Worried about whether your B2B website is propelling you forward or holding you back? You’re not alone. A large percentage of business-to-business marketers plan to upgrade or replace their websites this year.

That’s a good thing because most business-to-business buyers aren’t happy with the websites they visit and they let us know by telling researchers and – more importantly – by abandoning websites at an alarming rate.

But update or replace your web site with care. At best, a poorly development business-to-business website might be a colossal waste of money. At worst it could destroy your traffic and your conversion rates.

A “good” website is not just one that makes you proud to look at it. A good website also delivers a great return on your investment by producing the results you want it to produce. Simple idea, but judging by many of the website stats we see, one that is often overlooked.

Most people – brilliant B2B CEOs and marketers included – tend to judge a website by how it slick it looks. This may be a natural reaction to a visual stimulus, but when it comes to evaluating websites, it’s a mistake. While a poorly designed website can wreck a sale, a pleasing visual design doesn’t ensure that the site will do its job. It’s not that easy.

The best criteria for evaluating website effectiveness focus on how well the site communicates to the target audience(s). This means:

How well it draws – rather than repels – qualified visitors.
How much of the site gets read; and – most important
How effective it is in getting the visitor to take the desired actions.
Sounds a little like how you evaluate your sales people doesn’t it? There’s a reason for that. Today’s website is far more than just an online brochure. A good website actually performs many of the initial activities that used to be the responsibility of a sales team.

Sure, a sloppy, unprofessional sales person can screw up even the most solid deal. But a slick talking, well-dress salesperson who arrives unprepared is not going to make the sale either.

Take a minute and think about your customers and prospects, and how they make their buying decisions. In general, it begins when the prospect recognizes a need. They start to research the problem and potential solutions. In B-to-B – especially business technology – this is usually done online, well before the prospect is willing to commit to a call with a sales person.

If you’re beginning to think that redesigning your website or creating an all-new one is going to take more thinking than just about the visual design – you’re right!

Here are the seven major components to a great website:
Website strategy. This involves taking a close look at your objectives, your audiences, your competitors, and your traffic sources.
Content. Whether its text, illustrations, demos or whatever, this is what people come to your site for.
Visual design. Yeah, yeah. It’s important too.
Performance. This may not be the sexist part of the site to anyone but a programmer; but nothing will drive visitors away like slow loading pages, dead links, or a site that can’t be read on a Firefox browser.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO). While we recommend against compromising your best selling content in order to meet perceived search engine requirements, good search engine ranking is important.
Analytics. How do you know a website is performing well? You measure it! Analytics provides the proof that something is working (or not working) and it shows where the greatest opportunities for improvement are located.
Testing. Even after 15+ years of working with websites, I am still constantly – constantly – surprised at how little we really know about how people are going to respond, and how small changes can make a great difference in performance.
Re-designing or replacing your business-to-business website is possibly the most important step you can take to improve your marketing results. Do so with caution, pay attention to the seven components listed above, and you’ll have yourself a powerful marketing hub.