Differences Between B2B and B2C Link Building Tactics

B2B and B2C link-building may share common points, but they differ in goals, audience targeting, types of links, results, and channels.

You’re on the best page to learn about those differences and use your new-found knowledge to improve your SEO.

You’ll find out:

• 5 key differences between B2B and B2C link-building tactics
• Examples that work
• Actionable pro tips you can implement today

Let’s dive in.

1. Goal Setting [Education vs. Engagement]

B2B and B2C businesses have different types of audiences and sales cycle durations.

B2B sales cycles are often longer, so link-building tactics should focus on:

• Nurturing leads over time
• Using content that provides deep insights
• Establishing authority

B2C sales cycles can be much shorter. Fast engagement and impulse-based decisions are more common, so link-building might focus more on:

• Immediate value
• Entertainment

Besides:

• B2B audience: More interested in gaining relevant, in-depth information and making wise decisions based on that information.
• B2C audience: More interested in building a personal connection with the brands they purchase. Studies show that 82% of consumers want to buy from brands with similar values, and 75% of those consumers will move on to another brand if those values don’t align.

Therefore, B2B link-building goals differ from B2C link-building goals:

• B2B: There's a stronger emphasis on educating the audience. The best B2B content marketing examples often solve specific industry problems or offer new perspectives, thus building your expertise.
• B2C: Engagement, entertainment, and relatability are more sought after. Viral content that resonates with personal experiences or emotions might gain more traction.

Pro tip: B2C link-building focuses more on lead generation because regular consumers are likelier to click on hyperlinks. B2B link-building focuses on building your reputation and exposure.

And, of course, both B2C and B2B link-building strategies aim to connect your website to other authoritative online sources so your page ranking can increase.

2. Audience Targeting [People Who Research vs. People Who Buy]

Another difference in B2B vs. B2C link-building tactics regards choosing your audience.

When building links for a B2B or B2C business, you address two types of audiences:

• The potential link partners whom you reach out to in many link-building techniques
• Your existing audience is made up of prospects or existing customers who will see that content.

Therefore, these differences in B2B vs. B2C audience targeting for link-building shape:

• The outreach process
• The type of content you’re creating

B2B audience targeting for link-building entails:

• Potential link partners: These may be key opinion leaders in your industry, niche websites, and other essential content creators.
• Professionals with high decision power in their respective companies: These may be industry stakeholders and executives responsible for decision-making.

When building B2C links, you target:

• Run-of-the-mill people: These may be the general public or specific consumer demographics.
• Potential link partners: Depending on the products and services you’re selling, these can be related businesses in your niche, distributors, review websites, and even local news outlets. You can even opt for managed SEO services from SEO agencies that have prior experience with the clients of your niche. 

Let’s say you’re building a coaching business. If you want to gain exposure, you can use local SEO and local link-building tactics to become more visible in your community.

For instance, you can reach out to a local news outlet or partner with local businesses in your area, such as fitness coaches. Or, you can send your credentials to websites that have already written listicles promoting coaches, like this one:

Source

Conversely, B2B link-building requires building:

• More in-depth, long-term relationships with your link partners
• A more solid reputation through your existing content, social media presence, and business network

That’s to say authoritative websites in your B2B niche won’t link back to your content and/or respond to your outreach messages unless:

• You already know each other.
• Your content is stellar.

That brings us to the next point.

3. Content Type [Information vs. Lead Generation]

An important link-building tactic is creating and promoting the right content type.

Whether you’re doing B2B or B2C link building, this content must address both your existing audience and your link partners.

Pro tips:

• You need a separate keyword research strategy for link-building, which should be aligned with the content strategy you have for your website. Utilize tools like the Google Trends API to identify trending and relevant keywords in your niche.
• Find keywords and content that authoritative creators in your niche are interested in.

So, you’re not just writing high-quality, relevant content for your audience.

You’re writing high-quality, relevant content for potential link partners who address your audience.

That’s where B2B and B2C take different roads.

The best content for B2B link-building addresses a professional audience of individuals with different interests but a common need for your B2B product. These people do in-depth research, so they’ll need:

• Whitepapers
• Case studies
• In-depth how-to tutorials
• Webinars
• Industry reports

Plus, your B2B link partners are creators who need to churn out high-quality, in-depth content for their audience. That’s why the sources they quote are:

• Original research
• Content created by experts showcasing specific experience
• Round-up posts that include more expert advice
• Practical how-to guides with insider tips and actionable advice
• Industry studies and reports
• New statistics
• Innovative tools that help their audience (which, again, is also your audience)

PR link-building techniques work well in B2B. For example, you can create a content asset regularly picked up by expert creators in your niche with few outreach efforts.

Hubspot has created this article about 2022 marketing statistics and has acquired over 63,000 backlinks, most of which are do-follow:

Source

Or, you can post in-depth opinion pieces and guest posts, as Sonia Simone, founding partner at Copyblogger Media, does for Creative Fierce:

Source

Side note: All this content is highly informational, so it addresses the top of the sales funnel in your content strategy.

The best content for B2C link-building addresses an audience of consumers ready to purchase. These people want to see:

• Blog posts about popular topics and trends they’re interested in
• How-to guides about your product
• Product reviews
• Compelling visual content
• User-generated content

Side note: This type of content is more middle and bottom of the funnel, meaning it’s more oriented to lead generation and sales.

Your potential link partners want to provide their audience with discussions surrounding top-notch products and brands.

Thus, they’ll want to publish:

• How-to guides and tutorials about certain products
• Relatable social media content
• Useful product reviews
• Guest posts

Pro tip: You can also partner with influencers to get more links to your website.

Take this example:

Source

The Walking Pad company partnered with Amy Darley, a lifestyle and parenting micro-influencer. People clicking on the @walkingpad mention will be redirected to the company’s Instagram profile. And that profile bio has a link to the Walking Pad’s website.

Curious Instagram users who end up on this website increase their organic traffic considerably.

4. Relationship Building [Offering Quality vs. Engaging]

Getting your content posted or linked requires relationship-building for both B2B and B2C companies.

But you’ll do this in different ways.

In B2B, try:

• Networking at industry events, conferences, and webinars
• Establishing partnerships or collaborative projects with other businesses to earn mutual backlinking opportunities
• Sending personalized cold emails actively and professionally
• Utilizing an AI email writer to craft compelling and personalized email pitches that increase engagement and response rates
• Posting informative, high-quality content in niche groups

Here’s a good example from Rush’s CEO Mario Peshev on LinkedIn, helping his audience deal with Slack interruptions:

Source

In B2C, focus on:

• Engaging with influencers, bloggers, and even the general audience on social media platforms
• Posting relevant, high-quality content, such as social media videos (product demos, UGC, behind-the-scenes content)

For example, Medjet Travel interacts with its customer base frequently on different posts:



Source

The example above shows that Medjet Travel has already built a relationship with travel micro-influencer Samson Olalekan. Therefore, the company gets high-quality links from this content creator, thus enhancing the app’s exposure among an interested target audience.

5. Channels [Ranking Vs. Traffic]

Quality, relevant content is key for link building.

But where that content gets posted is another point of difference in B2B and B2C link-building.

B2B companies need authoritative websites, including:

• Industry-specific directories, associations, and trade groups
• Industry publications
• Trade magazines
• Authoritative blogs in the sector
• Social media platforms like LinkedIn

By comparison, B2C companies need relevant links posted on:

• Local listings
• General directories
• Consumer review sites
• Lifestyle blogs
• Review sites
• Social media platforms

Pro tip: Building links on social media is more important for B2C companies because:

• B2B consumers use the internet to conduct product research: That means you need to rank higher in search engines so that more of your prospects can discover your website. You also need to build your reputation to become more trustworthy. That’s why you need links from authoritative websites with quality traffic and high domain ranking.
• B2C customers rely heavily on social media for product decisions: You need to get mentions and links from influencers, groups, and regular people. That will make you more visible online and get more people from social media to your website.

Basically:

• B2B links: The primary goal is increasing your website ranking to get more traffic consisting of qualified leads.
• B2C links: Building social media links first increases your traffic, thus ranking your website higher and, ultimately, getting more qualified leads.

Wrapping Up

If you read so far, you now know the main differences between B2B and B2C link-building tactics.

B2B links increase website ranking and authority. A solid link profile for a B2B company enhances your reputation and builds visibility to your best content assets.

In the long term, this gets more qualified leads to your website.

B2C link-building regards the short term.

A solid link profile will help your B2C business gain organic traffic and leads. You’ll also gain a good reputation among regular consumers.

But while these sets of link-building tactics differ, they have something in common: they need a good, personalized strategy according to highly specific goals and audience targeting.