9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

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9 B2B Website ‘Must Haves’ for Driving Traffic & Leads

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9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

Let’s Get StartedWhether you’re coming out of stealth and looking to build your first site, or if your

existing site just isn’t getting the traction you were hoping for, you may wonder

what it really takes to generate traffic and drive leads with your site.

Having a website has become table stakes for B2B organizations. To turn your

website into a high-value business asset, it needs to attract visitors, educate them,

and convert them into qualified leads.

80% of B2B Marketers noted that

“Drive Sales and Leads” is their

top business objective.

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9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

When it comes to generating copious amounts of qualified traffic, the word of

the day is SEO. Outside of offline campaigns, paid acquisition or social media

campaigns, a huge percentage of your new site traffic should come from organic

search. And here’s how you make that happen:

Inbound links:

Off-page search engine optimization (SEO) is the most important factor to

increasing your ranking results. Off-page SEO is about building inbound links,

essentially getting other quality websites to link back to you. The more inbound

links you have, the more important Google considers your site, so you’ll rank

higher and be found more often.

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3 B2B ‘Must Haves’ for Driving Traffic

B A C K L I N K M O N I T O R I N G & R E P O R T I N G

9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

M E E T R O B O T S . T X T

On-page SEO:

This consists of optimizing critical elements of your page for the search terms

and phrases you are targeting. The most common elements include headings,

sub-headings, body copy, image alt-tags, links and anchor text. Without these

elements, search engines don’t know what to rank your site for, and competitors

will consistently beat you to Page 1.

Technical SEO:

The unseen parts of your page are some of the most critical for search

optimization. Title tags, meta descriptions, mobile optimizations and page speed

are site elements that you can’t see, but will sink your SEO traffic in a heartbeat.

Don’t know what a robots.txt file is? You will when it stops search engines from

finding your site, costing you 80% of your traffic.

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9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

A great first impression:

Typography, look, design and overall appearance is what makes your site look

credible to potential leads.

• Beau Brendler, director of Consumer Web Watch noted: “Visitors first evaluate

a site’s overall design, including its use of multimedia. While consumers say

they judge on substance, these studies demonstrate that consumers judge on

aesthetics and get distracted by bells and whistles.”

The right images:

Images can be a powerful element to any website, but you need to use them wisely.

Stock photography might sound like a good, inexpensive option, but make sure that

they align with your brand.

• Every image transmits a subconscious message to your audience. Sometimes

the result is not what’s expected. Achieving the right balance between images

and copy on a website has been shown to increase conversions by 29%

[marketingexperiments.com].

6 B2B ‘Must Haves’ for Driving Leads

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9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

Easy navigation:

One of the biggest factors to keep visitors on your website is having user-friendly

navigation. If people can’t find what they are looking for, they will give up and leave.

• In fact, more than 75% of survey respondents from a recent HubSpot study say

that the most important element in website design is ease in finding information.

• There are two types of site users: browsers and seekers. Browsers will

“wander” through the site, often working left to right across your top

navigation. They are passively consuming information and want to be able to

window-shop. Seekers are after one thing, and want to get there as fast as

possible. Your navigation needs to support both user styles.

Accessibility:

Make sure that anyone visiting your website can view it no matter what browser or

application they are using. With over 58% of all browsing time spent on mobile or

tablet screens, non-desktop researching and buying practices cannot be ignored

[2015 U.S. Mobile App Report]. Your site needs to be compatible with multiple

browsers and devices, or risk losing out to forward-thinking competition.

• 57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed

mobile site. (Google Mobile Playbook)

• 37% of consumers are more likely to purchase on a mobile-optimized site.

(ExactTarget, 2014 Mobile Behavior Report)

Content marketing:

Depending on your visitor’s stage in the buying process, they may be looking to

see how your features line up with their needs, what some practical use cases of

your offerings are, or how you save their company time and/or money. You can

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9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

feed this research with helpful content in a

variety of formats. Articles, videos, in-depth

guides and product comparisons, podcasts,

slideshows, presentation decks and digital

tools are all great ways to engage your

visitors before they are ready to buy. Better

yet, many of these tactics will benefit your

SEO, driving even more traffic to your site.

• 73% of B2B marketers rate case studies

as extremely or very effective in their

lead generation efforts. (TechValidate

State of B2B Content Marketing Survey)

• 31% of B2B buyers say they find product demo content highly effective, but

only 18% of B2B marketers say the same. (MarketingProfs)

• More than half of decision makers start the buying journey with informal

research, using search engines and business blogs to research products,

problems, and solutions. (B2B Marketing)

Effective and clear CTAs:

The effect of a successful Call to Action (CTA) is to drive a visitor to take a desired

action. CTAs are typically kept at the top of the page or in clear sight on a page so

visitors know where to take the next step. CTAs are the key to lead generation but

they need to be done right to convert traffic into leads.

• ContentVerve saw a 90% increase in click-through rate by using first-person

phrasing: “Start my free 30 day trial” vs. “Start your free 30 day trial.”

• Reducing clutter around their CTA increased Open Mile’s conversion rate by

232%. (Visual Website Optimizer)

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S H O W P A D

9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

Now What?Your website is only as valuable as the impact it has on your business, which

means driving traffic that results in leads and sales.

If your site is underperforming, it’s time for a digital audit. Dig deep into each area

outlined above to find every opportunity to improve. Analyze your traffic sources

and evaluate your website’s search optimization. Assess your design and

user experience to find out how users are really interacting with your content.

If you’d like some help auditing your site, just reach out to

the team here at UpTrending. We have access to specialized

tools like heat maps, site crawlers, visit recording software,

scrollmaps, and more, and we regularly use these tools help

our clients identify the most productive improvements they

can make to their marketing efforts.

9 B 2 B W E B S I T E ‘ M U S T H A V E S ’ F O R D R I V I N G T R A F F I C & L E A D S

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