A recent survey conducted by Google shows us that 90% of B2B online buyers perform online research prior to making business purchases. They conduct an average of 12 searches BEFORE they engage with any particular brand’s website. About 71% of these start on a generic search query, so they’re looking for product options and solutions first, not specifically for a provider/brand. By the time they contact potential suppliers they are very well educated and have a bias towards certain solutions.
That data demonstrates just how important a business website is, it’s the first introduction potential buyers have to your business so it’s vital it’s built to compete and convert visitors to buyers.
Being such an integral part of your marketing efforts, it’s important to take the time to carefully design your website from a marketing perspective and with your target buyer in mind.
When we are designing websites one of the first things we ask a client is what they want site visitors to leave knowing or believing about their business or product? Have a think about this question and then take another look at your website.
Here are some simple rules to get your website working as hard as you do to generate leads.
1. Search Engine Optimisation
Now we have the data regarding buyer behaviour and we know how important a website is, be sure your website is found and invest in Search Engine Optimisation. That is a specialist task that helps your website appear in search engine results, it’s a different task to website design and it’s also an on-going job because search engines crawl your website approximately every 6 weeks and each time it’s crawled the search engines index your site which can impact your rankings. If your website isn’t ranking for the search terms that relate to your industry, it’s time to invest in SEO.
2. Content is King
It doesn’t matter how attractive your site is, how easy it is to navigate or how high it ranks on Google if your website doesn’t have good quality content visitors will quickly navigate away. That can be a costly mistake, especially if you are using pay per click advertising. Remember you only have a few seconds to grab the attention of your visitors and a visually appealing site with quality content will really help to keep bounce rates down. Don’t forget online readers like to scan copy so use lots of subheadings. Attention-grabbing headings that resonate with your visitors are key, if you want to hold their attention. When developing your website copy, try to use the language your buyers use, that will give the impression that you understand them and their needs.
We recommend that each page on your website must have a specific goal in terms of content. Think ‘what am I trying to convey on this page’ and that will help you to stay on message.
3. Structure your website with simplicity in mind
If your site is not easy to understand and navigate, then your visitors won’t spend time trying to figure it out, with so many other options out there. Keep the home page clean and simple, with easy-to-see links with a clear layout. You want your website to convey a sense of success, organisation and professionalism so it is important that it is structured simply with headings and bullet points to help guide the visitor to the relevant information they are searching for.
Try to resist the urge to have everything on your homepage, think of the types of information people are looking for when they arrive, make that easy to find. Then from each additional page consider what other information a visitor may find useful – remember to up-sell and cross-sell whenever possible.
4. Images will help engage
Images can be a great way of making your business more personable and attractive. Colour schemes and graphics can help consumer’s associate your brand with certain emotions or qualities. Remember some visitors are visual and good imagery will support the copy and help the visitor to absorb your message.
5. Call to action
Every page on your website should contain a call to action that guides the visitor to the next step in their buying journey, it could be a newsletter sign-up, downloading some content or requesting a call back. Help users to buy from you by guiding them to the next steps. Every website should collect email addresses and be helping you to grow your mailing list.
Building and editing your website can be tricky. If you need assistance, we can help you to get more from your website!
