Most B2B keyword research goes something like this. You work out what you call your service, then what your customers call it (hopefully the same thing, often not). You find the version with the most searches and build a page around it.
That gets people to your website. It does nothing about what’s going on in their heads that stops them picking up the phone. In B2B, that’s usually a pile of doubts, and they’re searching for answers to those too.
Why B2B buyers who want your service still don’t buy
Katie Tucker wrote recently in her Jungle Juice newsletter about whether artists need market research. She’d run a session with an artist who wanted to sell more without compromising their work. They looked at what she calls art novices: people who like the idea of buying art, have a Tate membership and a few prints on the wall, but have never bought an original piece.
The list they came up with had nothing to do with the art itself. It was everything around it. Novices weren’t sure how you buy art online without seeing it in person, what a fair price looks like, or whether the artist is genuine. There was also a feeling that buying art is for a certain type of person (cultured, stylish, into interior design).
Katie boiled it down to four barriers: trust, price, knowledge and confidence. Swap art for accountancy software, HR consultancy, commercial cleaning or SEO and those four still fit.
Can I trust this supplier?
Are they legit? Have they worked with businesses like ours, and will they still be around in a year?
How much is this going to cost us?
Why isn’t there a price on the website, and what’s going to get added on later?
What happens after we sign?
How long does it take, and will it work with what we’ve already got?
Can I justify this to my boss?
Or the board, or a business partner. If it goes wrong, whose neck is on the line?
A service page that says “We deliver bespoke solutions tailored to your needs” answers none of these. (I’ve yet to meet anyone who was persuaded by that sentence.)
If you’d like someone to dig through this for your own site, book an SEO 1:1.
What buyer doubt looks like in keyword research
When someone is close to buying, their searches change. They stop typing “HR consultant” and start typing things like:
- how much does an HR consultant cost UK
- HR consultant vs HR software
- what to ask before hiring an HR consultant
- how long does an HR audit take
- is outsourced HR worth it for a small business
Put those into your keyword tool and you’ll see tiny volumes, ten a month or twenty if you’re lucky. That’s why most people skip them.
I’d write them anyway. Someone searching “what to ask before hiring an HR consultant” has the problem, probably has the budget, and is looking for a reason to say yes to someone. Answer the question well and you’re halfway there before they’ve even emailed you.
Why low-volume questions matter for AI search
These are the same questions people put to ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews and the rest, and those tools need somewhere to pull an answer from. If your website answers the question clearly, that somewhere can be you.
Where to find your customers’ objections
Katie’s next step was a survey and a handful of in-depth conversations with target customers, to test which assumptions held up. If you’re a B2B business, you’ve probably already had those conversations without calling them research. Think about the last ten sales conversations you had and write down every time someone hesitated. That means the questions they asked before they’d commit, the “I just need to check with…” moments, the objections that came up more than once and the things people got wrong about what you do. Add the questions clients asked after signing that they clearly wish they’d known before.
If you’ve got a sales team, ask them. They’ll have a list in about thirty seconds, and it’ll beat anything a keyword tool gives you. Every one of those hesitations is a page, a blog post or an FAQ waiting to be written. I’ve written before about how the questions your customers ask are already a content strategy if you go looking for them.
How to turn buyer doubts into content that ranks
Each of those four sticking points needs a different kind of content.
Pricing pages that give a range
Even if you can’t give an exact figure, write a page explaining what affects the cost and give a range. “It depends” leaves people guessing. “Most clients spend between X and Y, and here’s why” gives them something to take into a meeting.
Case studies that name names
Use businesses like theirs, named and specific if you can (I realise this isn’t always possible). “A leading manufacturer” tells nobody anything, so say which one, what was wrong and what changed.
A plain-English page about what happens next
Walk through week one, month one and month three. Take the mystery out of it.
Content that helps them sell you internally
Give the buyer what they need to get you past their boss. That means the business case, the risks of doing nothing and the questions they’ll be asked. Make them look good for choosing you.
Then put the answers where people will find them. A buried FAQ page nobody visits won’t do it. They belong on the service pages themselves and in blog posts targeting the exact question.
Doubt research belongs next to your keyword research
Keyword research tells you how people find you. Looking at their doubts tells you why they don’t buy. Most businesses only ever do the first one.
If you want a hand working out what’s stopping your customers saying yes, and turning it into content that ranks, book an SEO 1:1.
