Your brand’s B2B ecommerce website is finally live, and you're ready to hit the ground running with online sales, but is the site all that it can be? B2B optimization is crucial for gaining customers, driving conversions and generating revenue in the digital world.
So, what does website optimization mean for a B2B ecommerce site? Essentially, it's about using various tools and strategies to improve a site performance, increase traffic, create a positive customer experience, reduce bounce rate, and sell more products.
With 25 years in the industry and countless B2B ecommerce website builds, Guidance has the knowledge and experience to help your business thrive online. In this post, we outline six vital tips your company should consider when optimizing its B2B ecommerce website.
Why Is It Important to Optimize B2B Ecommerce Websites?
B2B ecommerce is very unique compared to B2C ecommerce. Transactions are larger and buyers have a much stricter vetting process. B2B online website optimization ensures that a site is easy-to-navigate with a clear, easy-to-follow sales funnel for buyers. An optimized site can attract new customers and keep returning customers coming back by demonstrating your business as a trustworthy and reliable supplier.
By optimizing the site, you ensure that customers have a smooth experience. This also ensures that the site is easier to manage on the backend and on par with latest B2B ecommerce features. Above all else, an optimized site brings customer loyalty and more sales with improved B2B ecommerce growth.
How To Optimize a B2B Ecommerce Website
Understanding the value of an optimized B2B online website is just half the battle—the next step is implementing the right strategies. Take your site’s capability to the next level by following a few simple B2B ecommerce best practices.
Optimize Your B2B Ecommerce Website for SEO and Increased Customer Reach
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of developing a website to rank well in search engines. SEO makes your company visible to the buyer and helps people find your ecommerce site organically when they search for your industry or the types of products you sell. A strong SEO strategy tells the customer (and search engines) that the site is useful, relevant, and trustworthy. Organic search is a powerful tool for reaching new clients, so SEO is a vital pillar of online marketing for B2B businesses.
Many factors influence SEO, and should address as many as possible in your ecommerce strategy. Some of the most important include:
- Keyword density
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- Internal linking
- Backlinks
- On-page word count
- Relevant URLs
- Optimized content and images
- Synced social media pages
- On-site product reviews
- An SSL certificate (HTTPS)
- A Google business page
- Continuous content updates
We recommend optimizing each individual product page across your entire B2B ecommerce website. On each page, include a detailed description, optimized images, and product specs. Also, post a few blogs on your website each month to provide customers with helpful, keyword-driven content.
At Guidance, we demonstrated the power of SEO integration in our Farmer Boy B2B ecommerce case study. The family-owned livestock machinery and equipment company needed a full website overhaul. Historically, Farmer Boy had been managing all their product information manually. A newProduct Information Management (PIM) solution needed to account for both B2B and B2C transaction functionality. In the end, Salsify’s native integration with BigCommerce was the perfect option.
This integration allowed them to revamp their entire digital catalog with a focus on SEO. Instead of manually managing each product, they can now go to a single source and optimize every product for SEO, which helped them gain more search visibility and reach more customers.
Include Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
A call-to-action (CTA) is a statement designed to motivate people to act immediately. In B2B ecommerce, the goals of CTAs can include prompting a customer to:
- Make a purchase
- Take advantage of a sale
- Request a free quote
- Watch a video tutorial
- Contact you for more information
- Read blog content
- Browse through product pages
CTAs are a critical component of B2B website optimization, and we suggest including at least one per page. This includes your company landing page, about page, blog posts, contact page, category pages and each individual product description page. CTAs can keep people on your site longer, boosting your SEO by sending signals to Google that you're a reliable resource. Consider using A/B testing to see which CTAs are most effective.
Optimize Your Site for the Mobile Experience
Just because you're in the B2B market, don't assume your customers are only visiting your website through a desktop browser. Around 70% of B2B search queries are made on smartphones or tablets, and mobile engagement drives upwards of 40% of revenue for B2B internet retailers.
Don’t overlook the importance of a mobile-friendly ecommerce website for reaching B2B clients. When an existing or potential customer visits your site through a mobile device, it should be easy to read and navigate. If they need to zoom in to read your web page copy, can't find what they're looking for, or are unable to click the button they need, you can't expect them to stay long.
One of the essential factors of B2B ecommerce web development is mobile checkout. Sales rely on a good customer experience throughout the website, but if a potential customer cannot checkout easily, they will take their business elsewhere. With many decision-makers and long, complex sales processes, it is important for B2B commerce companies to address these kinds of barriers early on to ensure continued success and customer satisfaction.
The Farmer Boy case study features a great example of successful B2B mobile optimization. When looking at their purchasing data from the last several years, it became clear that Farmer Boy customers had been using mobile devices as their only platform for purchasing, and the company needed to adapt. By optimizing its mobile site, Farmer Boy remained relevant to their customer base and secured continued long-term relationships.
Enhance the B2B Ecommerce Customer Experience (CX)
A strong customer experience for a B2B ecommerce business means the most important aspects of your site are clear, identifiable, and accessible. When selling products to another business, you'll need to create an efficient, user-friendly sales funnel using a reliable B2B ecommerce platform. An easy-to-navigate site will allow for more B2B transactions since the buyer will be easily led through your website to make a purchase. Links, buttons, and other clickable items should be easy to identify and use. Even the little things in B2B ecommerce web development, like easy-to-read fonts, can go a long way.
You can also enhance the user experience by allowing customers to create their own accounts, which promotes customer loyalty and makes the buying process smoother. The customer will be able to review previous purchases, reorder products as needed, and have all their purchasing information already saved.
Additionally, buyers should be able to receive answers to questions with little effort. This means having clear contact information on your site, as well as a FAQ page and a chat widget.
A perfect example of the power of CX is Guidance’s case study of furniture retailer turned wholesale supplier, Dovetail. Their growth meant they needed a refresh of their branding and a more capable ecommerce platform to match. To build an improved user experience, Guidance facilitated a switch to the Optimizely Commerce Cloud, promoting intuitive site navigation and improved PDP design. Optimizely Product Recommendations also helped personalize the experience for shoppers.
Along the way, Guidance helped create a cleaner visual presentation that fit Dovetail’s branding with high-quality imagery and brand-appropriate fonts, providing a better user experience for those on the site. This upgraded site positions Dovetail as a market-leading supplier and resulted in improved site performance to meet customer needs.
Post B2B Educational Content
A B2B customer is more likely to make a purchase from your business after consuming informative content. Whether it's blog posts, instructional videos, how-to guides, whitepapers, or infographics, educational content is a key part of your website’s optimization. And as we mentioned above, it will increase the average time people spend on your site, which also boosts your SEO.
Educational content or “self-service” has been one of the top trends seen in B2B ecommerce. It may not be a new concept, but 51% of B2B buyers rely on content for research before making a purchase. Customers that do their own research have a better grasp of the product, allowing them to feel more confident in making a purchase.
Plus, educational content demonstrates that your brand is an expert in the field. When you provide your audience with relevant information and products, they will view your business as the solution to their challenges and be more likely to become a customer.
Build Credibility for Your Brand
Your brand's image is about more than just the products you sell—it's the overall experience people associate with your business and the trust they have in you. Your B2B ecommerce site plays a key role in developing your brand image and positioning your brand as a credible player to do business with.
The best way to establish credibility for your brand is to demonstrate your brand’s expertise and trustworthiness across your site. Your ecommerce site can accomplish this goal with effective credibility pages, like:
- An About Us page
- A Frequently Asked Questions page
- A Terms and Conditions page
- A Privacy Policy page
- A Case Studies page
There are other small things across your site that also make a difference to potential buyers, like pricing and shipping transparency during checkout. Customer reviews presented clearly on your site will also highlight your brand’s credibility and make buyers more comfortable doing business with you.
Boost Your B2B Ecommerce Growth with Guidance
B2B sales already have a lot of different facets, and adding an ecommerce sales strategy to the equation can feel overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be, thanks to Guidance.
At Guidance, we're seasoned in B2B ecommerce. With over two decades of experience providing B2B ecommerce solutions, we have all the tools, resources, and experience you need to take your business to the next level.
