Image: Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
We’ll talk about B2B SEO, but first – let me share a story.
I still remember the quiet pride I felt after hitting publish on a blog post titled, ‘What is a CNC machine?’
I spent a long time polishing it up. I squeezed my target keyword into the SEO title, headings and meta description. I even sprinkled in a few internal links for good measure.
There was just one problem: the client sold CNC machines to actual engineers and procurement teams who already knew exactly what a CNC machine was.
Our target readers weren’t amateurs or CNC hobbyists. They were procurement managers, production engineers and technical directors looking to understand which CNC setup made the most sense for their production line.
I didn’t know it at the time, but my blog post missed the mark. Completely.
It ranked for a few weeks, got a couple clicks and converted no one. And honestly? It didn’t deserve to.
That’s the trap far too many B2B companies fall into — beginner-level content that fails to connect with the knowledgeable readers making real buying decisions.
Over the last five years working with B2B manufacturers and SaaS companies, I’ve spent a lot of time learning from that mistake.
What I’ve learned can be summed up in one sentence: the best-performing SEO content doesn’t start with a keyword — it starts with expertise.
In this article, I’ll share the system I now use to create SEO content that does what it’s supposed to: rank, resonate, and convert.
You’ll learn:
- Why the typical B2B SEO process falls flat
- How to integrate expertise into your content by interviewing subject matter experts
- How to pair search data with subject matter expertise
Let’s get into it.
Why the typical B2B SEO process falls flat
A lot of B2B content reads like it was written by someone who Googled the topic 30 minutes before they opened Word. And often, that’s exactly what happened.
This isn’t solely the content writer’s fault. The real problem is the system — and how most B2B teams approach SEO content in the first place.
So, let’s look at that system. Here’s what usually goes wrong.
1. When content writers are cut off from the real experts: a broken workflow
Content writers are expected to write authoritatively about complex products or services — often without ever speaking to the people who build them, demo them, or fix the fallout when something goes wrong.
Instead, they’re handed a keyword, a competitor link, and maybe a product brochure written in marketing-speak. From that, they’re supposed to reverse-engineer trust.
And what comes out? Content that stays vague to avoid being wrong. It hedges. It repeats what’s already ranking. It fills space — but it doesn’t move anyone closer to a decision.
2. When search traffic hijacks the keyword strategy
When doing keyword research, a lot of B2B teams prioritise search volume over relevancy.
If a keyword gets tons of traffic and a lot of competitors rank for it , it goes in the brief.
From my experience — both agency-side and as a freelance SEO consultant — this is where keyword research often goes sideways:
No one pauses to ask if the keyword actually fits the product, the buyer, or the stage of the funnel they’re targeting.
No one questions whether the people searching for the keywords are serious buyers, or just casually browsing.
One reason why most keyword strategies are designed to chase traffic, not relevancy might be because high search volume looks good on client reports. It’s much easier to prove success with a graph trending upward than it is to argue for precision, pain points, or quality of lead.
Content writers are told to chase the keywords that look good on paper. Even if the leads are junk, traffic has poor conversion, and the prodct doesn’t solve the problem behind the keyword.
And in B2B that’s a big problem, because the sales cycle isn’t short. It’s long, complex, and consultative, often with lengthy procurement processes and internal buy-ins..
A good way to gut-check whether a keyword is worth going after is to start with search intent.
Pull up the search results.What type of content is ranking? Are you seeing beginner guides, product roundups or enterprise landing pages?
And more importantly – who are they written for? A decision-maker? A DIY researcher?
I’ve pieced together a guide to writing SEO-friendly content that digs deeper into the topic of search intent.
3. When your brand positioning is vague
Expertise, keyword strategy and search intent matter — but if you want content that lands with B2B buyers, you need strong positioning behind it too.
Your potential B2B buyer is researching six-figure investments, compliance-sensitive software, and tools that affect their production output.
They want clarity, real insights, a sharp comparison, or a reason to believe you’re the better choice. Absent that, they’ll bounce.
The problem is that most companies confuse features with positioning. They’ll say, “Our platform offers real-time dashboards.” But what does that mean for your buyer? Does it help them make faster decisions? Cut production downtime? Pass audits without scrambling?
Positioning isn’t just what you do — it’s how you do it differently. It’s why your product exists, what hole in the market you fill, and what pain point your competitors aren’t solving.
In B2B, where the sales cycle is long and the stakes are high, that difference takes time to prove. You have to show it — over and over — in every blog, case study, landing page, and email.
That’s why step one in creating a content strategy that works is knowing the answers to a few essential questions:
- Why were you built?
- What are you doing that the rest of the industry isn’t?How is your approach meaningfully different?
- What pain point makes people leave your competitor and come to you?
Get that clear and your content will stop sounding like a brochure and start sounding like a brand people trust.
How to integrate expertise into your SEO by interviewing subject matter experts
If you want content that sounds like it was written by someone who knows what they’re talking about – start with someone who does.
Your best insights are sitting in the heads of engineers, salespeople, and support reps. The people closest to the product, and the ones who hear customer complaints every day – the subject matter experts (SMEs).
But here’s the thing: most subject matter experts are terrible at explaining what they know.
They’re so deep in their domain that they’ve forgotten what it’s like to not understand it. They skip context. They assume shared knowledge. They use shorthand and internal lingo without realising it. What’s obvious to them isn’t obvious to you or your reader.
So, you need a system in place to draw out useful insights when interviewing subject matter experts for your content.
Here’s the one I use:
1. Lead with context, then dig deeper with pointed questions
Good interviews don’t start with questions like “What makes your product different?”
Ask a CNC machine manufacturer that question and they’ll probably rattle off a few features — spindle speed, rigidity, repeatability — all the details you could’ve pulled from a spec sheet.
Instead, do the work upfront before you sit down to interview them.
Read the product manuals. Watch the videos. Learn the basics. Show them what you already understand and ask pointed questions.
Instead of “What makes your CNC machines different?”, ask:
“I know most shops have to run warm-up cycles or scrap the first part or two just to hit tolerance on short runs — especially when they’re changing setups all day. How does your CNC machine handle that kind of thermal drift?”
Now you’re digging.
They might respond with a surface-level answer like, “Well, it stays pretty stable — we’ve designed it to be really efficient.”
That’s your cue to press:
;What do you mean by stable? Does that mean shops don’t have to warm it up? Or they can switch jobs without throwing off tolerances?”
You keep going until they give you some detail like:
“Our machine runs full thermal compensation on every axis, even during short batch runs. That means in most cases, operators don’t need warm-up cycles or have to scrap the first few parts just to get into tolerance — even when switching between jobs five times a day. That saves hours and cuts down on wasted material, especially in job shops running high-mix, low-volume work.”
That’s the level of detail B2B buyers care about.
And getting to that level of detail? It takes practice. It takes prodding. When interviewing subject matter experts, always nudge them to expand on their answers.
2. See the product in action
Expert insight is handy. But seeing how something works will give you even more clarity.
Whenever you can, get the SME to walk you through what they’re talking about — not just explain it, but show it.
- If it’s software, get a screen share. Watch them click through the dashboard, trigger a workflow, pull up a report. Let them narrate. You’ll spot things they forget to say — and those are often the parts that matter most.
- If it’s a physical product, ask for a factory video, a photo of the setup, or a scrappy walkaround shot on someone’s phone. Doesn’t have to be pretty. You’re just after clarity and context.
- If it’s a service, ask them to map it out. Step by step. What happens first? What do they hand over? Where do clients typically get stuck?
Seeing the product or service in motion helps you catch the details the SME skipped.
At the B2B agency I used to work for, we had a lot of manufacturing clients. And once we got serious about improving our content that meant sending writers to the factory floor.
We toured CNC machine factories; walked through copper tube warehouses; asked operators where the real bottlenecks were; and listened to the language people used on the floor.
The goal wasn’t to sound like engineers. It was to understand the work so that we could explain it with authority.
How to pair search data with subject matter expertise
Let’s circle back to keyword research.
Great interviews give you gold – real insight, real stories, real pain points. But before you turn that insight into content, you need to make sure real buyers are searching for it.
That’s what keyword research is for: to validate that the pain points your SME described are challenges prospects are actively searching about.
Here’s how I approach it:
The three main types of pain point keywordsFrom working on dozens of B2B SEO strategies over the years, I’ve found that you can group most pain point keywords into three categories:
- Alternatives: Searches from buyers looking to replace what they’re currently using.
- Tasks: Searches that mention the tasks or jobs buyers want to complete.
- Desirables: Searches that highlight the specific features customers want.
Alternatives
Let’s say your client builds email finder software. You learn from the sales team that nearly every new user is switching from Hunter.io.
Boom. You’ve got a keyword:
hunter.io alternatives
Use a keyword research tool like Wordtracker to validate that people are actually searching for that.
Now, sure – in this scenario, we could go after other email finder software with keywords like anymail finder alternatives or skrapp alternatives. But if our audience was mostly leaving Hunter.io, that’s our bullseye.
We’ve got the people searching for it. And – thanks to our SME interviews – we’d also have the insights to explain exactly why we’re a better fit than that specific competitor.
This is how qualitative insight from your team and quantitative data from keyword research work together.
Tasks
Not every buyer’s out there searching for alternatives to a product or service. Some are searching for relief — for a fix to something that’s breaking their day-to-day.
Let’s say your client sells AP automation software. In your SME interviews, the sales team keeps bringing up one pain again and again: finance managers drowning in manual invoice processing. They’re juggling spreadsheets, chasing down approvals, and keying in line items one by one. It’s slow and expensive.
You plug into Wordtracker, and sure enough, you find this keyword:
automate invoice processing
That’s a job someone is trying to get done. Today. Probably before lunch.
Now you’ve got your angle. You’re not writing another fluffy post about “Why automation matters in finance.”
You’re giving them a guide they’ll use:
“How to Automate Invoice Processing Without Blowing Up Your Accounting Workflow”
Then you bring in your differentiator — maybe your client’s tool integrates directly with the ERPs these finance teams already use. Maybe it lets them set up automated approval rules based on invoice size or department.
Whatever the hook is, now you’re not just writing to rank — you’re writing to close the gap between a problem buyers are feeling… and the solution your clients already built.
Desirables
Some keywords don’t start with a complaint — they start with a clear want.
A buyer knows exactly what they need. So, they search for:
- project management software with gantt chart
- accounting software with API integration
- CRM with built-in quoting tool
These are non-negotiables. And they’re often the key to showing how your client’s product stands apart.
But here’s the thing: to write content that perfectly targets these feature-specific keywords, you first need to find out what your client actually does better than anyone else.
That means digging for the answer to a simple question:
“Where are we miles ahead of the competition?”
Maybe it’s a supply chain platform that handles temperature-sensitive freight like no one else. Maybe it’s a payroll system designed specifically for cross-border contractors — not just repackaged HR software.
Whatever it is, that’s your angle.
Now you're not just targeting feature-specific keywords to spotlight the exact thing your client built to win that search.
This is why keyword research can’t sit in a silo.
You don’t just start with tools.
You start with feedback — and then you validate it.
The process goes like this:
Interview your experts → spot real pain → map it to search → build content that answers a question buyers are already asking.
That’s how you stop writing in a vacuum.
That’s how you make content that sounds like it was written by someone who knows what they’re talking about — because it was.
Final thoughts
You can reverse-engineer every keyword. Chase every click. Hit every on-page checkbox your SEO tool throws at you.
But if your content doesn’t reflect what your company actually knows — what it does better — then you’re just adding more noise to a crowded page one.
The best-performing B2B content doesn’t come from keyword tools alone. It comes from pairing search data with subject matter expertise. From talking to the people who build the product. Sell it. Support it. From pulling out the stories and details only your team could tell.
That’s how you get content that doesn’t just rank — it resonates.
So, if you’ve got 10 blog posts lined up this quarter, stop and ask:
Could this only have been written by us?
If the answer’s no — go find your sharpest product person and start digging.
