4 Steps to Map B2B Keywords to Landing Pages | B2B Marketing

If you’re going on a vacation, you will have a hard time doing so without a mode of transportation. If you’re looking to play a game of basketball, you need a hoop. Baseball? You will need a bat, ball, and glove. And, when it comes to online marketing, you will need quality landing pages to maximize the search engine visibility of your B2B keywords.

For the purpose of this post, we are going to assume a keyword set is already in the works or one has been established for your organization. For more information on building a keyword list from the ground up, give the following posts from my KoMarketing colleagues a read through:

• How to Generate New Keyword Lists and Ideas
• How to Prioritize Your List of SEO Keyword Research

Let’s take a look at four steps all online marketers should consider as they evaluate their B2B keywords and map them to high-performing landing pages.

Step 1: Run a Ranking Report

Once you have your keyword list built out and a final set is agreed upon with key stakeholders, it’s time to see where you stand. Here are a couple helpful tools to help run ranking reports so you don’t have to do so manually:

• Moz Rank Tracker
• SEMrush Position Tracking

Each of these tools allows you to download data at any given time, so you can sort and analyze as you wish. Remember, online tools can have occasional hiccups, so it’s important to check manually if something seems off.

Step 2: Assess Keyword Rankings and Existing Landing Pages

After you have downloaded your ranking report, take the time to analyze the results and the current landing pages ranking for each term. You will likely see main website landing pages appearing for the majority of your core terms, such as the homepage and products or services.

However, there is a good chance you will also see some pages that may not seem like the best fit for the targeted keyword or phrase (see next step for further details). If you are currently not ranking for a term, you should manually designate a landing page for it before moving on to the next steps in the process.

Step 3: Confirm Landing Page Quality

As mentioned in step 3, just because there is a landing page ranking for the keyword in question, does not necessarily mean it’s the best place to send users and search engines as they determine a match. For example, you may have written a blog post that happens to mention your keyword a number of times throughout, but may not offer any value to those searching for information on the term. These types of pages will likely pull in some traffic, but if nothing is done to improve the keyword’s standing, the quality of visitors coming through the page and their chance of converting will be very low.

In this step, you should look through each of the landing pages assigned to keywords and ensure they fit within the landscape of first page results. When evaluating the first page of SERPs, start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What types of pages are ranking most frequently (service pages, glossary pages, services, etc.)
• Where is the keyword located on the page?
• What is the format of the content on top pages (lists, definitions, general product information)?
• What information is presented in the body of the page content (benefits, examples, images, videos)?

From here, you will be able to better understand why your keyword target and its associated landing page are ranking behind the competition – and better yet, what can be done to give things a boost.

Step 4: Evaluate Opportunities for Updates and/or New Landing Pages

Now that you’ve made your way through your B2B keyword list and the associated landing pages, it’s time to take action. Begin by performing an analysis of the keywords on your list that are of the highest priority. If you try to tackle too many at once, you may spread yourself too thin and quality could suffer.

One by one, work your way down the list and with your findings from step three, start identifying areas of opportunity and how pages can be better built to match user and search engine needs. This may entail adding sections to existing pages or creating entirely new landing pages for the target term.

As you work through this process, remain patient. It will likely take a bit of time to get everything created and pushed through development before the real waiting game starts – which is waiting for search engines to determine the value and for users to start landing on it.

Remember, it can often take a couple of months before a quality landing page starts to improve its ranking and move its way onto the first page. Trust the work you have done and if performance is still lacking after a handful of months, it may be time to re-evaluate your efforts.

Final Thoughts

With the search landscape constantly evolving, it’s important to perform these steps on a fairly regular basis. With your B2B keyword set and its associated landing pages optimized for success, you will be able to reap the benefits of investing your time and budget in online marketing efforts.

Feel free to drop a comment below or connect with me on Twitter to keep this conversation going!