Admin / April 30, 2014
Your website has cutting-edge content and a sleek, modern look. But is it usable? Aesthetics are certainly important, but if you don’t have an easy-to-access website that provides customers with information they need to make a purchase, it will be a disservice to your business.
Here are some basic tips when it comes to guaranteeing website usability:
According to the 2014 B2B Web Usability Report from KoMarketing, 90 percent of B2B marketers want to see products and services listed on the home page of a website. After all, buyers come to your site with the intention of finding out more about your main offerings. 
So make sure this information is readily available, and provide multiple back links to your homepage.
There is nothing worse than getting lost in an endless sea of sub pages while trying to navigate a website. Therefore, provide basic features such as a quick links section at the bottom of each page to redirect people instantly or a fixed scroll bar that lives on the side of the page. This way, customers will not get sidetracked or distracted when searching for information.
Google takes trustworthiness seriously when determining its search engine rankings, and it measures this based on how valuable consumers find your content. As the KoMarketing report explains, social media is not enough to build trust amongst your consumers. In fact, a limited social media presence will have a minimal impact on a customer’s purchasing decision. However, 68 percent of survey respondents indicated that having access to a company’s address and contact information is critically important when deciding to do business with a vendor.
Best practices for displaying contact information calls for removing barriers. While gating content can create leads, gating your contact information often does more harm than good. Buyers need basic information when requesting an RFQ, and will not want to go through obstacles to obtain it.
As the Web Usability report indicates, 61 percent of those surveyed indicated they want to see an “About” section right on the company home page. Include social links in executive bios to help build more trust amongst consumers and don’t be afraid to talk about how your company got started, the basic problems it solves and how it is making a difference in its industry.
This is an essential tool for converting leads into sales. Providing a live chat feature will help ensure that when B2B decision makers have questions, your team will be available to provide instant answers.
Remember: Your website should be like an interactive business card: full of information, but capable of driving action from customers. Do you have any tips for increasing usability on your website? Tell us your suggestions in the comments section below.
By Doug Arthur – Global Consultant, Cisco. Doug has a thorough understanding of current and future trends in B2B marketing, video marketing and using video to better engage audiences. He has over 20 years of experience in helping Fortune 1,000 companies excel at integrating business goals, program objectives and marketing technologies to enhance performance.
