B2B web design: Nobody signs off
on the first visit.
A B2B site is read by somebody who cannot buy on their own. They are gathering enough to take to a manager, a technical lead and whoever holds the budget, and the site either helps them do that or it does not.
Enquiries·Spec sheets·Sales cycle·Trade accounts
The job
Five years in-house at a company where nearly all the work was B2B: running their own website, their clients’ sites, and the search work across both. The pattern was the same every time: plenty of traffic, a contact form, and no idea which visit turned into the enquiry three weeks later.
So a B2B site is built around the length of the decision rather than the moment of it. Specifications people can actually take away, a reason to make contact before they are ready to buy, and enough for somebody to argue your case internally when you are not in the room.
B2B website design that generates enquiries: The whole list, nothing extra.
Every one of these is in the price. If a job needs something that is not here, it is in the written scope before you say yes, not on the invoice after.
What you sell, explained once
Complex products described so a specialist recognises them and a generalist follows them. Most B2B sites manage one of those.
Spec sheets people can take away
Dimensions, tolerances, certifications, compatibility. As a page that ranks and a PDF that gets forwarded to the person who decides.
More than one way to make contact
A quote request, a technical question and "send me the datasheet" are three different moments in the same sale, and one contact form serves none of them well.
Proof that survives procurement
Accreditations, standards, who you already supply. The things somebody needs when they are asked to justify choosing you.
Your sales team’s side
What happens after an enquiry: where it lands, what it carries with it, and whether anyone can tell which page it came from.
Trade accounts, where you have them
Account pricing, order history and repeat ordering are ecommerce with different rules. Scoped honestly, including when a shop is not what you need.
Sitemap and page structure
What pages exist, how they relate, and what each one is for. This is where SEO is won or lost, before a line of code.
Design, if there is none
I will design it: a site that looks considered and does the job. If the brand underneath it needs doing too, that is its own piece of work and it has its own page.
Build
From your design or mine, on a platform that suits the team who will keep it running rather than the one I enjoy most.
Real content in
Your words and pictures loaded and laid out, not lorem ipsum with a note to fill it later. If an existing site is being replaced, moving it across is its own job: see website migration.
Accessibility and performance
Keyboard, focus order, contrast and labels checked, not assumed. Core Web Vitals measured on real pages, then fixed.
Launch and handover
A checklist worked through line by line, then documentation and a walkthrough with whoever picks it up.
Sounds like you if
“We have been quoted before and never seen what we were paying for.”
One page
A single scrolling page, £600. A launch, a test, or a business that needs to exist online by Friday.
Five pages
Home, about, services, one more, contact, £1,200. The standard small business site.
On WordPress
The same five pages on WordPress, £1,600. More to build, and more you can change yourself afterwards.
A shop
An online shop starts at £2,000: five content pages, up to twenty-five products, payments, shipping, tax and the policies.
Changes afterwards
£75 an hour, billed after they are done, or a monthly plan if there are enough of them to be worth fixing the price.
What is never extra
The sitemap, the redirects, the accessibility pass and the handover. They are part of the build, not a line added at the end.
Hosting and the certificate
A WordPress site on a managed host on my account, with the security certificate kept renewed, for £50 a month. The domain stays registered in your name.
Updated every month
WordPress, the theme and the plugins brought up to date, then the pages that matter checked by hand.
A backup every day
A fresh backup every day, and another before any update runs, so any change can be undone.
Changes when you need them
A reply within twelve working hours saying what it needs and how long it will take, before any of it is started. £75 an hour, or on a plan.
The note on the 1st
What was updated, what was changed and how many hours were used, next to the invoice.
Leaving, and what you take
A month's notice after the first three months, then a full backup and help moving it, free. The domain is already yours.
Sounds like you if
“The last person built it and then we never heard from them again.”
B2B web design services: From hello to handover.
Step 1
12 hours max
I reply
Working hours, unless I am on holiday and have said so.
Step 2
Day 0
Scope call
30 minutes. What you sell, who signs it off, and how long that usually takes.
Step 3
+2 days
Written scope
The structure, the pages, what each one is for and what it costs. Fixed price, no day rate creeping.
Step 4
Build
Structure first
The sitemap and the spec pages before the design, because on a B2B site the structure is most of the argument.
Step 5
End
Handed over
Logins, a written guide, and whoever updates the specs shown how.
This is for you
B2B ecommerce: trade accounts and ordering: A B2B website is for you
if any of these sound familiar.
- A sale that takes weeks and several people
- Products that need a specification, not a photo
- Enquiries you cannot trace to anything
- A site written for the industry, not the buyer
It is not, if
- You sell one thing, once, to one person
- You want a brochure with no enquiry in it
- The catalogue is not written and will not be
Not sure which side you are on? Say so on the call. If I am not the right person, you get the name of someone who is.
What a B2B website costs
Every price on the page,
before you call.
You should not have to sit through a call to find out whether you can afford me.
B2B web design questions: Questions I get every time.
The honest answers. If yours is not here, it is the first thing we cover.
Ask me yours01 Is this a B2B web design company, or one person?
One person. On a B2B build that is usually an advantage: the technical detail has to be understood rather than passed along, and there is nobody between you and whoever is writing the spec pages.
02 What does B2B web design cost?
The same as any build of the same size, priced on the website design page by platform. What moves it is how many products need their own page and whether the specifications exist yet.
03 We have a long sales cycle. Does a website help?
It is the main thing it does. Most of a long sale happens without you: somebody reads, sends a link to a colleague, and comes back a fortnight later. The site is what they read and what they forward.
04 Do we need B2B ecommerce?
Only if customers genuinely reorder. Trade accounts, account pricing and repeat ordering are worth building when there is repeat volume behind them and an expensive distraction when there is not. I will say which I think you are.
05 Can you do the SEO as well?
Yes, and it is a different job with different phrases: B2B SEO covers it. B2B search is low volume and high value, which changes what is worth chasing.
06 What about manufacturing specifically?
Much the same, with more emphasis on specifications and capability. There is a page for it: manufacturing website design.
Usually goes with: B2B web design
and b2B SEO.
Manufacturing is the same job with more weight on specifications and capability, and most of what is here applies to it.
See b2B SEOOr one of the other three
Enquiries you
cannot explain?
Tell me what you sell and who has to agree to it. Thirty minutes, no pitch, and you leave with a view on whether your B2B site is the problem or the pipeline is.
- Within 12 hoursA reply
- Within 2 working daysA written scope and a price
- OrThe name of someone who fits better