Website design in the B2B space is all about generating trust. A strong user experience and quality content is key for website design B2B.
But how do you go about building a credible and engaging B2B website?
One thing to think about is your website’s navigation. That is, making it as easy as possible for your busy user to find what they’re searching for.
Let’s explore what other aspects are essential in building your successful B2B website (clue: it’s not just about website hosting).
How do you structure a B2B website?
Let’s consider the B2B website journey. A typically longer one than B2C, your average B2B website visitor takes longer to move from the awareness phase through to interest, before deciding to do business with you.
With this in mind, you’ll need to provide a wealth of valuable information for your B2B user. Think long form content like whitepapers, how-to guides, industry reports, case studies, and informative webinars.
With B2B sales, it’s more about building trusted working relationships than the quick sell. It’s the same for social media strategies, as B2B social media is very different to B2C social media.
In terms of website structure, think about:
- Why should businesses buy your product or service?
- How are you different from the competition?
- Who is your product for?
Your B2B website needs to be crystal clear from the outset as to why users should stick around. Bear in mind that the B2B sales funnel typically involves buy-in from many different stakeholders - so you need to talk to these personas respectively. Generally, these personas are Decision Makers, Recommenders, and Users.
The decision makers are the group of personas that immediately need to understand the value of your solution and whether it’s a good fit for their company. They’re not typically too concerned about the nuances of the solution.
Recommenders, however, need to help short-list the solutions to be evaluated for the decision makers. And the users need to explore your solution in detail to gain a deep understanding of how it works. These personas are the ones who will use your product or solution daily, so it’s key that they’re confident that it solves their current problems.
With this in mind, your B2B website content structure must support this lengthy, multi-audience, and often complicated, sales funnel. One way to help users move through the funnel is by strategically placing web forms to capture their information and interests at different stages of the buyer journey.
Key focus pages will be your Home, Solutions, Product, and About. Your top level pages (Home and About) should include key value propositions and high-level messaging. Your second and third level pages (Solution, Product, and detail pages) cover the more technical aspects of your solution. After this, social share buttons and your TikTok widget are best placed in your bottom menu bar.
Image sourced from webenertia.com
Now we’ve looked at the structure and touched on the content you need, we can move on to the tips for building a credible and engaging B2B website.
- Optimize for mobile
It’s likely that your target audience will at some point access your B2B website through mobile devices. Because the screens are smaller, you must consider that your incredible website design will look significantly different in micro.
Implement UI design tips to ensure a seamless journey on mobile as it is on a desktop or a laptop. Ensure that you prioritize mobile-friendliness in your B2B website design. Something important to bear in mind is that search engines base their rankings on mobile-friendliness - this includes displaying search results with “mobile-friendly” tags.
When your B2B site is optimized for mobile from launch, you stand a far higher chance of ranking higher and being seen by your target audience.
For a mobile-friendly website design, think responsive. Engage with your web developer to focus on CSS to create your site to adapt functionally to smaller dimensions - and deliver an exceptional experience on any device.
- Optimize for search engines
The next tip looks at optimization for search engines. To maximize your chances of high search engine rankings, you need to take steps to make it easy for bots to crawl your B2B website. The following are some SEO aspects to take heed of during your B2B website design and build:
- Meta descriptions and unique titles inform search engines what to expect from each of your web pages. Header tags (e.g. H1, H2) organize your website’s content and make it simple for bots to index your site. If you don’t make it easy for them to understand your website content by including the appropriate information, you won’t benefit from ranking accordingly.
- Your domain name is a ranking factor all on its own. When search engines see that your site has been around for some time, it’s likely to rank it higher as you’re deemed a business with longevity. If you’re a brand new business, you can’t control this, but what you can do is purchase domain names for as long a period as possible (this also prevents other companies from stealing your name).
- Use alt tags throughout your B2B website for images. Search engines reward sites that consider accessibility. Alt tags on images tell search engines what the image is and will improve user experience for visually impaired prospects.
Free to use image from Unsplash
- Include relevant keywords that speak to your industry and business. Consider key phrases such as common questions you’re asked by your target audience. Check out Google’s People Also Ask section to uncover what your prospects want to know about your business and how to address their pain points. For example, if you're starting a business in California, tailoring your website to reflect local nuances is crucial. Incorporate keywords and content that resonate with the state's market to ensure your site appeals to local businesses.
- Use a page builder to build your website layout and and design it as well - tools like Gutenberg or Elementor will come in handy to create a quick website and customize it since they come with pre-build page templates which you can immediately use and customize to your taste.
- Page load time is another key search engine ranking factor. Google won’t send users to your website if your page loads slowly. Much like a hosted PBX service, your website needs to be fast and responsive. Look at reducing things like fancy animations and huge images that slow down your site, and removing unnecessary code and pixels.
- Explore Google Search Console for meaningful insights on how to improve your B2B website’s SEO. Get information on site performance, the most visited pages, and key search terms to use in your website content. Google Search Console will also inform you if your website has issues with technical performance.
- Use external reputable links to demonstrate your authority with businesses and internal links to help users navigate across your site.
Free to use image from Unsplash
- Optimize your authority
As we mentioned, it’s crucial to convey your business as the industry leader by producing plenty of valuable content. One step further is content that shows how trusted you are in the industry, and exactly why businesses should deal with you.
To do this, generate case studies detailing previous work with other like-minded businesses in your target audience range. When they see the value you’ve delivered for others, it’s easier for them to imagine how you can do the same for their business, too. In addition to case studies, create About pages that show off your team’s expertise and to come across as relatable.
Because the B2B space thrives on trust, visualizing your team will enable prospects to begin creating relationships and generating engagement. If it fits with your firm’s culture, consider including links to social connections for the approachability factor.
- Optimize for navigation
If you’ve taken the tips on board to create valuable content for your audience, it’s crucial to organize that content. Overwhelming your B2B prospects will not land you many referrals, that’s for sure.
Keep your navigation menus uncluttered and easy to read. Include no more than five or six categories. If your users are confronted with too many options, they’re likely to not choose one at all and leave your site. So, smooth website navigation is an important part of both the B2C and the B2B customer journey, creating a seamless and efficient online experience.
As with social media landing pages, your landing pages must explain what your business is all about, and how you can help - immediately.
Guide prospects to specific subsets of pages using clear dropdown menus. These dropdown menus should be easy to see with font that’s legible for accessibility purposes.
Free to use image from Pexels
- Optimize for action
Last but not least, you want to be sure that your website users know what to do and where to go at every stage of their journey with your business.
This means including engaging calls to action in strategic places on your website. If your users get stuck in their website journey, they won’t hang around to figure it out - they’ll move on to your competitor. Include attractive calls to action that guide users to their next stop. Typically, you’ll do this using a bright color to make it stand out - but bear in mind your company’s brand guidelines.
As you build your B2B website, generate an offer tactic that dictates specific calls to action on target pages, and why. For example, we talked about different buyer personas, and the fact that the B2B sales funnel often encompasses multi-personas.
You’ll therefore want calls to action after recommenders have absorbed a whitepaper, and users will require a call to action once they’ve downloaded a detailed user guide. These calls to action serve as part of your overall digital marketing strategy which includes email marketing campaigns and collaboration tools to follow up with prospects post-download.
Your B2B website calls to actions must stand out like a beacon and be simple to understand. A great way to do this is by incorporating a call widget that can increase engagement and drive more leads. Additionally, use clear and urgent text like “contact us today” or “download now” for maximum conversion opportunities. Consider implementing A/B testing to compare users’ reactions to different calls to actions and experiment with text, colors, and placements.
Another way to improve your B2B website's conversion rate is by implementing landing page personalization. By tailoring landing pages to specific buyer personas or industries, you can create a more personalized experience for your users and increase the likelihood of them taking action.
Take it away
So there you have it. Plenty of actionable tips you can take away to build an engaging and credible B2B website. Remember - your job when building a B2B website is to get the right information to the right people, at the right time. Do this right, and you’ll find that you'll convert users into loyal customers.