Creating a new website – or trying to decide if you need to? A B2B website content audit is a great place to start. This exercise helps you identify gaps, opportunities, and strengths – guiding you to what you need to create a high-converting web experience for your buyers.
When potential clients go to your website, they should be able to figure out who you are, what you sell, why you’re better than the “other guy,” how your product benefits them, and how to purchase.
They shouldn’t be left with any questions regarding the purpose of your company. Nor should they feel as if they must wade through lots of off-topic stuff in order to find out what they want to know.
A content audit is a great way to “zoom out” from your day-to-day and test your site to ensure it’s giving customers what they need – and not bogging them down or making them bounce. It allows you to find errors, fix comprehension problems, and improve the user experience. To do a B2B website content audit, use this five-step process.
5 Steps to Conduct a B2B Website Content Audit
- Use SWOT to Finetune Your Positioning
- Use Clear, On Brand Messaging
- Choose Winnable Keywords
- Use Blog Posts To Showcase Expertise
- Make the Customer Journey As Easy As Possible
#1. Use SWOT to Finetune Your Positioning
Can your potential clients tell, just by looking at your website, what makes your company different? Do they know what makes your product or service stand out? If your answers are “no” and “no,” you’ll want to dig deeper into your positioning by using SWOT. It stands for:
- Strengths: What does your company do well?
- Weaknesses: What’s stopping you from reaching your goals?
- Opportunities: What external factors could give you an advantage? (For example, the Pandemic forced employees to work-from-home, which gave Zoom a competitive advantage.)
- Threats: What external factors could slow your growth or success?
Think about each of the four SWOT areas and how they relate to your web content. You’ll know you have it down when you can go to your website and immediately see what makes your company unique.
(Related: B2B Website Best Practices for 2023)
#2. Use Clear, On Brand Messaging
Positioning is all about making your edge immediately clear.
Closely related: messaging.
Are you communicating your topline value and benefits in a clear and compelling way?
To get the most out of every word on your site, consider these questions.
- Is your messaging aligned with your brand? Your message should guide users through the sales funnel, giving them what they need to make the decision to buy.
- Is your messaging consistent across your entire site? This doesn’t mean repeating the same thing over and over. However, it does mean identifying the most important keywords and product benefits, and repeating them as much as possible.
- Does your messaging make sense to newcomers? Someone who knows nothing about your company should be able to go to any page of your site and figure out who you are and what you sell, with ease.
#3. Choose Winnable Keywords
The words and phrases used on your site will affect whether you show up on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
In your website content, you should be using the right words – or keywords – that your customers are searching for. The next part is key: keywords that you think you can win.
(We don’t mean this in a keyword stuffing way, though. SEO is all about meeting the needs of your audience with the content they are looking for on a website that performs well. Using the right words is just part of it.)
The more specific and detailed the keyword phrase, the easier it is to win. As an example, Altitude (in broad terms) is a marketing agency. However, using this terminology on our website and messaging wouldn’t give us much visibility on Google. If we specify that we are a B2B marketing agency, we do much better. Getting even more specific with “B2B digital marketing agency” does better still.
(Related: 5 Beginner On-Page SEO Tips)
#4. Use Blog Posts to Showcase Expertise
A blog is a great way to increase search traffic. It also allows you to be seen as an authoritative business with expert views on the market or industry.
Use this checklist to ensure you’re producing the best content possible.
Keep in mind: If what you’re selling is very niche with low search volume, you may not need a blog – and that’s ok! A B2B website content audit is all about finding out what can benefit your business.
(Related: 6 B2B Blog Posts Guaranteed to Get You More Traffic)
#5. Make the Customer Journey As Easy As Possible
Productization refers to how easy it is for users to quickly understand what you sell and how to buy it.
Here’s a pro tip: Ask someone outside of your industry to look at your webpage and tell you what you’re selling. If it takes them time and involves lots of scrolling and switching pages, you need to do some serious work on your productization.
To productize your content, layer in answers to these questions, roughly in this order:
- What kind of product is this? (Software? Service?)
- What problem does it solve?
- Why should I care about it?
- How will it benefit me?
- How does it work?
- What does it cost?
- What’s the first thing I need to do to get started?
Conclusion: A Website Audit Will Pave Your Way
A B2B website content audit is all about first reactions. How does a buyer feel when they land on your site? If they’re confused, overwhelmed, unexcited… it’s time for a pivot.
Luckily, this audit is a path for your next steps, revealing opportunities for improvement. Addressing problems and improving features can result in increased traffic to your company’s website and, ultimately, boost leads.
Need help zooming out and auditing your website (and beyond)? Then check out Base Camp – 12 sets of audits and recommendations to build a full picture of your marketing department.
