What your B2B Website Should Include
About the Author: Barak Hajaj
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Introduction to B2B Website
Your B2B website isn’t working. You invested time and money in an overpriced, shiny new website that you were 100% sure will get your phone ringing in no time.
Ask yourself – If you handed your site to a total stranger, would they be able to tell what your business does within 5 seconds?
If they couldn’t, then you’ve got a messaging problem.
What you should want from your website: More sales, More conversions, Higher quality leads, build trust. What your customer wants: Solution to their needs, Fast load and easy navigation. This post will walk you through the look and feel, content and SEO aspect you should consider and include in your B2B website.
Look and feel
Reflect value and keep your buyer personas in mind
B2B, much like B2C, is all about solving your visitor’s pain points. Be crystal clear about how your company is going to solve a buyer’s problem in every step of the marketing funnel.
When thinking about your homepage, make sure it touches your buyer persona‘s pain points right away. Even better, help your visitors to better define their problem and evaluate possible solutions.
Your site has to be able to efficiently introduce your buyers to the solution for their business needs and why your company is the best at providing it.
Keep your design minimal, yet bold, with your buyer’s feelings in mind
B2B marketing is actually H2H (human-to-human) marketing, and people are messy. Impulse, mood, rationalization and reason all affect your visitors buying decisions. Even under corporate hat. So make sure to create an uncluttered, easily navigable experience for your end-user. Pick a deliberate use of color, content and layout that best reflects your business’ added value over your competitors.
Remember – B2B doesn’t mean boring. Make your site more engaging with big, bold visuals that bring your brand to life, but don’t overwhelm your visitors.
Think hard on how every section on your site keeps your different buyer personas engaged. If you can’t, maybe it shouldn’t be on your site.
Don’t be boring and over corporate
The best B2B websites show, they don’t tell. This is not an excuse to get lazy and use generic stock photos or videos. Luckily, there is a growing movement of designers and photographers that provide either a free or subscription service that looks much more genuine than the boring ones you’ll find on every regular sites. Some of the best stock footage websites are Pexels, Unsplash, ProVideoFactory.
Make sure your visitors are never overwhelmed or confused
Your homepage should be long enough to be clear, but short enough to keep their attention. Clarify:
- who you are, what you do,
- where you’re located (if you’re local)
- your value proposition
- what visitors should do next.
Make sure to evaluate the look and feel of every piece of content or page on your site, be it a service, about page or blog post.
Add value all throughout your website
A face lift alone doesn’t cut it to get more leads. Content (whether it’s text, image or CTA) should be spot-on throughout the site, with nothing but high value offers. Your buyers time is short and priceless, so don’t waste any of it.
Ninety percent of B2B marketers use content to grow awareness, drive consideration, and generate sales. The trick is to include attention grabbing CTAs and to leverege your content to generate leads by asking for a visitors email address in exchange for accessing your great content. When doing so, make sure to consider the buyer’s journey.
SEO aspects to consider
Just because B2B site goals are substantially more complex than those on the typical B2C site, is no excuse for them to have bad usability. On the contrary – the more complex the scenario, the higher the need for supportive user interfaces.
Remember – B2B=H2H. Make your site is customer centric and optimize your page for user experience
Write for humans, not search engines.
It’s important to realize that Google is no longer trying to match the keywords you type into its search engine to the keywords of a web page. Instead, it’s trying to understand the intent behind the keywords you type so it can match that intent to relevant, high-quality content.
This means that you do not have to place your keywords word-for-word in the content anymore. Instead, write the content for the user. If you use related terms or synonyms, search engines like Google will still understand what your page’s overall goal is.
Optimize your images
Search engines cannot see images on websites, so it is important to give the image an alt text and relevant file name to ensure Google knows what the image is about.
Make sure to make image files you (or your web master) uploaded to your site as light as possible. There are a lot of easy tools and photo editing software you can do this with (Irfanview, jpegmini and more)
Testimonials:
“2017 may well be the year of testimonials and reviews in local SEO. As our industry continues to grow, we have studied surveys indicating that some 92% of consumers now read online reviews and that 68% of these cite positive reviews as a significant trust factor.” – MiriamEllis on Moz Blog
As opposed to some saying that “testimonials pages are useless”, well-crafted testimonials pages are, in fact, vitally useful in a variety of ways.
Client testimonials, reviews and case studies can impact your local rankings, win you in-SERP stars and boost your website overall trustworthiness and reputation in the eyes of Google. They validate your claims, and they help prospective buyers imagine use cases for their own businesses – and imagine themselves as clients.
Your site isn’t just a piece of code that shows your company logo, contact info and services, it needs to be part of your sales strategy
Blog!
“B2B marketers that use blogs receive 67% more leads than those that do not.” – Olivia Allen on Hubspot Blog sums it up great.
Business blogging is the lowest cost way to improve your site’s visibility by both users and search engines, and is one of 5 most trusted sources for accurate online information.
If that statistic alone isn’t enough to convince you that blogging can benefit your business, here’s another one – companies who blog receive 97% more links to their website, which of course benefits your SERP ranking efforts.
By nature, blogs have a more personal touch to them, so naturally they’re a trusted source of information for you potential buyer.
Provide your visitors with insights and industry news, build authority and become a thought-leader in the progress.
Remember, B2B is about earning trust by solving your buyer’s pain points.
Conclusion
Especially when it comes to B2B, keep in mind that your buyers are busy. Don’t waste their time.
Take time to understand your core audience, identify their pain points and be crystal clear about how your company is going to solve the buyer’s problem in every step of the marketing funnel.
Keep it clear, light and customer centric. Your website isn’t about your company, it’s about how your buyer benefits from choosing to work with you.
If you find this useful, you’re invited to download our B2B Marketing Best Practices that Every CMO Must Know Ebook. Get your FREE copy now ==>
Barak Hajaj
Barak is a veteran in the digital marketing industry, he has initiated, produced and promoted marketing strategies and campaigns for tier-1 global companies.
He's experienced in a broad range of advertising and marketing functions, mainly focusing on inbound marketing, SEO and PPC with diverse industry segments.
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Barak is a veteran in the digital marketing industry, he has initiated, produced and promoted marketing strategies and campaigns for tier-1 global companies. He's experienced in a broad range of advertising and marketing functions, mainly focusing on inbound marketing, SEO and PPC with diverse industry segments.
Barak Hajaj
Barak is a veteran in the digital marketing industry, he has initiated, produced and promoted marketing strategies and campaigns for tier-1 global companies.
He's experienced in a broad range of advertising and marketing functions, mainly focusing on inbound marketing, SEO and PPC with diverse industry segments.
