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B2B Professional Web Design

Your website is your brand and image and storefront on the Internet. Every search people do for your company will (hopefully) lead to your website. Most people do not bother to use paper yellowpages anymore to look up businesses. Going to a company’s website is part of the research in a purchasing process for 80% of B2B executives according to the 2006 ABM-Harris Interactive B2B Internet Usage Survey.

Finding a good web designer (or web design company) is key to a good B2B website (and I’m not just trying to toot my own horn). When you need to have surgery, you look up the best doctor you (or your insurance) can afford. You shouldn’t skimp on a web designer either. The best way to find a good one is to either ask someone you trust for a referral or to contact a company whose website you like and ask them for the name of their designer. It is probably best to get a few companies or names so you can compare them.

Once you have your list, take a look at the websites of the designers. Are they pleasing and well designed? In my experience, classically trained designers (ones with a college degree in design, web design, electronic arts, or computer science) tend to be the best, but occasionally you get someone without a degree who has either devoted a lot of time to learning or just has a natural talent. Every designer should have a portfolio or a resume to show their past work and experience. Avoid designers who do all the talking and tell you how to run your business. You are the expert at what you do – a good designer will listen for much of the first consultation and ask a lot of questions. Many will also show you a proof or ‘wireframe’ of what their design would look like before they take any money. At the very least you should get some type of document (even an email or statement of work) that details what they think your site should look like once they’ve listened to you, taken a look at your site (if you have one), and done some research into other sites you like. Run from any designers who want payment up front.

Please, please, please do not have your children or your 14 year old nephew put together your site unless they are trained and professional web designers.

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B2B Blogging

Is Blogging on your B2B website a good idea? Blogging, especially for your business, has its pros and cons. Here are a few to consider:

Cons:

  • Anything you post is available forever on the web. Search engines and other sites cache results which means that even if you delete a post, it may still be available somewhere on the web.
  • Any opinions expressed in your blog can affect the image your business portrays. Keep clear of political, religious or controversial opinions unless you’re ok with those opinions being associated with your blog.
  • Takes a lot of time. While writing a blog post sometimes only takes 5-10 minutes, there are times when it can eat up a lot more – especially if you feel compelled to post on a schedule and are feeling writer’s block.

Pros:

  • An easy way to add content to your site (and lots of it). A blog can be a great way to add content to your site very frequently. Visitors are more likely to visit if your site is up-to-date and has a lot of content to offer.
  • An easy way to share valuable expertise. Do you have experience or information you’d like to share with your customers? Blogging is an easy way to show your knowledge in your industry and get your name out.
  • A good way to reach out to your customers. Blogging with a comments allows you to share experience, expertise and opinions with your customers. Most importantly, it allows them an easy way to give you feedback on how you can improve your products and services. These are all important to creating a good customer-centric website.

Overall I think blogging can be good for a B2B website, if you go into it with commitment to post regularly and understand how it can affect your business. It certainly is a good way to establish communication with your customers and share your experience and expertise with them. Keep in mind that the above pros and cons also apply if you have a personal blog. If you blog under your real name, it can affect your business image, even if it is in a personal setting.

Happy Blogging!

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B2B Website Usability Basics – Part 3 – Testing

Once you have your new site design launched, the next step is to see how well you figured out your audience. Yep! That’s right – more research – and testing.

You’ll once again need to take a look at your website analytics/stats and see if people are staying on your site longer and going further into the site. You should also see less use of your search engine for the items that you linked to from the homepage. Take a look at your site overlay if you have one and you should also see where people are clicking on each page.

Now you need to continue to improve your site by looking at your analytics/stats and seeing what you can do to make the site even easier to use. If you can, call some of your website visitors and see what they like and dislike about the site. What do they have problems finding? What do they like?

Usability is a constant process of improving your site. Having a customer-centric site means making your site with your customer in mind. The goal is to help people (your customers) find the information they need so they’ll return to your site next time they’re looking. You should see more traffic as more and more people turn to your site as an information source.

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