Diseño web B2B
What Types of Websites Are There, and Which One Fits Your Business Model?
Equipo Artisma
Agencia de Marketing B2B
The industrial maintenance company served plants in Mexico's Bajío region with four service lines: electrical substations, compressed air, boilers and thermography. To refresh its image, it approved a one-page website with a video header, all the services in one long scroll and a form at the bottom. It looked modern and went live in two weeks.
Six months later, the company still did not show up on Google when a maintenance manager searched for substation service, because the four lines were competing from a single URL with a single title. The ad campaign sent people looking for boilers and people looking for thermography to the same page. When a salesperson wanted to share the compressed air service with a purchasing committee, he had to ask the customer to scroll halfway down the page.
The website did the job of introducing the company. The problem was the type of website: a format designed for a single offering was carrying four businesses that are sold separately.
The options include one-page websites, landing pages, corporate websites, catalogs, online stores, private portals, microsites and content sites. The right one depends on how your company makes money and how your customer buys.
A website that contradicts the way you sell works against your sales team
When a company decides to build or redesign its website, the conversation usually starts with appearance: colors, photos and a site that looks current. The type of website gets decided in passing, copied from a competitor or from a template someone liked. That decision defines how many pages the website will have, what Google can find, who can get in and what action visitors are asked to take. That is why it should come before any design decision.
Earlier in this series we compared corporate websites, online stores and catalogs in detail. Here we widen the map to the other types we see at B2B companies and relate them to the business model, because the same company may need two or three of them depending on how each line is sold.
Three questions that translate your business model into a type of website
Before choosing, answer three questions. The first is how your company makes money: by project, through recurring sales, by subscription or through distributors. The second is who makes the purchase decision: one person who pays on the spot or a committee that compares options for weeks. The third is what happens after the first sale: whether the customer comes back to reorder, needs support or consults documents frequently. The answers point to the job the website has to do, and each type of website is built for a different job.
Each type of website solves one job and fails when you ask it to do another
One-page website: a single scroll and a single URL for Google
It concentrates the entire message on one long page that visitors scroll from top to bottom, with a menu that jumps to each section. It is quick to produce and works for a single, clear offering: a consultant, a specific service or a company that is just getting started. Its limit is structural. Google ranks pages, and a single URL with a single title has a hard time competing for several different searches. And a link to a particular service only leads to a spot on that same page.
Landing page: one offer, one action and campaign traffic
It is a page designed to receive visitors from a specific campaign and lead them to a single action, such as requesting a demo or downloading a guide. It removes the menu and distractions so the conversion happens. It suits a seasonal offer, a new product or a paid campaign, and it works best as a complement to a complete website. In another article we explained in detail how it differs from a website.
Corporate or services website: one page for each thing you sell
It is the foundation for most B2B companies. It dedicates one page to each service or product line, another to each industry it serves and others to proof: case studies, clients, certifications and team. That architecture lets Google match each page to its search and lets salespeople share the exact link. Its conversion is a conversation with sales, which is why it needs contact paths on every page.
Catalog and online store: product lookup and immediate purchase
A catalog organizes a broad product line by families, filters and data sheets so buyers can find a size or a part number. A store adds a cart, payment and public pricing so customers can buy without talking to anyone. Both work when the buyer already knows what they are looking for. A store also requires the same prices for everyone and a shipping and invoicing operation behind it.
Private-access portal: the website that works for those who already buy from you
It is an area with a username and password where customers or distributors access what is best kept out of public view: customer-specific price lists, order status, invoices, manuals or sales material. For a manufacturer with a distribution network, the portal replaces the files that circulate by email and get forwarded with no control. It requires more development, because it usually connects to the company's CRM or administrative system.
Microsite: a brand, a product or a market with its own address
It is a small website, separate from the main one, dedicated to a product brand, a launch or a specific market. It makes sense when that brand sells to a different audience or under a name buyers search for on its own. Its risk is fragmentation, because every microsite starts with no authority in Google and adds one more website to maintain.
Content site or blog: the authority hub for informational searches
It brings together articles, guides and answers to the questions your buyer asks before looking for a supplier. It attracts searches no service page reaches, such as "what is" or "how to choose", and gives your team material to share throughout the sales cycle. In B2B it usually lives inside the corporate website, in a blog section, so the authority it earns benefits the entire domain.
Your business model decides which combination of pages you need
With the full map in view, the choice becomes clearer. These are the models we see most often among the companies we work with, and the combination that works best for each.
Project-based services: trust and one page per service
Engineering, maintenance, construction and consulting firms sell contracts that go through a committee. They need a corporate website with one page per service and per industry, documented case studies and a blog that answers the buyer's technical questions. A one-page website falls short for them as soon as they sell more than one line.
Manufacturer with a distributor network: public catalog and a portal for the network
Companies that sell through distributors need end users to find the product and distributors to have their tools. The usual combination is a corporate website with a catalog of technical data sheets, a distributor locator and a private portal for pricing, sales material and orders. Launching a store with public prices would put the agreements with the network at risk.
Recurring sales of consumables or spare parts: online ordering for repeat customers
When customers buy the same thing every month, the website can save them phone calls. An ordering portal with their price list, or a store limited to the replenishment line, handles repeat purchases. The corporate website remains in charge of winning new customers.
Exporting company: a real version for each language and market
If you sell outside Mexico, each language needs its own pages, with copy adapted to the buyer in that market and declared to Google so it shows the right version. A microsite per country is only justified when the offering or the brand changes from one market to another.
New offering or seasonal campaign: a landing page before a whole website
To test a new service or support a paid campaign, a landing page connected to the main website lets you measure the response without building a full section. If the offering works, it is later integrated into the corporate website with its own page.
Before requesting quotes, define the type of website with your sales team
A website quote changes a great deal depending on the type of website, and comparing proposals without defining it first mixes projects that do different jobs. Review these points with sales before asking for the first proposal:
List what you sell and mark which lines are sold separately, because each one needs its own page.
Note who takes part in the purchase and what each person needs to see before approving.
Identify which information only your customers or distributors should see, because that content calls for a portal.
Define whether you sell or will sell outside Mexico, and in which languages.
Separate the permanent from the temporary: the website supports the company and landing pages support campaigns.
At Artisma we solve these combinations in stages. Our Landing package builds a single page for an offer or a campaign, and the Esencial and Negocio packages build three-page and six-page websites, all bilingual in Spanish and English and with a prototype you review before you pay. We quote projects with more complex needs on a custom basis.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a one-page website work for a B2B company?
It works when the company sells a single, clear offering and is just starting to build its presence. Once the company has several service lines, serves several industries or wants to show up on Google for different searches, it needs a page for each topic, because the search engine ranks pages and your salespeople need specific links to share.
Can I start with one type of website and change it later?
Yes, and it is a sensible way to grow. Plan the URL structure and the content from the start so the change adds pages without breaking the ones that already exist. When the jump involves changing platforms, a redirect map protects the rankings you have earned.
Do I need a private portal, or is it enough to publish my documents on the website?
If the documents are the same for everyone, such as data sheets, manuals or catalogs, publish them on the website, because they help the buyer and your rankings. A portal is justified when the information changes by customer, such as prices, orders or invoices, or when you want to know which distributor looks at which material.
If your current website was chosen for how it looked and today your company sells more lines, serves other markets or works with distributors, the type of website has probably fallen short of your business model. Request a diagnosis of your website at https://www.artismamkt.com and we will review with you which combination of pages your way of selling needs and where to start.