having to click through to a website.
How useful is traffic as a key metric in 2025?
Here’s what’s fascinating about today’s search landscape: impressions, which many of us once dismissed as a vanity metric, have become genuinely important. When an AI overview pulls information from your site but doesn’t generate traffic, that visibility still builds brand recognition and authority.
For my B2B clients in 2025, I’ve shifted focus to tracking these key indicators:
Rankings and traffic still have their place, but they’re secondary indicators now. I’ve seen pages that rank #1 but sit below AI summaries, video carousels, and paid search ads — getting far fewer clicks than their position would suggest.
Questions often arise about the timeframe required to assess the effectiveness of a strategy. The answer depends on the specific KPI being evaluated. For example, ranking improvements for long-tail terms might show progress within a few weeks, whereas increases in brand search activity typically take several months to reveal meaningful patterns.
Establishing realistic timelines for different metrics is essential for keeping expectations aligned with reality.
Even though search trends continue to evolve, great content remains essential—but what qualifies as great content has changed significantly.
Many B2B companies haven’t anticipated this shift. They’re producing more content than ever, yet the results are falling short because they’re still following old strategies.
Today’s most effective B2B content goes beyond merely promoting the solution—it educates prospects deeply on the product and its use cases. When companies move away from a product-centric approach and instead focus on addressing the broader business challenges their buyers face, engagement tends to soar. Buyers today crave insightful educational content, not a sales pitch.
Google’s focus on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (EEAT) reflects this shift—it’s a clear indicator that content rooted in real expertise is what truly makes an impact. The era of relying on generalist writers churning out keyword-laden articles is behind us. Instead, content enriched with genuine insights consistently outperforms technically perfect but generic pieces.
When it comes to AI-generated content, there’s a smart way to integrate it into your process. AI is an excellent tool for brainstorming, overcoming the writer’s block, summarising research, and outlining ideas. However, it shouldn’t be the sole driver of your content strategy. The final output must be infused with human insights—drawn from your team’s firsthand experiences, customer interactions, and professional expertise.
The top B2B brands of 2025 are those that combine:
Some of the most successful content pieces communicate a unique perspective that can’t be found anywhere else. Having a unique perspective implies subject matter expertise on a topic and is something that AI tools can’t replicate.
Before creating any content, ask yourself, “What decision is this piece helping our prospect make?” “What unique value can we offer that they won’t get from a generic AI response?” If you are unable to provide clear answers to these questions, you may be wasting your efforts.
The most successful strategies aren’t about covering every topic—they’re about mastering a select few. By focusing on 3-5 areas where your company truly excels, you can dominate those conversations rather than offering a superficial presence on many fronts.
It’s far better to think of link building today as relationship building. Some of the most valuable backlinks come from genuine industry connections—partnerships with complementary businesses, speaking at events where your target audience gathers, or contributing real expertise to industry publications.
These links don’t just pass algorithmic value—they put your brand in front of actual potential customers.
Start asking a simple question before pursuing any link opportunity: “Would this link be valuable even if Google didn’t exist?” If the answer is no, it’s probably not worth the effort.
One of my favourite success stories came from a cybersecurity client. Instead of chasing random backlinks, they created an industry report with original data. The first year was slow going, but by year three, they were getting dozens of natural backlinks from industry publications.
Think about your link building as brand building. When you’re featured on a podcast your customers actually listen to, quoted in publications they read, or partnered with companies they respect, you’re building both algorithmic authority and brand credibility simultaneously.
Is this approach slower than buying links or using aggressive outreach tactics? Absolutely. But it’s sustainable, penalty-proof, and delivers compounding returns over time.
It’s heartbreaking to see companies invest six figures in content creation only to generate minimal organic traffic. Often, the culprit is painfully simple—sites taking 15+ seconds to load on mobile or indexation issues preventing Google from accessing their best content.
The most common technical issues with B2B sites can be divided into several categories.
You don’t need to resolve every single issue that technical SEO tools flag. Use a simple impact/effort matrix. High-impact, low-effort fixes come first. Is there a minor validation error in your footer HTML that is only visible in Internet Explorer? Maybe let that one slide.
Technical SEO Impact/Effort Matrix
For most B2B companies, a quarterly technical check-up is sufficient, unless you’re making major site changes or seeing unexpected performance drops. Focus on the fundamentals that actually impact user experience and crawlability, and you’ll be ahead of most of your competitors.
When reviewing technical SEO for B2B sites, these are the non-negotiables:
Getting these fundamentals right creates the solid foundation necessary for content strategy to reach its full potential. Without them, you’re essentially building a house on sand.
Schema markup essentially helps search engines and AI tools understand your content more clearly. Instead of leaving them to interpret your content, you’re providing clear information about what everything means.
Certain schema markups significantly impact B2B transactions.
Organization schema is your baseline and is non-negotiable if you want search engines to recognise who you are and build your brand’s entity profile.
Then there’s the FAQPage schema. I’ve seen it work wonders by making your detailed FAQs show up in AI overviews, boosting your brand’s presence even if no one clicks through.
Don’t ignore the HowTo schema—it serves as an effective tool for implementing and onboarding content. In just a few weeks, your installation guides can start appearing in featured snippets and AI overviews, making your valuable content hard to miss.
Don’t get overwhelmed thinking you need to implement everything at once. Start with the basics, then expand based on your content types. Each addition increases your chances of being referenced by search AI.
In numerous SEO audits I’ve conducted for B2B companies, internal linking consistently emerges as the most overlooked opportunity. It is an existing asset that organisations already possess but frequently fail to use effectively.
Case studies reveal instances where companies with excellent content experience poor organic performance due to structural issues. Analysis of site architecture often shows blog posts existing in isolation without contextual links to related content or connections to product pages.
When strategic internal links are implemented, organisations can see significant organic traffic increases in a short timeframe without creating new content or acquiring additional backlinks.
Here are the reasons internal linking matters significantly for B2B sites.
Internal linking structure creates a map of a website. When properly executed, it helps both visitors and search engines understand the relationships between different content pieces and establishes a clear information hierarchy.
Organisations should ensure their most important commercial pages are linked directly from the homepage using keyword rich anchor text.
This represents the most commonly recognised SEO benefit—internal links pass authority between pages, helping distribute SEO equity across the site.
A common mistake among B2B companies involves focusing exclusively on linking high-authority pages to low-authority ones without recognising that strategic linking between related content helps establish topical authority for entire site sections.
The commercial impact of effective internal linking extends beyond SEO benefits. By directing visitors towards related content, organisations keep audiences engaged with their brands longer and move them further along the buying journey.
Prospects who read multiple articles on a site are more likely to convert than those who read only one—provided those connections are made obvious and compelling.
Research indicates that contextual links within the body content of articles perform better than generic “related posts” widgets because they provide immediate relevance and naturally guide the reader’s journey through the content.
In the new AI search paradigm, organic traffic falling is no longer a definitive indication that SEO is failing. Traditional SEO metrics no longer provide a comprehensive view.
Instead of leaning solely on Google Analytics, we need to adopt a broader tool set that truly reflects your search presence. By combining data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, SERP feature monitors and brand mention tools, you can begin to see patterns that no single source reveals on its own.
For example, you might observe that a boost in a SERP feature correlates with an uptick in direct visits—evidence that your brand is resonating even if clicks aren’t immediate.
The real breakthrough happens when you tie these insights directly to business outcomes. Rather than simply stating that your site ranks for a key term, demonstrate how enhanced organic visibility translates into more qualified leads and increased revenue. This often means working closely with your sales team to understand which leads are converting into opportunities.
Reporting needs to be regular and context-rich. A weekly review might focus on technical issues and sudden ranking shifts, while a monthly or quarterly look at broader trends ensures necessary actions can be taken in a timely manner.
Ultimately, the significance of numbers becomes evident only when they are accompanied by a clear context and recommendations for future actions.
Having spent over ten years in SEO, I’ve seen many changes unfold. However, nothing has reshaped the industry quite like AI’s impact on search. These days, it’s not just about achieving the top spot on Google; it’s about ensuring your brand is prominently displayed wherever your potential customers are searching.
This isn’t the end of SEO as we knew it, but rather a call to evolve our approach. The focus has shifted from chasing keyword rankings and traffic to maximising overall search visibility.
In other words, it’s less about “search engine optimisation” and more about “search optimisation”—ensuring that your content is seen across various platforms, whether that’s through traditional search engines or AI-powered chatbots.
The companies that thrive in this new landscape are those that understand their customers deeply and create content that truly addresses their needs. They invest in technical excellence to guarantee that their sites remain accessible and user-friendly, and they build a trusted brand that stands out amid the noise.
Yes, this approach requires more thoughtful strategy than the old playbook of simply cranking out content for rankings. However, when you concentrate on providing genuine value and becoming a dependable guide for prospects during their decision-making process, the long-term benefits are evident.
If you’re prepared to shift your focus from traditional rankings to creating a presence that stands out, I’d be delighted to discuss how these strategies can benefit your business.
Just reach out, and we can set up a consultation.
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