An enterprise website plays many roles: it’s a flagship eCommerce storefront, service desk for existing customers, investor relations portal and recruiting tool. Because enterprise websites do so much heavy lifting, they require a different approach and set of tools.
Whether you’re creating one enterprise website or managing a handful of client sites, working with an enterprise website builder like Wix Studio Enterprise is crucial.
With the right foundation in place, you can turn your focus to enterprise website design, including these best practices.
What is enterprise website design?
In short, enterprise website design refers to digital marketing strategies for optimizing an enterprise website with the goal of increasing traffic, improving the user experience and driving interactions. Specifically, web design covers the front-end aspects of your website that your customers can see.
Underneath this umbrella, you’ll find things like your:
• Content
• Layout
• Visuals
• Navigation
• Design choices
• Interactive elements
You may have also heard the term “enterprise web development,” which refers to the back-end (or unseen) work, including your website’s code, databases, content management system (CMS), information architecture and servers.
In short, design is the actors and scenery in a play, and development deals with what’s behind the curtain. While these terms mean different things, they’re closely related, as website development helps turn your design ideas into reality.
Why is web design important for enterprises?
With 29 percent of business being conducted online in 2024, according to IBISWorld, a user-friendly website is crucial for creating and maintaining successful relationships with your customers. Here are some key areas where enterprise web design comes into play.
Attracting new customers
If you’ve ever been on the consumer’s side, then you know that poor design choices can be enough to make you look for another brand. Why waste time combing through a confusing navigation system or squinting to read an inaccessible font when there are so many more options on the web?
With the help of online search, it’s all too easy for unimpressed visitors to end up on a competitor’s website if your design doesn’t keep them engaged.
Building trust
It’s not enough to take proper security measures on the back-end. You also have to make visitors feel safe. An enterprise business website needs to be designed in a way that looks reliable and secure, so customers feel comfortable sharing the personal and financial information needed to download your content or make a purchase online. Read more about Wix Studio security here.)
Nurturing leads
For many companies, it’s going to take a few website visits before a lead becomes a customer. So, you need something to keep your target audience coming back. A well-designed enterprise site is an excellent resource for potential buyers to get to know your brand and engage with educational content that moves them through the sales funnel.
Closing deals
More and more, websites are becoming a resource for companies to seal the deal with customers at the bottom of the funnel. Whether you're working on B2B web design or an eCommerce store, a seamless online purchasing process is essential for making sure you capture all those leads you’ve worked so hard to nurture and build relationships with.
Keeping customers happy
Over 80 percent of digital customers want more self-service options, according to a report by the customer experience (CX) company NICE. Think chatbots, knowledge bases, tutorial videos and FAQs.
For enterprises, a website is often the main hub for digital customer support options. When existing customers need support or answers to their questions, having resources available on your website goes a long way in keeping them satisfied.
Why are enterprise websites different?
Compared to designs for small and medium businesses, enterprise sites often need to address multiple industries or target audiences. In essence, an enterprise website design strategy involves taking your business website to the next level. As a full-funnel marketing, sales and service asset, an enterprise website’s work is never done.
Enterprise websites often have to be able to handle more:
• Content, such as blog posts, ebooks, landing page and white papers
• Functions, like lead generation, support, investor relations and recruiting
• Webpages, such as product, pricing, competitive comparisons and FAQs
• Sections or subdomains, like lead generation pages and recruitment
Since customers spend a lot of time interacting with brands online, your enterprise website needs to be a jack of all trades. Not to mention, all of these components need to work together to create an experience that’s seamless and consistent with your brand.
8 best practices for successful enterprise websites
If you’re building from scratch or about to tackle a website redesign, we’ve got you covered. Here are some essential elements of successful enterprise business sites.
01. Make usability the foundation of your design
Enterprise websites serve many purposes and often cater to several target audiences, from customers in different industries to potential hires. If you want visitors to stay on your website, you have to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for.
In other words, good website design includes intuitive navigation, easy-to-understand layouts and user-friendly interaction.
Since enterprise businesses cater to larger audiences, design choices that support accessibility become even more important. If you want to see where you stand, read our guide on how to check your website design for accessibility.
02. Create clear calls to action (CTAs)
When designed well, an enterprise-level website can help you achieve your business goals by capturing leads and sending them to your customer relationship management (CRM) system to be nurtured.
Whether you want people to sign up for a newsletter, view your latest products or start a free trial, your CTAs should be super easy and glaringly obvious (just not aggressive). To fit the bill, they need to be readable, eye-catching, engaging and functional.
03. Maintain high performance as you scale
With the rise of bite-sized social media content, attention spans have become shorter. While your website isn’t technically social media, platforms like TikTok that provide instant gratification set the standard for online digital experiences.
Ultimately, faster websites have a higher chance of keeping people engaged long enough to become customers. One experiment by Bidnamic found that conversion rates increased 17 percent for every second a website loaded faster.
As your business grows, scalability becomes key to ensuring your website stays speedy and loads smoothly—no matter how high your traffic spikes.
04. Follow search engine optimization (SEO) best practices
One Oddball Marketing study found that 47.8 percent of all website traffic comes from search. Search engines can be excellent allies to your business, but you have to play by their rules. This means optimizing your website to maximize your online presence.
In addition to following other best practices on this list—like responsive design and good navigation—you want to create content that targets relevant keywords for your brand and drives leads to your website.
If you’re already familiar with SEO, you know that content is only one part of the equation. Wix Studio SEO covers all your bases so you can focus on content and growth.
05. Use pleasing visuals
“Make it pretty” might seem like a simple direction, but it’s an effective one. At the end of the day, people are more likely to stay on websites that are visually appealing and compelling.
Visuals are a must-have, and you want to tailor them to showcase what makes your brand unique.
Whether it’s product pictures, interactive graphics or engaging videos, a successful enterprise website uses visuals to capture attention, pique curiosity and communicate the brand’s top qualities.
06. Fill it with engaging content
For consumers, shopping can be similar to dating. They want to get to know your brand before they make larger commitments, like signing up for emails or becoming a customer.
Some shoppers do their information gathering in person, but not all of them, and that’s where your website comes in. Engaging and relevant content keeps people on your website and interacting with your brand until they’re ready for more.
Good examples of engaging content include:
• Blog posts
• Interactive content, such as quizzes to help them find the right product
• Informative product pages
• Comparisons
• Images and videos of your product in use
• Social proof in the form of reviews, testimonials and case studies
• PR announcements, such as acquisitions or funding achievements for startups
07. Keep branding consistent
Enterprise websites have much more content than personal ones. You might have multiple people and teams involved in creating different pages, sections or even websites. That said, your pages need to have a cohesive feel that lets customers know they’re interacting with your brand.
Keep these things consistent:
• Color schemes
• Design elements
• Imagery and graphics
• Tone of voice
08. Leverage responsive design
Customers access websites on a variety of devices, including smartphones, tablets and desktop computers—sometimes using different screens at the same time. As a company, you want to meet them where they’re at and provide an amazing experience no matter which device they use.
Using a responsive website design lets you keep your brand identity consistent while still adapting to various screen sizes and maintaining a user-friendly experience.
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