Posted by Dianna Huff, May 12, 2010

I look at a lot of business-to-business Websites.

What surprises me is that despite the books, blogs, seminars, conferences, and articles about SEO and content creation, marketers still make the same mistakes they made in 2005.

Namely, sites still aren’t optimized.

In fact, SEO firm Conductor released its survey, “Natural Search Trends of the Fortune 500 /Q4 2009,” that showed “more than half of Fortune 500 companies had almost no search engine visibility, with their targeted keywords not ranking in the top 100 search results.”

Now that is an amazing — and scary — stat!

If I were to sum up how to develop a B2B Website in one sentence, I’d put it this way:

Create a site that helps your customers find it in the search engines and then give them the information they need to do business with you.

When prospective customers come to your Website, they have questions.

• “Does this company offer what I’m looking for?”
• “What’s it like to work with them?”
• “Who else have they done business with?”
• “Will they solve my challenges?”
• “Do they a report or something I can download and show my team?”
• “What’s the next step?”

What I see instead are poorly developed sites that are short on great content and long on “blah.”

The home page may have a nice flash thing going but no where does it state what the company actually does in plain English and the “Services” section may consist of pages filled with lots of jargon laden copy that doesn’t help a prospect make a decision to take the next step.

To get site visitors to take the next step, you’ll want to tell a story that people can relate to. Why are you unique? Why are you in business? Why should people do business with you? (To learn more about answering the “why” versus the “what,” watch this excellent 18-minute TED video where Simon Sinek explains why Apple is so innovative.)

Other content you’ll want to have on your site includes:

Testimonials – Proof that you’ve solved challenges for similar companies. Don’t skimp here. You can never have too many testimonials.

Client List – More proof that your company has a track record. Even better if you have an A-list client list.

Case studies – Extended stories / testimonials that explain a problem solution, and result.

Reports, guides, white papers – Information that educates people and also shows your expertise. Add the social media element and watch your content get passed around.

Video / podcasts – Short presentations that give people additional ways to get to know you. Plus, Google loves video.

Blog – Another way to continually add fresh information and to react to breaking news / issues in your industry.

Social media integration – Allows prospects to connect with you or your company via Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or other platforms. Do it right and you’ll actually get a few leads.

Calls to Action – Tells site visitors what to do next: subscribe to an e-newsletter, register for your online demo, download a free e-book, fill out a form, call or email.

Although it may sound counter-intuitive to post all this information online (business owners sometimes say, “If I post all this information, people won’t call and then I can’t sell to them!”), what all this content really does is help prospects pre-qualify themselves.

“Ah,” thinks the prospect. “This company offers the metallic coating I need, they can turn small jobs around in 48 hours, and I can submit my job specs and get an online quote. They also have a free guide I can download to help me choose the right coating. I’m definitely adding them to my short list of potential vendors.”

Which is 100 times better than having the prospect click back out because your site doesn’t help them make a purchasing decision.