Is Your B2B Website Central to Online Lead Generation? Answer These 3 Questions

My company website was a simple one I created myself back in 2012 to explain the B2B marketing consulting services I offer. It was looking a bit dated. In addition, I had a WordPress blog with a completely different look. So I bit the bullet and completely redesigned my company website and incorporated the blog. I hope you’ll take a look around while you’re here.

Naturally I’ve been thinking a lot about B2B websites in general. Too often B2B websites become nothing more than online brochures. Or sometimes, they fall short when it comes to moving prospects toward becoming qualified leads. Instead, a B2B website should be at the center of all your online lead generation.

To see whether your B2B website is functioning at the center of your online lead generation, answer these 3 questions.

Do prospects find your website during online searches?

When your prospects have a problem or challenge they need to solve, the first thing they do is research online to find possible solutions. If your website doesn’t appear in their search results, then you’ve missed a lead generation opportunity right from the start!

Make sure your B2B website is search engine optimized (SEO) so that it is easy for Google and other search engines to crawl and that it ranks well. Your website needs to focus on improving the user experience and offer content that addresses each stage of your prospect’s buyer journey. For example, blogging can be a great way to provide educational and informative content and significantly improve SEO.

Google rarely states specifics about how it ranks websites, but did state that websites without security certificates will rank lower in search results. You may have already noticed during your own internet searching that most browsers notify you whenever a site does not have a security certificate.

If you haven’t already done so, your B2B site needs to have a security certificate (URL starts with https://).

How well does your online marketing drive website traffic?

Your social media posts, online ads and email campaigns should all be driving visitors to your website. It’s OK for some of your social posts to reference industry events or content on other sites. However, the majority of your posts should offer links to dedicated web landing pages designed to convert visitors. The same goes for online ads.

Make sure your website uses responsive design so it renders properly on smartphones, tablets, and desktop computer browsers. This is especially important for social media posts because increasingly many of us view social media on tablets and smartphones, not our desktop computer. And if your website doesn’t render properly, you risk losing engagement with prospects and increasing page bounce rates. This will eventually result in lower search rankings.

For every online post, ad, or email campaign measure how much traffic each delivers to your website as well as web landing page bounce rates. This way you can learn what is most effective and efficient for driving engaged website traffic.

How well is your website converting visitors to leads?

If your online marketing is driving traffic to your website, then make sure your web landing pages keep them engaged enough to get their email address. The best way to do this is to offer valuable educational content behind a form. These landing page forms are the best way to build your in-house list so you can further nurture prospects toward being a qualified lead. Don’t rely only on a “Contact Us” form.

Just like your social media posts and online ads, make sure every email campaign has a call to action that takes the person to a landing page on your website. In addition to the information they expected from the email, offer them more content that helps them along their buyer journey.

Analyze how well your landing pages convert. Do visitors visit the page, but then quickly abandon the page? Maybe the content or offer is not valuable enough for the user to give up their contact information. Do they open the form, but don’t submit it? Maybe your form is asking for too much information given the offer. A/B testing and further analysis can help you improve conversion rates.

If your answers to these 3 questions weren’t as positive as you’d like, maybe it’s time to rethink your online lead generation and website strategy. Or maybe it’s simply time for a website update or redesign. Sometimes an outside perspective and dedicated resource is just what’s needed. Get in touch with me to discuss your needs.