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B2B Website Usability – Does It Work?

You may be wondering if all these tips for redesigning your website to be customer-centric work.

A month ago we redesigned the flagship website (a B2B publication) at the publishing company where I work. The redesign focused on increasing the amount of content that is updated more frequently, offering more content (including blogs and video), and making it easier for readers to find what they’re looking for (by following good usability practices).

Since the redesign we’ve been monitoring their traffic using Google Analytics because it filters out all search engines and crawlers. The average weekly visits have increased 34%, average weekly page views have increased 23% and average weekly visitors have increased 36%. The change was so dramatic that the traffic on the first day was higher than it had been in six months (probably due to word-of-mouth or a forum post somewhere) – the publication didn’t advertise the redesign in print until the following Monday which had another increase in traffic.

Website optimization is a constant process so there still is work to do to see what works for our customers (readers) and what doesn’t. Using Google’s stats and site overlay we’re able to constantly tweak the site to help readers find what they’re looking for. Next step is to take a look at few more customer-problem sections as shown by a high percentage of exits on certain pages (through Google analytics) and to consider removing registration requirements from the rest of the content. We’ll also take a look at the keyword cloud on the site (what keywords are repeated throughout the content) and how they relate what readers are looking for through search engines (including our own).

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B2B Audiences

We’ve been talking about customer-centric websites, but what are your customers doing at home? Obviously these results apply to the consumer market instead of B2B, but B2B is usually not far behind:

Silicon Alley Insider: Almost All Consumers Now Use Web for Buying Decisions –

  • 53% share bookmarks
  • 56% use RSS feeds
  • 35% use tag clouds
  • 70% read blogs regularly
  • 67% regularly watch videos on YouTube, etc.
  • 92%+ use the web when making product buying decisions (research, reviews, retailer location, price comparison, etc.)
  • 54% start their product research at a search engine
  • 55% rely on user reviews most when choosing products
  • 21% rely on expert reviews most
  • After product selected, most important criteria when choosing where to buy are price (38%) and site reputation (38%)
  • 36% use mobile phone to check headlines

There is a pretty huge jump in the acceptance of many of these technologies, including RSS, tag clouds and videos. All three should be considered in the design of your b2b web site. If you were in doubt about the importance of your website: 92%+ use the web when making product buying decisions and as we’ve shown in the ABM-Harris 2006 Interactive B2B survey, this applies to B2B research as well. And community is important, as is the thoughts of peers in the reviews of products and services.

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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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