SEO for B2B companies, hired on evidence

Agencies with a verified published price

How to buy B2B search work

1. Name the deal you are trying to influence. Write down the contract value, the sales cycle length and the person who signs. A B2B search programme aimed at a six-figure annual contract is scoped differently from one aimed at self-serve signups, and the difference shows up in the keyword set on page one of the proposal.
2. Shortlist by sector and buyer, not by agency size. An agency that has ranked pages for procurement-led purchases in manufacturing, software or professional services has learned a vocabulary that a generalist has to buy on your budget. Ask which sectors they have published work in, then read that work.
3. Ask for the questions Google tells you to ask. Google's own guidance on hiring an SEO says to ask for examples of previous work, what results to expect and in what timeframe, and how the work will be measured. Ask all three in writing and keep the answers next to the invoice.
4. Price the quote against published floors. A minority of agencies print their prices, and those printed tiers are the only public reference points in the market. Ask every finalist to say where its quote sits against them and what the extra buys, in named deliverables rather than in hours.

What separates a B2B search specialist from a generalist

The tell is how the agency talks about demand. A generalist proposal opens with search volume; a B2B specialist opens with the small set of problem-shaped queries a buyer types when a project has already been funded, and treats the rest as supporting material. Those queries are often a few hundred searches a month, which looks unimpressive on a slide and converts far better than anything broader.

The second tell is content sourcing. B2B pages that rank tend to carry something the buyer cannot get elsewhere: an implementation detail, a comparison the vendors will not publish, a number from the agency's own client work. Ask who writes it, whether a subject expert reviews it, and what happens when your engineers disagree with a draft. An agency that plans to produce volume without an expert in the loop is selling pages, not positions.

Attribution, and why long sales cycles break simple reporting

If your sales cycle runs several months, the ranking that produced this quarter's pipeline was earned before the current retainer started. Agencies that report only on rankings and sessions are reporting the easy half. Ask for a reporting shape that ties organic entries to opportunities in your CRM, and agree at the outset who owns that plumbing, because retrofitting it is where most B2B engagements lose their evidence trail.

Set the review cadence to match the cycle as well. Google's starter guide notes that some changes take effect within hours while others take several months, so a monthly ranking review is fine for detecting breakage and useless for judging strategy. Judge strategy on a horizon at least as long as your own deal cycle, and write that horizon into the contract so neither side is surprised.

What no agency can promise you

Google states plainly that no one can guarantee a #1 ranking, and its hiring guidance lists ranking guarantees among the warning signs. In B2B that promise is especially hollow, because the queries that matter are few and the incumbents on them are often the category's largest vendors. A credible agency forecasts a range, names the assumptions and tells you what it will do if the range is missed.

Every agency in this index is listed on what can be verified from its own published pages: address, named team, printed prices where they exist, and case detail that names the client or the measured outcome. Nothing here is pay-for-placement, and nothing here is a promise about your rankings.

Questions people actually ask

What does SEO for B2B companies cost?

Retainers vary widely by scope, and only a minority of agencies publish their tiers. Use the printed prices in this index as reference points, then ask each finalist to justify its position against them in deliverables rather than hours.

How long before a B2B SEO programme shows results?

Google's own starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others take several months, and suggests waiting weeks before judging any single change. With a multi-month sales cycle on top, expect to judge pipeline effects over quarters, not weeks.

Can an agency guarantee rankings for our category terms?

No. Google says no one can guarantee a #1 ranking and treats such promises as a warning sign when hiring an SEO. Ask instead for a forecast range, the assumptions behind it and the reporting that will show whether it held.

Should we hire a B2B specialist or our existing generalist agency?

If your buyers are technical and the query set is narrow, the specialist usually starts closer to the answer. If search is one channel among several in an integrated plan, a generalist with published B2B work can be the better fit; make it prove that work, not assert it.

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