The Perfect B2B Website Service Page: 13-Point Checklist

This checklist is for B2B brands that sell a high-end service. If you meet these two criteria, this article is for you:

• You offer a premium service to other businesses

You sell to companies, not consumers. You’re B2B. And your services aren’t cheap. Yours is a premium service. You are not the lowest price in the market.

• There are multiple decision-makers

Your buyers are making a “high consideration” decision. There are several people involved in the sales process and it can take weeks to decide on a provider.

The B2B marketing website is critical in driving demand through clarity and trust, through content and design. We invite you to review the service pages on your website against this checklist.

• Are there missed opportunities??
• Is anything unclear??
• Could changes to the content and design make it a better page?

We hope this guide will help you improve those pages or planning for a redesign. We’ll start with a visual of a B2B website service page that includes them all.

Note: This checklist does not include so-called global elements, such as?website navigation?and?footers, which appear on every page on your website.?

1. Short and descriptive headline

Those few words at the top of the page should pass the “backyard BBQ test.”

Imagine you meet someone for the first time at a party. They ask what you do. You respond with the words at the top of your service page.

• Now do they understand what you do?
• Or are they confused??
• Did you pass the test?

Here are examples of headers that don’t pass the test:

• “We take excellence to new levels”
• “Transforming experiences one brand at a time”
• “Capture opportunities. Driving ROI.”

None of those actually describe a service.

If the header at the top of the page isn’t descriptive, visitors will have to scroll, scan and keep reading to learn what your company offers.

Every visit to your page starts with this question: Am I in the right place? It’s the header’s job to answer.

2. Keyword focus

Service pages are often easy to optimize for search. People look for services all the time. These searches are “commercial intent” keyphrases, which are the best kind. They drive demand from people who don’t yet know your brand.

This is where keyphrase research comes in. And this is the second reason to make that header descriptive.

The key is to pick battles that are worth winning (high search volume) and that can be won (low competition). Next, align pages with phrases. The content on these pages will indicate its relevance by using both the target phrase in the most important places

• Title tag
• Header <h1> tag
• The body text

Beyond the basics, the page should incorporate the semantically related phrases. These are the phrases, questions and subtopics that are closely related to your primary phrase.

Building them into the content is called?semantic SEO. But how do you find these phrases? It’s easy. They are everywhere.

Just search for the primary phrase and related words, phrases, subtopics and questions will appear everywhere in the search results page.

• Suggested phrases
• Bolded phrases (beyond the specific words you searched for)
• Related searches at the bottom
• “People also ask” questions and answers

In this example, I searched for the commercial-intent service phrase, “microscope repair” and see many semantically related phrases I should include in my page.

You can also do this with tools, such as?MarketMuse Optimize?or the SEMrush?SEO Writing Assistant.

A well-planned B2B service website has an entire sitemap that is search optimized. There are lots of pages aligned with lots of different keyphrases. Each is an opportunity to attract a high-intent visitor. Our guide on?how to make a sitemap?explains in detail with examples.

3. Quick visual credibility

Often, the next step for a great B2B service page is to differentiate the brand from competitors. This can be done quickly and visually with logos high up, near the top of the page.

• Logos of clients
• Awards
• Partnerships
• Certifications

These so-called “trust seals” build trust instantly. They also provide a bit of differentiation. Not every competitor can put these on their pages.

4. Meaningful subheads

Subheads keep the visitor flowing through the content. They tell the visitor what’s in each section, so they can decide if they want to slow down and read deeper.

• If the subheads are vague, the visitor is less likely to slow down
• If the subheads are meaningful, they’re more likely to read the section.

Suppose you’re a company that services jetpacks for space exploration companies.

Specificity is good for visitors. It’s also good for search engines.

5. Answers to top sales questions

Imagine the phone rings. It’s a prospect called to talk about this service. They have questions. You answer them. They have objections. You address them. It’s a conversation.

The best service pages emulate that sales conversation.?It answers questions, addresses objections and gives examples. The more educated the visitor, the more likely they are to become a lead.

Here are questions you can ask your current clients to find out what to put on the service page.

• Take me back to the moment when you first realized you needed help. What was going on at the time?
• What else did you try and what didn’t you love about it?
• What almost kept you from buying from us?
• What made you confident enough to give us a try?
• When evaluating options, what was most important to you?
• What can you do now (or do better) that you couldn’t do before?
• Give me an example of when our services made a difference for you?
• If you couldn’t work with us ever again, what would you miss the most?
• What’s the #1 thing that you’d tell a friend if you wanted to convince them to give us a try?

This qualitative research is key to conversion copywriting. Before you know the answers to these questions, it’s very difficult to build a high performing page.

6. Short paragraphs and plenty of formatting

Subheads help, but visitors will still struggle if you use dense, blocky paragraphs. Long paragraphs get scanned. Short paragraphs get read.

As a general rule, make sure paragraphs are no longer than three lines.

Your page has a back button, just like every other page on the web. Competition for attention is fierce. If the visitor finds your content hard to consume, they know they can find help somewhere else.

So break up those paragraphs. Add some whitespace. And while your add it, mix in some other formatting to make your sales copy easy to scan:

• Bullet and numbered lists
• Bold and italics
• Internal links
• Short, simple words
• Multiple images …more on pictures in a minute

In these examples, the text is the same. Only the formatting is different. Which works better for scan readers? Which will have better engagement?

It’s up to the writer, but the designer helps. The container for this content shouldn’t have very small text, very long lines and weak color contrast. Light gray on white? Who can read that?

7. Testimonials from happy clients

A lawyer wouldn’t go to trial without a witness. Web designers shouldn’t go live without testimonials.

Every one of your messages has a messenger. And the best messenger is the client themselves. When they say it, the message transforms from regular marketing into social proof.

Social proof shows that others have chosen your brand, making the choice feel safer. And the wording in testimonials is often more forthright than anything you could have written yourself.

Notice how testimonials, either video or text, can answer questions and address objections.

Notice how the best testimonials have their own little headlines. In videos, they’re in the thumbnail. In text, they’re above the testimonial, the same way Amazon has little headlines above the reviews.

Text-based testimonials are also opportunities to include a keyphrase (we’ll talk about?keyphrases and SEO in a minute).?Read more on how to write testimonials.

Does your current page include evidence that you’re legitimate? If not, it is a pile of unsupported marketing claims.

Ready for the rest?

Read the last 5 items in the full, original version on the Orbit Media blog >