The document provides a 5-point checklist for designing a high-performance B2B website for professional services firms. It emphasizes (1) clear messaging and professional imagery, (2) responsive design, (3) educational content that demonstrates expertise, (4) an SEO strategy including keyword research and optimization, and (5) including offers and calls-to-action to engage visitors and convert opportunities into clients. The website should attract and engage prospects through useful content while promoting the firm's services and value proposition.

1. Branding and Marketing for Professional Services Firms
5-point B2B Website Design
Checklist
for Greater Visibility
Elizabeth Harr

2. Why is it so important to get B2B
website design right?

3. 80.8%of professional services buyers
check out your website — before
they do anything else.
Source:
Referral
Marketing
for
Professional
Services
Firms
Research
Report

4. Your website not only can be —it should be
— your highest performing business
development asset.

5. 5Mistakes in B2B Website Design
1
2
3
4
Muddled Messaging and Cliche Imagery
“Un”Responsive Design
Salesy Content Only
Outdated / Weak or No SEO
Lack of Engagement Tools5

6. What is a
high-performance website?

7. Anatomy of a website that performs - and makes
you more visible

8. Clear messaging and
professional imagery —
powerful signals to your
audience on what matters to

9. #RethinkingReferrals
Source:
Referral
Marketing
for
Professional
Services
Firms
Research
Report
43.6%rule out referrals because they couldn’t
understand how the firm could help
them.

10. Your website should convey
your overall brand positioning.

11. 3 Simple Questions

12. What do you do?
3 Simple Questions

13. What do you do?
3 Simple Questions
Who do you do it for?

14. What do you do?
3 Simple Questions
Who do you do it for?
Why should clients choose

15. Imagery sends a message
about the quality of your brand.

16. Death by cliche.

17. Professional imagery can still be playful, unexpected …

18. … backs your brand, and
signals to your audience
what you’re really all

19. The Importance of
Responsive Design

20. graph growth of mobile searches

21. Mobile-friendliness is now
a search ranking signal.
Google’s Mobile Search Update

22. Responsive design for a mobile and tech-savvy
marketplace.

23. If your website is not responsive, you’re leaving a
lot of potential business on the table.

24. Educational Content

25. Content that is useful to your clients and
showcases your expertise.
What is educational content?

26. Educational Content is Not…
Brochures TestimonialsCase Studies
Syndicated
Content
Faux
White Papers
Marketing
Copy

27. There are two types of content.

28. Content Type #1: Stock Content
Purpose
Focus
Access
SEO
Examples
Issue level
Requires
registration
Premium quality to demonstrate expertise
Optimize titles and landing pages only
Guides, ebooks, research reports

29. Examples of Stock
Content

30. Your stock content needs a home…

31. Resources Page or Library

32. …and a front door.

33. Landing Page

34. Landing Page

35. B
v
Content Type #2: Flow
Purpose
Focus
Access
SEO
Examples
Topic level
Open access
Draws traffic
Optimize titles and content
Blog posts, videos, articles, social
media

36. Examples of Flow Content

37. Some of your flow content
goes out into to the world.

39. The rest stays at home and lives in your blog.

40. Building a Better Blog
Longer,
substantive posts
(1,000+words)
Demonstrates
your expertise
Optimized for
search engines
Includes social
sharing buttons
Contains offers
for deeper
engagement
Includes
cross-links
Stream of
fresh content

41. Blog No-No’s
Your News
and Events
Who Joined
Your Firm
Your
Community
Service
Miscellaneous
Announcemen
ts

42. Educational content has wide scale
applicability and builds visibility because
people love to digest it & pass it around.
Promotional content has specific applicability
— and people don’t necessarily love to digest
it nor does it get passed around. If it’s all you

43. Optimize Your Website
for Search Engines

44. SEO is a technique designed to make your
content easily accessible to the right
audiences.
What is search engine optimization
(SEO)?

45. How to Think Like a Search Engine
• Relevance (keywords)
• Website authority (links)
• User experience (responsive)
• Technology (optimizing)

46. Do keyword research to understand what
terms people are searching for and your
capability for ranking for those keywords.

47. Find a balance of
Volume
Difficulty
Relevance
Choosing the Right Keywords

48. Assess Relevance through Simple, Free
Research Methods
Google Auto-Populate
Google Related Searches

49. Google Trends will put that relevance into better
perspective

50. Using Google’s Keyword Planner in
conjunction with a tool like Moz will help you
compare volume with difficulty.

51. MozKeyword
Aim for
keywords with
difficulty lower
or just above
your website
authority

52. Broad Specific
Audience will be larger,
but less qualified
Audience will be
smaller, but more
All Keywords are not Equal

53. Implement the the keywords in titles, title
tags, meta descriptions and within your
content.

54. Titles

55. Title Tags

56. Meta Description

57. Within Content

58. Engagement Tools:
Include Offers
and Calls-to-Action

59. Stage 1
Attract Prospects
Stage 2
Build
Engagement
Stage 3
Turn Opportunities
into Clients
Offers to expose
visitors to other
content
Offers to move
prospects
through the

62. Conclusion — Your Visibility Checklist
Clear Messaging and Professional Imagery
Responsive Design
Educational Content
SEO Strategy
Offer Strategy