Let’s be real. Creating great looking B2B Websites is super-hard. There is a lot that goes into knowing what your target audience likes? What problem are you solving? Have you defined your value proposition?
The legroom for creativity is minimal, a designer’s nightmare!
Things can get infinitely times better once you invest in making a framework for different business models such as B2B & B2C. Your head will be in the right place and your time will be spent effectively.
Here is a checklist that will make sure you follow the best practices with uniformity:
Have a clear end-goal in mind.
- What action do you want the user to perform?
- Share his/her contact details?
- Sign up for a webinar?
- Download your Lead Magnet?
Having a crystal clear end-goal is essential in creating great looking B2B websites. This will help you streamline your website to perform that objective. All of the text will help persuade the user to make an informed decision towards it.
What kind of audience do you want to attract?
Do you want to target entrepreneurs who want to develop a website offering their services to other businesses or do you want a website for the SaaS platform?
Having a clear idea of who you are targeting can help you target your efforts.
For instance, if your website is optimised to target C-level executives, share ebooks and white papers as lead magnets.
Invest time in defining the colour palette for your website.
Choosing a professional palette is necessary to target the right audience. Funky colours and palette won’t sustain the brand you want to make. Choosing more than three primary colours will make it hard for the designer to design well.
Colour Psychology plays a vital role in establishing your brand’s message subconsciously. Blue is the standard colour across B2B websites, due to its association with dependency and provoking a sense of trust. Do not ignore these vital metrics.
Make the website mobile-first.
The advent of mobile phones has changed the IT industry for the better. Google now has a mobile-first index policy and making a responsive website is obligatory.
Making a website that looks good on mobile should be your numero uno. Make your text readable. Tweak the opacity of the images to your audience’s liking.
The navigation should be compact.
Optimise for Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Designing great looking B2B websites with SEO in mind will play into getting organic traffic to your website. Headings Titles and Meta Description give a professional look to your website and boost CTR.
Different On-Page factors play into making your website stand out from the others.
Providing maximum value and being useful to your potential users will play a pivotal role in your website dwell time.
Talk about the benefits (not features).
Your web copy should display the benefits and value your business will provide to other businesses.
How will you:
- add value to their sales cycle?
- help them get more leads?
- support their employees in being more effective?
These questions are legit and will display why someone would care to look at your website. Dive headfirst into all of the benefits and touch little on the features of your product or service.
Invest in visual assets and typography.
High-resolution images are mandatory to protect your brand’s integrity as professional and modern, crucial in creating great looking B2B websites.
Typography relates to your Heading’s fonts and the font pairings inside your web copy. Make sure there is synergy in your fonts and they project your idea and not distract from it.
Images and videos will help your website form a visual hierarchy in which users will get most of their information at the top.
Optimise the assets. However, don’t compromise on page speed. It is an important SEO factor.
Use different elements to compliment your text.
- Icons used in bullet points
- Logos of your clients in greyscale.
- FAQs answering most basic queries
- Services displayed with help of visual media
- Client Testimonials in Cards or Video form
Elements complement the visual assets on your website display information. They are necessary building blocks of user experience that help you keep your customers glued to your website.
Impress your clients by incorporating them into your website’s architecture.
Make the flow of website fluid.
If a layman can browse through your website without being confused, your website’s flow is perfect and well-optimized.
The website’s flow is a set of sequences you follow to approach the end goal. See how many steps a user takes to approach the result and try to keep it at a minimum.
Your potential customer must not feel any abrupt changes while browsing your website. That is the crux of the design flow.
A/B experiment with landing page copy.
Different copy for Different folks. It won’t ring any bells till you experiment.
It could be a different colour for the CTA button or different text on the website. Personalise your website to the buyer persona you are targeting.
Hit those accessibility checkboxes.
Colourblind people will go through your website in a different manner. Your design should be inclusive of all kinds of people visiting.
Universal design is one of the benchmarks of modern design and an important factor in SEO. Your design should contain high contrast fonts with visual communication not done entirely with colours.
Hover and form submissions should be implemented to enable equal participation. Use Font weight to establish a visual hierarchy for content and highlight important points with bold text or italics.
Display the contact information clearly across all pages.
Make sure your contact information, such as number, address, and phone number, is displayed clearly. Add a map link to your address to add more value.
Consistent information is necessary to find your business online. Mention this in the contact us section or the footer of the website. Usually, footer is the preferred destination.
Check your website for typos.
Typographic mistakes make your business look unprofessional and can even confuse.
An American audience prefers English written in their style. For instance, British English follows different lexicology. Therefore, it might not be as appealing to an American reader.
Make sure to understand how your text impacts your user demographic. Therefore, adjust the text accordingly.
Display legal pages at the bottom.
Privacy Policy, Cookie Policy, and T&A should be displayed clearly at the bottom. This is an essential webmaster guideline that needs to be followed.
Some other things to look out for:
- Double-check your layout over mobile tablets and desktop screens.
- The website should be cross-browser compatible.
- Design a sturdy 404 page.
- Establish form submission in a different manner.
- Make sure to have spare whitespace for additional content.
- Reserve uppercase letters for headers and labels.
Phew! That was a long list.
However, this is not the end.
Your website may follow all the best practices. You might have excelled in several departments. For instance, maybe your website is more accessible now.
But you still have to keep testing, analysing, and tweaking for best results.
Need more help with your website?
Check out our other Website Design articles, or contact us for your website design and development requirements.
This article was a guest post by Hammad Afzal.
Hammad is a Senior SEO Expert at TechNerds Inc. He specialises in SEO, Content Marketing, and Social Media Strategy and has 3+ years of experience.