Choose a B2B specialist when your sales cycle is long, several people sign off and success means pipeline, not traffic. Otherwise a generalist can do the job.
Choose a B2B specialist when your sales cycle runs for months, several people sign off on the purchase and success is measured in pipeline rather than traffic. If you sell a simple product to one decision maker, a good generalist agency can do the job just as well.
The difference isn’t about technical skill. Most competent agencies can fix a crawl issue or write a title tag. The difference is what the agency is aiming at, how it picks keywords, and what it puts in front of you each month.
Get that wrong and you end up with a report full of rising traffic and a sales team that hasn’t noticed any change.
What B2B SEO agencies do differently
B2B SEO agencies build the work around how businesses buy, not how consumers browse. That shows up in four places.
- Keyword choice. A specialist will happily target a phrase with 50 searches a month if the people searching it have budget. A generalist often chases volume because volume is easier to report.
- Content for each stage. B2B buyers move from problem to solution to supplier. Each stage needs different pages, from explainers to comparison pages to proof.
- Several readers per deal. The person who finds you on Google is rarely the person who signs. Content has to answer the finance director’s questions as well as the end user’s.
- Reporting on pipeline. Rankings and sessions still matter, but a specialist ties them to enquiries, opportunities and closed revenue.
Our B2B SEO agency work starts with the sales team, not the keyword tool, for exactly this reason. They know which questions come up on calls, and those questions are the best content brief you’ll ever get.
When a generalist agency is the better fit
A generalist is often the right call when the buying journey is short and the product is easy to understand. Some examples:
- A trade supplier whose customers search for a product code and buy the same day.
- A local B2B service, such as commercial cleaning, where most enquiries come from a map listing.
- A business whose main problem is technical, such as a site that Google can’t crawl properly.
In those cases the work looks much like consumer SEO, and paying for B2B experience you won’t use makes little sense.
A generalist can also be a sensible first step if your site has never had any SEO work. Fixing the basics, such as indexing, page titles and site speed, doesn’t need sector knowledge. Once those are sorted, the case for a specialist gets stronger, because the gains from here come from understanding how your buyers think.
Signs your sales cycle needs a specialist
You probably need a specialist if three or more of these are true:
- Deals take longer than a month from first contact to signature.
- More than one person approves the purchase.
- Your average deal value is high enough that one extra client a quarter pays for the work.
- Prospects compare you against named competitors before they get in touch.
- Your best leads come from referrals, and you want search to bring in buyers who look like them.
Long cycles also change how you judge progress. We’ve written about how long B2B SEO takes to bring in leads, and the short version is that enquiries lag rankings by several months. A specialist will set that expectation at the start.
Specialist and generalist compared
| Area | B2B specialist | Generalist |
|---|---|---|
| Keyword targets | Low volume, high intent, matched to deal size | Often higher volume, broader intent |
| Content plan | Mapped to each stage and each person in the buying group | Mapped to topics and search volume |
| Success measure | Enquiries, pipeline and revenue | Rankings, traffic and conversions |
| Link building | Trade press, industry bodies, partner sites | Wider spread of general sites |
| Best for | Long cycles, complex products, high deal values | Short cycles, simple products, local services |
Questions to ask before you hire
Whichever type you lean towards, these questions separate agencies that understand B2B from those that have only added it to their services page.
- How would you pick keywords for a product with a three month sales cycle?
- Who in our business would you want to speak to before writing content?
- How will you show the link between your work and our pipeline?
- What will you report in months one to three, before leads arrive?
- Can you show a B2B client where search brought in enquiries, not just traffic?
Listen for answers that mention sales calls, CRM data and buying groups. If the answer to every question is a ranking target, you’re talking to a generalist, whatever the website says.
It also helps to ask how they find keywords that tools don’t show. Many B2B phrases register as zero volume. Our guide to keyword research and link building for B2B SEO covers how we handle that.
What it means for your budget
A specialist won’t always cost more, but they’ll spend the time differently. Less goes on volume content and more goes on a smaller number of pages that sales can send to prospects. The 95:5 rule for B2B SEO explains why: most of your market isn’t buying right now, so the content has to stay useful until they are.
If you’re weighing up the two and want a straight answer for your market, our free strategy session looks at your sales cycle, your current search visibility and what a sensible plan looks like. Book a free strategy session.
Related reading: our guides to what B2B SEO is and why it matters and the first six months of SaaS SEO.
Common questions
What is the difference between a B2B SEO agency and a general SEO agency?
A B2B SEO agency plans keywords, content and reporting around long sales cycles and buying groups, and measures success in enquiries and pipeline. A general agency usually focuses on rankings and traffic across a broader range of businesses.
When is a generalist SEO agency good enough for a B2B company?
A generalist is often fine when the sales cycle is short, one person makes the decision, or the main problem is technical. In those cases the work looks much like consumer SEO.
How do I know if an agency really understands B2B?
Ask how they would pick keywords for a long sales cycle, who in your business they want to speak to, and how they will connect their work to your pipeline. Good answers mention sales calls, CRM data and buying groups.
Do B2B SEO agencies cost more than generalists?
Not always. A specialist tends to spend the same time differently, with fewer, more focused pages built for each stage of the buying journey rather than a high volume of general content.
