Insights

B2B Website Tips

Author - armstrong-admin
16.07.2021

– Do your research
– Develop a strategy
– Set up your website to convert

Having a well-designed website is a must for businesses and the b2b sector is no exception. But it has to be said, design is not just about the visual elements of a website.

A website can be nice to look at and even have the wow factor but this is all useless if the site fails to convert its visitors or doesn’t give them a clear path to the information they are looking for.

Then there are the other fundamentals of a good website including, structure, navigation and for those who value being visible in the search results, search engine optimisation.

So let’s look at our 3 tips in more detail to find out how you can improve your web presence.

• Do your research

You wouldn’t build a house without a plan and it’s the same with a website. The process requires research and knowledge of the following important aspects:

– Current website

Most businesses today will have Google Analytics and Google Search console set up to track traffic and search performance. These are a potential mine of information on how visitors currently move around the website, which pages are the most popular, which pages convert well and so on. This should provide the information you need to improve or retain elements of the old site that worked well. The performance of your old site and that of your competitors can also be used to set benchmarks for performance.             

– Analyse competitors

If you don’t know much about the competition’s web presence, then now is the time to start researching. There are plenty of tools available to measure keyword rankings which you then use to plan your web pages. You can also analyse competitor websites for tone of voice, UX, calls to action and so on. By looking closely at competitors you will also spot new and emerging trends that can be  incorporated into your own website design.    

• Develop a Strategy

Building a successful website requires a strategy to target the kind of traffic your business aims to attract.  This will require knowledge of 3 areas:

-Your ideal customer
-Why that customer should choose your business (i.e. your value proposition)
-How those customers are going to find your business online 

The biggest mistake made in web design is focusing too much on what the business sells rather than who the business is selling too. Great design is one thing but if it never appears where you need it to in the search results or it fails to convert visitors, then it will fail to achieve its purpose as a sales tool for your business.

-Your ideal customer

So to develop a successful strategy you first need to understand who your ideal customer is and for that you will need to come up with buyer personas that will help target them. The more detailed these personas are the more targeted your website content will become.

So moving beyond the basics of aspects such as gender, age and into more targeted personas that include job positions, pain points and motivations will help with crafting content that resonates with your audience, communicating directly with them instead of everyone at once.

-Why should a customer choose your business over the competition?

Anyone who starts a business is looking to solve particular sets of problems for their customers and provide value. When you build a website this needs to be clearly articulated. This can be in the form of testimonials, awards and qualifications but also in the way you are able to provide a clear picture of your value proposition.

-Keyword strategy

Once the groundwork is done on identifying your ideal customer, this can then feed into developing the keyword strategy that will provide the foundations for how your website is organised and targeted.

If your site doesn’t rank on search engines for keywords and queries customers are going to be typing in, then these potential customers are not going to view your website or buy from you. 

Having the right pages in the right places as well as using the right page titles will go a long way to helping your website gain visibility in search.

A keyword strategy isn’t static and will evolve as your business evolves to suit the needs of your ideal customers. Ranking prominently for keywords connected to products and services offered will ensure the website does its job in bringing new customers to your business. 

• Set your website up to convert

Once you are happy with the design and content of your website, then it is time to consider how it will convert visitors into customers. This will require a combination of simplicity of design, fast load speed and of course strategically placed calls to action in content.

-Load Speed

According to statistics, people are more likely to convert when a website loads fast. Today’s Internet users are not going to hang around for more than a few seconds waiting for a site to load so speed really is important to get right. Having too much content on a page, Images that are too large and complicated designs can all bring down conversion rates.

-Call to action

Having strategically place calls to action throughout your website is another important aid to increasing conversion rates. Simply having a contact us page is unlikely to take care of conversions on its own so a website needs multiple conversion points on all web pages including having a range of contact options. These calls to action should be easy to find rather than buried in the design of the page. Surprisingly 70% of websites don’t have a call to action button so your site will immediately be gaining an advantage by including them.  

-Ensure the website is responsive

This is covered in more detail on one of our recent blogs on website responsiveness but the need for a website to display properly on smart phones, tablets and so on is vital. Websites that don’t resize to mobile screens risk losing out on an audience of smart phone users that has long since overtaken people who search using desktop computers.

This mini guide to building a b2b website should help you produce a website that will act as a consistent sales generator for your business. However, covering everything you will need does require expertise and experience in each of the key areas, from design to copywriting and SEO.

This team will also need to work closely together to ensure everyone is on the same page and you don’t get competing ideas that result in a lack of cohesion. Seeking the help of an experienced B2b website agency will ensure you have a team skilled in the all the areas required to make your website a success. Get in touch with us today for a free website assessment.