Chapter 32 — Exercises

Work these in order; they climb from recall to diagnosis, page-building, and strategy. Several ask you to inspect a live B2B site — your own, your employer's, or any public software or business-services company you can view. Every tool named here is free. Items marked with a dagger (†) have full worked solutions in Appendix — Answers to Selected Exercises; odd-numbered items are worked there too. Attempt every item before you look.

The spirit of the chapter, kept in front of you: in B2B, the first question is never "how much traffic?" It is "which stage of the buyer's journey does this serve, and does it move pipeline?"

A. Recall and vocabulary

Exercise 32.1 — Define the content funnel and name its three stages (with the ToFu/MoFu/BoFu shorthand). State, in one phrase each, the search intent each stage maps to.

Exercise 32.2 — What is an alternatives page, and who is the person typing "[competitor] alternatives"? Explain why that searcher is so valuable.

Exercise 32.3 † — Define product-led content and integration page. Give one example query each would target for a field-service SaaS.

Exercise 32.4 — Define multi-touch attribution and contrast it, in one sentence each, with first-click and last-click attribution.

Exercise 32.5 — Define MQL and SQL (expand both acronyms) and place them in the correct order in the journey: visitor → lead → ? → ? → opportunity → closed-won.

Exercise 32.6 — In one sentence each, state the difference between a vanity metric and a pipeline metric in B2B SEO, and give one example of each.

B. Applied reasoning

Exercise 32.7 — The chapter says "Google does not know or care about your funnel." Explain what Google does read, and what that implies for how you should assign a page to a funnel stage.

Exercise 32.8 † — A B2B keyword ("Dispatchr vs FleetOps") gets only ~50 searches a month. Explain why a B2B strategist would still prioritize a page for it over a ToFu guide that pulls 40,000 visits a month.

Exercise 32.9 — Why is honesty the mechanism, not just the ethics, of a comparison page? Describe what a rigged "we win every row" comparison signals to a buyer and what it risks with Google and the law.

Exercise 32.10 — Explain why topical authority is more attainable for a niche B2B company than for a broad consumer brand. Use the difference between "field service management for HVAC contractors" and "home repair."

Exercise 32.11 — The chapter warns that publishing "a hundred AI-spun articles to build topical authority" produces the opposite of authority. Explain the mechanism, naming the Google system involved.

Exercise 32.12 — Distinguish product-led content from top-of-funnel content by reach and intent. Why is product-led content a complement to, not a replacement for, ToFu work?

Exercise 32.13 — Explain why last-click attribution "systematically undervalues the top and middle of the funnel" in a long B2B cycle. Use the February-to-November journey from the chapter.

Exercise 32.14 — Why does original research earn links that an equally well-written "10 tips" post does not? State the one-line maxim from §32.6.

C. Diagnose the B2B SEO problem

For each scenario, name the most likely cause and the first thing you would check or do. Some have more than one defensible answer — say why.

Exercise 32.15 † — A SaaS company's blog gets 60,000 organic visits a month and growing, but the sales team says organic produces almost no qualified leads. Diagnose the most likely cause and name the two page types the company is probably neglecting.

Exercise 32.16 † — A B2B site built 300 "[Product] + [Tool] integration" pages from one template; each is two sentences and a signup button. Traffic was flat, then a core/Helpful Content update dropped rankings site-wide. Diagnose what happened and what an honest version of those pages would contain.

Exercise 32.17 — A founder reports "organic traffic is up 60% year over year" as the headline SEO win. What single question should you expect from the CEO, and what should the founder have led with instead?

Exercise 32.18 — A B2B team's dashboard shows organic search credited with only 8 of 40 deals under last-click, and the CFO wants to cut the SEO budget as underperforming. Explain why the number is misleading and what view would tell a truer story.

Exercise 32.19 — A brand-new SaaS product (a category almost nobody searches for yet) invests everything in "[us] vs [competitor]" and "[competitor] alternatives" pages and gets almost no traffic. Diagnose the mistake and name the funnel stages they skipped.

Exercise 32.20 — A company's "State of the Industry" research report launched and earned almost no links. Give three plausible reasons an original-research asset fails to earn links, and one fix for each.

D. On your own site / business (use a free tool)

Exercise 32.21 † — Pick a B2B company (yours, or any public one). Using Google, map its funnel: find one page targeting a ToFu (informational) query, one MoFu (commercial) query, and one BoFu (comparison/decision) query. If any stage is missing, name it — a gap is the finding.

Exercise 32.22 — For the same or another B2B product, search [product] alternatives and [product] vs [competitor]. Record who ranks — the vendor itself, a competitor, or a review site (G2, Capterra, TrustRadius). Write one sentence on where the vendor can realistically compete and where a review platform owns the query.

Exercise 32.23 — Search [product] integrations and two [product] + [tool] combinations for a SaaS you know. Note whether the vendor has a dedicated, substantive page for each real integration, or whether a directory or forum answers the query instead. Name one integration-page gap.

Exercise 32.24 — Find a B2B company's most recent original-research report or free tool. In Google, search a distinctive statistic or the tool's name in quotes and see who cites/links to it. Write one sentence on whether the asset is earning editorial links, and from what kind of sites.

E. Read the report / read the SERP

Exercise 32.25 † — Interpret this excerpt.

FIGURE E.1 — "Organic under two attribution models"          [constructed teaching example]
  Closed deals this quarter: 40
  Organic search credited — LAST-touch:  6 deals
  Organic search credited — FIRST-touch: 21 deals
  Self-reported "how did you hear about us?" naming search/Google: 24%

What does the gap between the two models tell you, which number would you not report as precise truth, and how would you present organic's contribution to a skeptical CFO?

Exercise 32.26 — Sketch (in words or rough ASCII) the organic results you'd expect for two queries: what is field service management and best field service management software. For each, say which content type is likely to rank, which funnel stage it serves, and whether a single vendor can realistically own it. Name the concept that explains the difference.

F. Build / optimize the page

Exercise 32.27 † — Draft the skeleton of an honest "FleetOps alternatives" page for Dispatchr (a competing field-service SaaS). Include: (a) the page's promise in one sentence, (b) at least one row or point where you concede FleetOps is the better choice, (c) the specific buyer segment where Dispatchr wins, and (d) one reason a buyer should trust this page over a rigged one.

Exercise 32.28 — Take a real integration or use-case page (any B2B product) that is thin — a template with a tool name swapped in. Rewrite its outline into something with genuine, page-specific value: list the five things a real integration page should contain (per §32.4) and write a one-sentence version of each for your chosen integration.

G. Keyword and demand research

Exercise 32.29 — For a B2B SaaS of your choice, list one target query for each funnel stage: a ToFu informational query, a MoFu commercial/category query, and three BoFu commercial-intent queries (at least one "[competitor] alternatives" and one "[you] vs [competitor]"). Note which are lowest-volume-highest-value.

Exercise 32.30 † — Given these five queries for a field-service SaaS, classify each by funnel stage (ToFu/MoFu/BoFu) and intent, and name the single query you'd build a page for first if you had one week and wanted pipeline: how to reduce technician drive time (1,300/mo), field service management software (900/mo, commercial), FleetOps alternatives (60/mo), what is a work order (2,400/mo), field service software pricing (110/mo). Justify the "first" pick in pipeline terms.

H. Myths, ethics, and judgment

Exercise 32.31 — Spot the myth. A B2B marketing agency pitches: "We'll build your topical authority by publishing two AI-generated posts a day — 360 articles in six months covering every keyword in your space — and you'll dominate your niche." Identify what's wrong with the premise and describe what a genuinely authority-building program would do instead.

Exercise 32.32 — A vendor offers to (a) bid on your competitors' trademarked brand names in paid ads with ad copy claiming you're "better than [competitor]," and (b) auto-generate 500 thin comparison pages, each rating you green on every feature. Name the distinct problems with each, and describe the honest, effective version of "competing on comparison terms."

I. The Strategy File (Rivertown & the B2B lens)

Exercise 32.33 † — Rivertown Home Services has a smaller commercial line: recurring HVAC service and maintenance contracts for offices, retail spaces, and property managers. Sketch a mini-funnel for that line — one ToFu, one MoFu, and one BoFu query a facilities or property manager would type — and state, in one sentence, how Rivertown should measure success for this line (and how that differs from its residential SEO).

Exercise 32.34 — Do the chapter's Strategy-File task on a business you know. If it sells to other businesses: sketch its mini-funnel (one query per stage) and write one sentence on measuring success in pipeline, not traffic. If it sells only to consumers: write the two-sentence case for whether a B2B/comparison lens applies to any part of it — the more valuable exercise, because the B2B line is often hiding, unserved, inside a business that thinks of itself as B2C.

Where these go next. Keep your answers to 32.21, 32.22, 32.29, 32.30, and 32.33 — a funnel map, comparison-query landscape, and pipeline framing are exactly the raw material a B2B SEO plan is built from, and they feed the full audit you assemble in Chapter 38 and the capstone strategy in Chapter 40.