How to find relevant keywords to generate performing B2B content?

I was recently asked how to identify relevant keywords for new content creation.

My first response was: Do you really need new content?

In fact, why not start by improving content that already ranks? Less effort and often better results.

Anyway, I will explain how I work.

First of all, we should be aware that determining the search intent before writing the content is not natural and does not happen very often. Too often we see content that does not drive traffic (sterile content), even though it has been written with patience and care, simply because it does not match a user's search intent. See the article on "Coral and sea sponge content".

In B2B content marketing, even more than elsewhere, the user/customer/visitor - and their concerns - must be at the centre of attention.

Users don't care about brands, what they want is for brands to respond to their searches, their problems, their desires.

It clearly resonates with Cluetrain manifesto n°78: "You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention."

This is why I always prefer the term "search intent", which is more user-centric than the term "keyword". It also avoids confusion, as a search intent can be the sum of words or even a phrase (more and more with voice search).

Determining search intent should be done by a group rather than individually.

This group should include marketing, sales, and especially technical and customer support. Ideally, some customers should also take part.

Then, in a post-it session, I work in three successive stages:

1- What would a visitor type into a search engine if they already knew the products/services and/or the brand?

2- What would a visitor type into a search engine when looking for products/services similar to ours, without knowing the brand?

3- What would a visitor type into a search engine if they had a problem (or question) that our products could solve?

To illustrate this approach, I have chosen the semantic environment of surge protection devices or surge arresters.

So if we take the first step:

1- What would a visitor type into a search engine if they already knew the products and/or the brand?

Post-it session would give:

Surge protector Legrand / Hager / Schneider / ABB / Soulé ... Legrand / Hager / Schneider / ABB / Soulé surge protector ... Commercial reference 0 927 66, 0 927 61, A9L16649, SPA412A, SPN465R, PMD 40-230 BI QS, Acti9 iPRD, Duoline PF’Click, Cartridge 092766 and 003953

These search intents are all branded searches.

Visitors are well into the purchase or search process. The answers should be provided on the relevant page (or thanks to a very limited number of clicks): Add to cart, where to buy? technical datasheet, where to find a reseller? Price, availability, equivalence, how to install? How to replace? etc.

The branded searches are naturally won, low chance (but we never know) that your competitor will try to rank on your branded searches. But this needs to be monitored, especially for paid search.

⚠ The key is to make sure that the page suggested is the one you want, and not some other random page.

2- What would a visitor type into a search engine looking for products similar to ours, without determining the brand in advance?

Post-it session would give:

Short tail searches such as Surge Protection Device and Surge arrester.

Short tail means high search volume, but also high competition, high cost, low focus and low conversion.

So it's a pointless battle to fight unless you want to waste resources, time and money. Unfortunately, from my past experience, it's very common to be asked to rank in position #1 for such cherry-picked unreachable keywords. That's what I call 'vanity keywords'.

Hopefully, search volume and keyword difficulty indicators will provide rational evidence that these keywords should not be considered, in line with Michael E. Porter's quote "The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do", either because it's not searched that often or because it's unreachable.

On the other hand, Post-it would also help to identify informational content (Wikipedia-like content) based on generic, unbranded searches:

keraunic map, surge protection device in NF C15-100 (France), IEC16364-4, what is a Metal Oxyd Varistor?, the difference between type1 / type2 SPD, level of Up and Uoc, SPD coordination table, SPD wiring diagram, circuit diagram, SPD symbol, surge protection device symbol/icon, transient voltage, the difference between TT, TNC, TNS, IT, SPD for photovoltaic, auto-protected SPD, how does an SPD work? etc.

These long tail keywords (long tail means low volume but low competition, low cost, high focus, high conversion) and their related content will individually deliver low traffic but high qualified traffic.

As an added benefit, this content reflects the brand's authority on the subject. External sites, even in that domain, will link from their content to this content. The backlinks will then carry some 'SEO juice' which will be interpreted by search engines as a positive and powerful signal, increasing the site authority score.

3- What would a visitor type into a search engine if they had a problem (or question) that our products would answer?

Post-it session would give:

Fire due to storm, appliance protection, lightning stroke, lightning strike, thunder, critical installation, strike damage, increase of the voltage… How to protect electronics from lightning? thunder panel burnt, home protection from lightning, TV burnt after lightning ... how to protect my computer from the storm ?, Do I need to switch devices during the storm? How to protect my house/home from thunder/lightning?, How to protect electrical devices from storms? How to protect electronics from lightning? How to protect my valuable appliances from Lightning surges? Ways to Protect a Home's Electronic Devices from Severe Weather…

But also, and above all, search content that is not directly related to the business, but to the pain points that customers are facing:

Am I insured against lightning?, Electrical damage insurance? What is the best insurance against surge damage?

One positive side-effect, those contents are ideal for social media posts, which allows reusing content.

Less effort, better results.

Once that creative inventory is performed, the relevant search intents to develop content on are the ones:

Unbranded, because branded keywords are searched by visitors who already know the brand and products (see the question about coral/sea sponge content).

Searched for by users (based on average search volume)

Worth the effort to rank for (taking into account keyword difficulty and competition).

Which content is clicked on the search results page (based on data provided by Google Search Console's click-through rate).

That deliver qualified leads.

That generate business.

Another key point is to always set the rule:

One search intent = One content = One URL

For three reasons:

To avoid having several pieces of content on the site competing for the same search intent.

To keep the search intent in mind when writing content for optimisation.

And finally, knowing which page visitors came to first is a backdoor to knowing what the initial search intent was. This is very subtle segmentation for marketing automation.