8 Tips for Quality Website Design for Businesses

Looking to design a new website for your business? Many key factors contribute to a positive website experience for a B2B company. And almost all of the best practices center around one key fact: companies don’t buy from other companies. People at companies buy from other people at companies.

That means that regardless of whether you’re responsible for marketing a B2B company or a B2C company, you’re still marketing to a person. Additionally, if you believe that people buy from others they know, like, and trust, your website has to build that “KLT factor” with your target audience.

Let’s look at a few of the best practices and trends when it comes to designing your business website:

#1: Intuitively Organize Your Website Content

Know your customer! Once you identify who you are speaking to, figure out their burning questions. Ensure you’re organizing your content in a way your visitors can easily find the answers. This starts with a good Information Architecture (IA).

Quality IA requires you to plan out the content, much like you blueprint the rooms of a house before building it. Plan the sections of your website, and what doors lead to what information. Make sure it “makes sense” and doesn’t deviate from best practices unless you are sure it’s intuitive.

#2: Ensure Your Website Content is Robust and Well-Written

Have you ever seen a glaringly obvious grammatical mistake on the homepage of a website? Incorrect grammar leads to distrust in marketing. Well-written copy ensures you communicate the problems of your target audience as well as the solutions that your business provides.

Crafting clear, concise, and error-free content demonstrates professionalism and attention to detail – qualities that potential customers value. By skillfully weaving these elements together, you create a compelling narrative that resonates with your readers. This can ultimately drive your audience to take a desired action on your website.

#3: Maintain A Consistent, Mobile-Friendly Website Design

Similar to grammar issues, inconsistencies in design create distrust. A consistent, modern, mobile-friendly B2B website will elevate your overall brand. We’ve seen it empower companies to close more sales, charge more for their services, and do a better job hiring.

Look at your website as your business hub. The spokes represent your:

Social media accounts
Paid ads
Email campaigns
Print materials

The entire hub and spoke should be “on brand” so that your visitors recognize you when they see you. This doesn’t stop at visual design either.

Your brand voice should maintain consistency across the hub and spoke so that you always come across as having the same personality as your audience.

#4: Include A Stellar “About Us” Page or Section

Did you know that the About Us page is often the second most accessed page on a website site? When we’ve analyzed where visitors click on websites, the faces of people tend to rank very high. After all, people work with people and faces build trust.

Almost all well-designed B2B websites include the following on their About Us pages:

High-quality headshots
Team member bios
Company culture and values
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives
Link to open jobs

Don’t miss the fact that prospective candidates look to this page when applying or interviewing for a job. (Pro-tip: they almost always check out your social channels too). Very often, prospects look to work with people they’ve worked with before. A great recent hire at a new company can be the deciding factor for how someone comes to find your company.

#5: Showcase Past Successes and Happy Customers

Case studies, positive reviews and testimonials build trust with your audience. They allow people to start to like you because others have vouched for your services or products.

Very often in a B2B sales process, the customer wants to know that you’ve worked with companies similar to theirs. Case studies are great for telling the story of past or current customers so that new prospects can see themselves as the main character in a future success story.

But in order for your case studies to effectively showcase your expertise, they have to be set up correctly. The best case studies include the following:

Storytelling throughout. Share the problem your client approached you to solve, how you delivered, and what the results were.
Imagery throughout. If possible, include before and after photos of what you achieved.
Challenges you’ve overcome. Don’t shy away from any issues that may have come up – as long as your team was able to resolve them.
A call-to-action (CTA) relevant to the topic of the case study. For example, if you redesigned their website, link to your website design services page.

#6: Include a Robust Resource Section with Various Types of Content

Do you have a 24/7 sales team? You should, and it should be your website. It’s often said that a good B2B website is a company’s best salesperson or tool.

Content can answer key questions along the buyer’s journey in all various forms. And better yet, it can come in multiple forms to keep your audience engaged:

Videos
Infographics
Articles
Press releases
Case studies
Webinars
Downloadable templates

With a robust, well-organized resource center, topics can be organized in meaningful ways that speak to current trends in your market and promote your team as the thought leaders or experts in their field.

Beyond that, if your team is contributing to the resource center, it will empower them to build relationships with prospects, allow them to promote themselves, and highlight your in-house expertise as a key differentiator.

#7: Ensure Your New Website is Optimized for SEO

SEO is not magic! When someone asks Google a question that you can answer, you either show up or you don’t. If you want to show up, you have to ensure some of the key best practices of SEO are followed:

Use your target keywords (but don’t overdo it)
Publish content that answers common questions from your audience
Keep your site in good technical standing (sitemap.xml, robots.txt, and no 404 pages)
Ensure each page has metadata
Have the right page structure with hierarchical heading tags
As we mentioned earlier, maintain a mobile-friendly design

Google’s search index (what they show for a search term) is completely different on desktop vs. mobile devices. If your site looks bad on mobile devices, it will not be ranked as highly as your desktop site in Google search results.

#8: Make Sure Your Website Design is ADA-Compliant

ADA compliance should be a standard requirement for any website design. For one, ADA-compliant websites are inclusive of those that may have a disability and it’s not fair to them if you don’t make your site accessible. But having a non-compliant website could mean you’re missing out on business.

1 in 6 people have some form of disability. If a prospect is one of them, you are missing out on an opportunity to work together. Accessible website design considers things like:

Colors and contrast
Typography and font size
Intuitive organization
Image alternative text
Video transcripts/captions

We also recommend installing a plugin to ensure your site is ADA-compliant. Doing so is a catch-all for any changes in new rules of compliance.

Great B2B Websites are Designed with Humans in Mind

All in all, there are many factors that can contribute to whether a B2B website is well-designed or not. The right website design requires expertise from experienced designers, developers, content strategists, and marketers.

Remember that you are designing for a human on the other end. Rather than design the website based on the way you or someone else at your company wants to see it, design it for your target audience. Ensure you are building a site that helps a new prospect get to know, like, and trust you.

Need some help with this process? BNP Engage is an experienced B2B website design agency and we’d love to guide you in the right direction. Contact us today to discuss your goals and put your best foot forward with your website!