State of B2B Websites

One of the most revealing insights from the Growthlabs audit is the substantial disparity in website performance between desktop and mobile platforms across the B2B sector. Although desktop devices remain prevalent in professional environments, mobile usage now accounts for approximately 35–45% of B2B web traffic—a figure that continues to grow.

Despite this shift, our findings indicate that B2B websites remain significantly under-optimised for mobile users.
The following are the averages for both platforms:

• Desktop Average – 75.1
• Mobile Average – 57.1

While both platforms fall into Google’s “Needs Improvement” category, mobile performance lags 18 points behind desktop on average, representing a serious underinvestment in mobile optimisation across the B2B digital landscape.

What is more concerning is that only 3% of B2B mobile websites manage to obtain a good score.

It is clear that B2B websites are not well-optimised and have lower performance on mobile devices than on desktops. Although consumer-focused websites have higher mobile usage, B2B websites still get around 35%-45% of traffic from these devices. Underperformance on mobile is likely to have the following impact:

• Lower Search Rankings: Google utilises mobile-first indexing, so poor mobile scores can negatively impact your overall visibility, even for desktop searches.

• Reduced Engagement: Mobile users encountering slow, broken, or cluttered experiences are more likely to bounce without converting.

• Brand Perception: A slow, non-optimised mobile site can signal inefficiency and outdated practices.

• Missed Opportunities: Decision-makers increasingly use mobile devices outside standard work hours. A poor mobile site means lost leads.

One of the most overlooked, yet critically important, aspects of website performance is server response latency, often referred to as waiting time. This metric measures the delay between a user’s request for a webpage and the first byte of data being received from the server—a factor known as Time to First Byte (TTFB).

The underlying causes of high waiting times are often technical and infrastructure-related. Common issues include:

• Slow or overloaded hosting servers: Shared or under-resourced servers delay response times under heavy traffic loads.

• Lack of caching: Each request is processed from scratch instead of being served from a cache.

• Unoptimised database queries: Dynamic content generation leads to server-side delays.

• Overuse of plugins or third-party scripts: Increases server processing time before responding to the browser.

• Geographic distance from server: Users far from the host server may experience slower connections without a CDN (Content Delivery Network).

While waiting time measures how fast a server responds, loading time captures the total duration a webpage takes to fully load and become interactive for the user. In the competitive B2B landscape, where trust, speed, and convenience are essential, high loading times can directly undermine lead generation and sales effectiveness.

Loading time is a core part of Google’s Page Experience signal and is strongly correlated with both user satisfaction and conversion performance. Pages that exceed the 4-second mark are more likely to suffer from:

• Increased bounce rates: Users are likely to abandon pages that load too slowly.

• Reduced search visibility: Google penalises pages with poor load performance.

• Lower user engagement: Visitors are less likely to scroll, click, or complete forms.

• Wasted ad spend: Paid campaigns pointing to slow pages can drive up cost-per-click without returns.

Amazon found that every 100ms increase in load time cost them 1% in sales—a trend that translates proportionally across B2B sites where lead capture is the primary goal.

The underlying causes of high loading commonly issues include:

• Uncompressed high-resolution images: Slows visual rendering dramatically.

• Too many third-party scripts: Adds processing burden (e.g., chatbots, analytics, trackers).

• Poor hosting infrastructure: Increases server response time and delays page rendering.

• Bloated CSS and JavaScript files: Delays time to interactivity.

• Lack of lazy loading or deferred scripts: Causes full-page resources to load before visible content appears.

1. Most B2B websites have underdeveloped backlink profiles. The median DR of 16 indicates that half of the audited websites have minimal authority, which severely limits their organic search competitiveness.
2. More than 50% of B2B’s DR is below 20, indicating SEO competition for backlinks is low within the industry. This indicates a substantial opportunity.
3. There is a steep climb in value from DR 20 to DR 31. Because DR is a logarithmic metric, each incremental improvement becomes more difficult. Moving from DR 10 to 20 is relatively achievable; however, increasing from 20 to 13 and above requires significantly more effort and higher-quality backlinks. Only 20% of B2B’s have achieved this.
4. High performers stand out dramatically. Websites with DR scores above 50 are in a much stronger position to rank for high-volume, competitive keywords and are likely seen as leaders within their niche.
5. DR within the DR 22 to 10 is likely to only rank for brand name searches or low-competition terms. It will struggle to generate meaningful organic traffic without an SEO and link-building strategy.
6. A DR in the 22–31 range is a positive sign of momentum. These companies are likely to outperform 60% of their competitors. However, continued link acquisition and content creation are essential to improve competitive positioning.
7. A DR above 40 suggests the business has a solid content strategy a strong online presence, and is actively building credibility across third-party sites—a significant advantage in B2B lead generation.

• If your DR is under 22: Focus on building foundational links. Start with directories, local citations, guest posts, and partnerships with clients or suppliers.

• If your DR is 22–30: Accelerate your content marketing and begin targeting industry-specific publications for backlinks.

• If your DR is above 30: Leverage your authority by targeting competitive, commercial-intent keywords and investing in thought leadership to further widen your gap over competitors.

One of the most fundamental, yet frequently overlooked, elements of on-page SEO is the proper use of H1 tags, the primary heading element in HTML that indicates the main topic of a webpage. Despite its simplicity, incorrect or missing H1 tags remain a widespread issue across B2B websites, with direct consequences for both search engine rankings and user experience.

Pages without H1 tags are missing a critical opportunity to communicate content focus to search engines. This can result in:

• Lower keyword relevance: Google may struggle to associate the page with search intent.

• Reduced accessibility: Users with assistive technologies may have difficulty understanding the content hierarchy.

• Weakened content structure: A lack of clear headings can make pages appear disorganised or unprofessional.

In competitive B2B industries, even small technical oversights can make the difference between ranking on page 1 or being buried on page 4.

While most SEO discussions focus on the presence of H1 tags, few address another critical factor: the length of H1 titles. In B2B SEO, it’s not only important to use a heading—it’s equally vital to ensure it is appropriately sized for search engines and users alike.

An H1 that is too short can be vague or uninformative, while an overly long H1 can dilute keyword relevance and harm user readability. Both issues reduce the effectiveness of one of the most valuable on-page SEO elements.

Its H1 title length influences:

• Relevance and keyword targeting: A clear, well-crafted H1 helps Google understand what the page is about and which queries it should rank for.
• User engagement: Visitors quickly scan H1s to assess whether a page is worth reading. Unclear or overwhelming headings reduce clarity.
• Consistency with SEO title tags and SERP expectations: A poorly structured H1 can clash with the meta title or result in mixed messaging in search snippets.

Our audit revealed that H1 length mismanagement is widespread in the B2B space:

• 67% of websites have H1 tags that are too long, potentially diluting clarity and SEO effectiveness.
• 77% of websites have H1 tags that are too short, possibly lacking context or keyword relevance.
• On average, websites have 15 pages with overly long H1 tags.
• On average, websites have 14 pages with overly short H1 tags.

The ideal H1 title length for SEO and usability is:

• Between 20 and 70 characters
• Including a clear focus keyword
• Avoiding keyword stuffing or unnatural phrasing
• Reflecting the user intent behind the target search query

This balance ensures the H1 is descriptive enough to satisfy both users and search engines without appearing cluttered or truncated in visual layouts.

A surprisingly common technical SEO oversight among B2B websites is the absence of an XML sitemap. While seemingly minor, failing to implement and submit a sitemap can have serious consequences for a website’s search visibility and content discoverability—particularly for larger or more complex sites.

A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the important URLs on your website, helping search engines like Google and Bing understand the structure of your site and efficiently crawl its content.

• CMS misconfiguration: Some platforms don’t auto-generate or submit sitemaps unless plugins are installed or settings are manually adjusted.
• Overlooking technical SEO during development: Sitemaps are often omitted when SEO considerations are not integrated into the design and development process.
• Fragmented URL structure or page sprawl: This can lead to incomplete or outdated sitemaps that don’t reflect the full site architecture.
• Poor webmaster practices: Sitemaps may not be submitted to tools like Google Search Console or Bing Webmaster Tools, limiting visibility.
• Legacy content not included: Older or archived pages may be unintentionally excluded from the sitemap, reducing their discoverability.

Meta descriptions are a foundational element of on-page SEO, yet they are frequently underused or entirely omitted across B2B websites. While meta descriptions do not directly influence search engine rankings, they play a critical role in influencing click-through rates (CTR) by acting as the descriptive preview shown in search engine results.

Our audit revealed a widespread lack of properly implemented meta descriptions, which limits organic performance, user engagement, and overall search visibility.

• A meta description is an HTML attribute that provides a brief summary of a webpage’s content. It appears in search engine results pages (SERPs) beneath the page title and URL.
• Why meta descriptions are important:
  • Improve CTR in search results by giving users a compelling reason to click.
  • Reinforce keyword relevance when search terms are highlighted in bold.
  • Influence perception of brand professionalism and content quality.
  • Aid accessibility and screen reader interpretation.

This report highlights a stark but actionable reality: the vast majority of B2B websites are underperforming across critical areas of web performance and search engine optimisation. From sluggish page speeds and high waiting times to overlooked SEO fundamentals like missing H1 tags, broken links, and absent meta descriptions, the findings point to a sector-wide opportunity for strategic improvement.

Despite the widespread challenges identified, the implications are not discouraging—they are empowering. For businesses willing to prioritise digital optimisation, there is a clear and immediate competitive advantage to be gained. With more than 96% of B2B websites falling into the “Needs Improvement” or “Poor” categories on Google PageSpeed Insights, even incremental improvements in performance and SEO can result in outsized returns.

At Growthlabs, we help B2B businesses execute these improvements with precision, combining performance-focused development with best-in-class SEO strategy. Whether you’re just starting to optimise or are looking to scale, our team is ready to guide you through every step of your digital growth journey.