For all B2B companies looking to grow their inbound lead pipeline, today we are going to share our own keyword research process that has helped us lift inbound leads for our all clients and even for our own brand.
Why We’re So Confident It Will Help You, Too
- Because the process is designed specifically around B2B buying behavior.
- Because it has already produced repeatable results across multiple B2B industries.
- Because it’s built around ICP, Bottom-of-the-funnel approach (and not random keywords).
So, without further ado, let’s get started!
Here’s the Step-by-Step Strategy We Use to Research Lead-Generating Keywords (Valid for Both B2B SEO and Paid Ads)
The image above would have given you a sense of how our process works, but to give you a clearer picture, let’s walk you through it step-by-step!
Step 1. Identify Buyer Problems
This is the guiding step of our keyword research and you know what is its best part? We perform it without opening any research tool. Our main focus while executing this step is on understanding customer psychology.
(Here, you will find only an overview, but if you want to read the whole thing in-detail, visit our B2B buyer persona guide)
This is how we start the research:
a. We schedule a meeting with our client’s sales team. Interacting with them helps us understand what end-customers are actually demanding to get fixed.
(In case our client started from scratch and have no sales insights, we check a few trustworthy review sites of their niche and that’s how we learn the expectations and problems of end customers)
b. Once we know the potential customers’ problems, we see who inside their company is responsible for solving them and what triggered them to search in the first place.
(Like if we are working with any professional company, their target roles mostly are operations manager, CEO, CMO or revenue director. On the other hand, when our client is a product-based B2B company, generally we target product managers or finance managers as their end-customers)
Step 2. Map Buyer Search Terms
This is how we find the terms that actually reflect role-specific needs:
a. We enter the identified problem phrases into Keywords Explorer (a feature inside Ahrefs tool, specifically known for keyword research) which helps us generate all the possible variations for each identified phrase.
b. From that expanded list, we select commercial keywords (the terms that indicate the searcher is looking to solve a problem by either comparing solutions or making a decision).
Step 3. Study Competitor Usage
This step helps us verify that our efforts are heading in the right direction. In addition to it, we identify more open opportunities in terms of keywords. This is the same step where our client can get advantage and build better authority than their rivals.
Here’s how we conduct competitor analysis for the identified terms:
a. On Ahrefs, we first go to Site Explorer and then Organic Keywords / Top Pages. There, we notice if our client’s direct or leading competitors are performing well for the terms identified by our team.
(If client’s competitors are ranking well for those terms and getting traffic, it means buyers are searching for them and as a smart move, we first cover content around those terms)
b. Next, on the same platform, we open Site Explorer and then click on the Content Gap. There, we note down the terms for which our client’s competitors are ranking but they are not.
Step 4. Align Keywords to Buyer Journey
This step is about categorizing the identified keywords according to the buyer’s stage in the decision-making process.
Here’s how we group the identified keywords:
a. Awareness Stage – Users in this stage usually try to understand how they can solve their problems. That’s why we keep these terms in the awareness stage.
b. Consideration Stage – Users in this stage are actually exploring possible solutions and the terms they use for it are “consideration keywords”.
c. Decision keywords – Users in this stage are looking to buy or talk to the product or service provider and the terms they use here are “decision keywords”.
Step 5. Prioritize Revenue Keywords
Now, we know which keywords are closer to the purchase decision. So, we prioritize targeting keywords in the same way, basically we follow the flow like Decision and then Consideration.
For all the shortlisted terms, we check the following metrics:
- Intent Strength
- Business fit
- Keyword difficulty
Based on the above metrics’ score i.e. with the strongest mix, we end up selecting high-intent keywords i.e. real opportunities.
(The same process forms the foundation of the content strategy we build for our B2B clients. And in case, you want to see how that fits into our overall SEO strategy, read our dedicated content on B2B SEO services, where we’ve explained everything in detail)
These are the Keyword Research Tools We Use to Dive Deeper into B2B Markets
Instead of trying every tool out there, we always stick to the ones our team has personally tested. Let’s take a closer look:
1. To Get Intent Clues – Google’s Autocomplete, People Also Ask Section
2. To Generate New Keyword ideas – Ahrefs/SEMrush/Answer the Public (paid subscription of any one of these is sufficient)
3. Keyword Expansion & Understanding Buyer Psychology – ChatGPT and other AI tools like Gemini, Perplexity
(For those who want to dive deeper into keyword research tools, you should take a look at our dedicated article – Keyword Research Tools because we’ve covered major tool there, both free and paid and have also explained how to use them)
This is Exactly How We Did Keyword Research to Generate Leads for One of Our B2B Clients
We’ve worked for many B2B websites including service-driven (SaaS, manufacturing, logistics, consulting, law firms) and product-led and to let you see how our research process looks in action, here’s a real example : Keyword research for a B2B client done by our team.
FAQs
1. How often B2B companies should update keyword research for their site?
Ans. Ideally, once within every 3-6 months. But, if there’s a big shift in the industry or a new product launch or sudden changes in buyer behavior, we recommend you to update your keywords sooner. Because waiting in such scenarios could mean missing out on important opportunities.
2. How to prioritize keywords when multiple decision makers are involved?
Ans. The simplest solution is to prioritize keywords for the one that faces the pain first and then focus on the terms searched by supporting roles.
3. How to decide whether a keyword is to be targeted through a landing page or a blog?
Ans. It would be a smart move, if you target only decision-intent keywords (like the ones that signal buyers are actually looking for a solution, provider, service or tool) through landing pages and awareness keywords through blog posts.
Conclusion
We’ve tried our best to simplify the keyword research process for B2B websites. You can take the framework above and apply it to your market to identify the keywords that attract the right kinds of leads. Or, if you’d rather not like to spend time on all of this but still want a list of keywords that actually drive business, feel free to reach out to our team.
