SEO techniques for wholesaler

Is the strategy different?

[Abe]

I'm fairly new to this biz. I've learned most everything from this forum (which ROCKS, btw!). I certainly don't claim to be an expert, but I have learned the basics of SEO: directory listings, doorway pages and optimization for spiders, locating vortals, maximizing link popularity, etc. I've gotten a few clients and I'm doing pretty good. Now I have a potential new client who sells goods wholesale on the web. So my question is, do I treat this the same way? Or would the approach be different? Is this considered a B2B site? Are there B2B-specific search engines and vortals I need to know about? Do retailers search for wholesalers via traditional search engines? What kind of sites would I target for link popularity? I would appreciate some pointers. I'd sure like to sound somewhat knowledgeable about this when I present him with a proposal.
Thanks in advance.

[scott]

About all I could tell you is about the search habits of retailers. I know many that use the standard SEs to find wholesalers. I can also tell you that I think "wholesale" will be your bread & butter as far as KWs go. I'd use it in as many phrases as possible as it will most likely be the on word that will set them apart from their customers in the SEs.

I believe there are some b2b resources out there, but I am not as familiar with them.

HTH,
Scott

[eljefe3]

I have found that people who are looking to buy goods wholesale use SE's the same as anyone else, but they target their search phrase for "wholesale t-shirts" "custom widget manufacturing" etc. Definitely have the pages set up to attract these KW phrases.

There are a lot of good product directories available for you to list your website for industry specific items.

[rcjordan]

Abe, I'm from a wholesale background (electrical & plumbing). You have some problems that others don't have, multiple price levels and -if the client is wholesale only- keeping retail information requests away -they are a nuisance. IMO, re SEO you should focus upon

1)vortals
2)vendor websites -work those reciprocals hard
3)vendor names as brand "keywords" ex: Delta faucets, Progress Lighting
4)broad product classifications or groupings as keywords ex: paddle fans

Be sure to set up a "line card" page listing the major brands -it will be one of the best traffic grabbers.

[tedster]

>>I can also tell you that I think "wholesale" will be your bread & butter as far as KWs go.

Amen. I have one wholesale client who works predominantly with Search Engine traffic. Our biggest kw's, in addition to the specific product words, are:

wholesale, wholesaler, supply, supplier, manufacturer, maker, import, importer

Other wholesalers in the same industry are paying up to $2 a click on GoTo for the industry-specific single kw. We forget about that big money game and focus on phrases that include the single kw plus one of the above list. Costs a lot less and the traffic is better targetted.

We also have an arrangement with a retail site to link our retail traffic over to them -- and they link the wholesale traffic to us. This seems to be a good thing for both parties.

[Abe]

These responses are excellent. Thank you very much.

[ulstrup]

Hi

A good way of finding industry specific search engines is to search for your-topic + research or education, universities often have good link collections which is related to their specific field of research.

This goes for nearly all topics, what are the wholesale products made of - metal, plastic, etc.

[freedoniagroup.com...] has a "industry links" on each industry (ie. medical). Each link points to very specific sites, which often has links to SE's specialised in that particular field. You can allso use these informations to ask for linkexchange (linkpop)