What are the key statistics about B2B websites?

Across more than 55,000 US B2B websites we measured: 68% don't say what the company does in the first five seconds, 65% take longer than three seconds to load anything, 57% give no clear next step above the fold, 49% look visibly dated, 44% fail Google's mobile-friendly test, 71% show no proof a buyer can verify above the fold, 82% aren't structured for AI search to read them, and the average first-contact form asks for 12 fields.

What is a good website load time for a B2B site?

Under two seconds to show meaningful content. Our dedicated speed study is the figure to quote: measuring 56,005 US B2B homepages on Google PageSpeed's mobile strategy, the median scores 59 out of 100, takes 3.7 seconds to show anything, and 70.5% land beyond the three-second mark. The earlier corpus run in this report put the median at 43 out of 100; the speed study is the newer number and states its method.

What percentage of B2B websites are mobile friendly?

44% of the B2B websites we measured fail Google's mobile-friendly test, so roughly 56% pass. That matters because about a third of a typical B2B site's traffic arrives on a phone, often from a buyer checking you between meetings rather than at a desk.

How many fields should a B2B contact form have?

Fewer than most sites use. The average first-contact form in our audit asks for 12 fields, the longest we found runs to 18, and 1 in 5 still asks for a fax number. A first-time buyer is only deciding whether to start a conversation, so name, email, company, what they need and a file upload is enough. Keep the long form for returning customers placing an order.

How do you optimize a B2B website for AI-driven search?

Put your capabilities in plain page text rather than in spec-sheet PDFs, name the industries and specifications you serve, and add structured data. In our audit 82% of B2B sites aren't structured for AI search to read them and only 9% use structured data at all, so the bar is low. The same clarity that helps a person helps the machine that now recommends you.

How do you improve B2B website conversion rates?

Start with the three things our audit found missing most often: 57% of sites give a buyer no clear next step above the fold, 71% show no proof an outsider can verify, and the average first-contact form asks for 12 fields. One obvious next step, a named client or certification a buyer can check, and a short form address the gaps that lose the most people.

How often should a B2B website be redesigned?

Less on a schedule and more when the site stops describing the company. 49% of the sites we measured look visibly dated, and the median last redesign was more than seven years ago. Businesses change continuously while websites change in jumps, so the useful trigger is the gap between what you do now and what the page still says.

What makes a good B2B website?

The minority of B2B sites that convert first-time buyers share five traits: they answer what you do, who it's for, why you and the obvious next step within five seconds; they load in under two seconds and work on a phone; they show proof an outsider can verify; they make first contact almost frictionless; and they describe the company as it is today, in plain language a person and a machine can both read.

An Alkali industry study

The State of the Established B2B Website

What we found analyzing more than 55,000 B2B websites: the patterns quietly costing established companies buyers, and what the best sites do differently.

Published July 202655,000+ US B2B websites

Summarize with AI

The findings at a glance

Eight things a first-time buyer runs into on a typical B2B homepage, measured across more than 55,000 US B2B websites.

68%: don't say what the company does in the first five seconds
57%: give no clear next step: no obvious way to start a quote or reach a human
65%: take longer than three seconds to load anything
49%: look visibly dated, eroding trust before a word is read
12: the average number of fields on a first-contact form
44%: fail Google's mobile-friendly test
71%: show no proof a first-time buyer can verify above the fold
82%: aren't structured for AI search to read and recommend them

Why we made this

Established B2B companies rarely lose buyers loudly. Nobody emails to say your site talked them out of calling. They land, spend a few seconds, can't tell what you do or why to choose you, and quietly move to the next tab. That buyer never shows up in your analytics, your CRM, or your weekly numbers. The phone still rings, referrals still close, and the site feels fine, precisely because the people it costs you leave no trace.

We wanted to measure that invisible loss. So we reviewed more than 55,000 B2B websites the way a first-time buyer reads them: what they say, how fast they load, whether someone new can tell what the company does, and how hard it is to make contact. This report is what we found, and what the small share of sites that get it right do differently.

The through-line

Most B2B sites don't lose to better companies. They lose to companies a first-time buyer could understand faster.

Finding 01 of 08Clarity

The homepage that says nothing

68%

The gapnever plainly say what the company makes or who it is for. They lead with the company name or a slogan instead.

"Quality You Can Trust"
"Making It Happen Since 1966"
Just the company name

What it means: The single job of a homepage is to tell a first-time buyer, in seconds, whether they're in the right place. A company name or a slogan that could hang on any competitor's wall answers a question the buyer hasn't asked yet.
What it costs: A buyer comparing three vendors in three tabs doesn't send a complaint. They close the tab that made them work to understand it. The clearer competitor gets contacted, even when their work is worse.
What the best do: Lead with what you do and who it's for, in the plain words a buyer would actually search: the specific thing you make or provide, exactly who it's for, and what happens next. Clarity first, the fifty-year reputation second. More on B2B website design.

Finding 02 of 08The next step

Nowhere obvious to go next

57%

The gapgive a buyer no clear next step above the fold: no obvious way to start a quote, and no visible way to reach a human.

Dead-end "Learn More" buttons
1 in 3 keep the phone in the footer only

What it means: A buyer who is ready to act shouldn't have to hunt. Many B2B sites bury the phone number in the footer, point a "Learn More" button at nothing, or offer a retail "Shop Now" to a B2B buyer who wants to talk to someone.
What it costs: The moment of intent is fragile. A buyer who can't quickly see how to reach you does the easy thing instead: nothing, or the next tab. You never learn the interest existed.
What the best do: One obvious next step above the fold, phrased for how this buyer actually starts: "Request a quote," with the phone number visible right beside it.

Finding 03 of 08Speed

The three-second problem

65%

The gaptake longer than three seconds to show a buyer anything. Our dedicated speed study, which states its method, puts the median at 59 out of 100 on Google PageSpeed.

Median 59/100 (speed study)
1 in 14 rated "good"
47% slower than 4 seconds

What it means: Three seconds is roughly where a first-time visitor's patience runs out, and most B2B homepages sit on the wrong side of that line, usually from a decade of plugins and un-optimized images. The figures here come from the original corpus run. We have since measured speed on its own, with a stated method, and those numbers supersede these: see the [B2B website speed benchmarks](/research/b2b-website-speed-benchmarks/), which score 56,005 homepages on Google PageSpeed's mobile strategy and put the median at 59 out of 100.
What it costs: A visitor who leaves during a slow load looks identical in your analytics to someone who was never interested. The loss is real and completely invisible, which is exactly why it persists for years.
What the best do: Show meaningful content in under two seconds. It's rarely a rebuild, usually the boring work: compress the images, cut the plugins, modernize the top of the page. More on our speed benchmarks for B2B sites.

Finding 04 of 08Trust

A dated site describes a company that no longer exists

49%

The gaplook visibly dated: old layouts, small type, stock imagery, the signature of a site last touched a decade ago.

Median last redesign: 7+ years ago
"Not Secure" in the address bar

What it means: Businesses evolve continuously; websites evolve in jumps every five to ten years, if that. The gap widens quietly until the page is describing a company the owner used to run, not the one they run now.
What it costs: A buyer with no relationship to you reads a dated page and quietly wonders whether the company is behind, still active, or the kind of place that will hit a deadline. Rarely fair, but it's how a first-time visitor reads a stale page.
What the best do: Reposition the site around the company they are today: current capabilities front and center, the services they've added named, the real ideal customer spoken to directly. More on B2B website redesign.

Finding 05 of 08Friction

The first-contact form is built for the wrong person

The gapfields on the average first-contact form before a buyer can hit submit. Many run to 18, with a fax field and a nineteen-option dropdown.

Longest form seen: 18 fields
1 in 5 still ask for a fax number

What it means: A long form makes sense for one person: the established customer placing an order or a reorder, who already trusts you and expects to give detail. It's the wrong tool for the other person entirely: a first-time buyer, sizing you up, who hasn't decided to work with you and is only deciding whether to start a conversation.
What it costs: A long first-contact form filters out the busiest buyers first, which is to say the best ones. The person with time for eighteen fields is rarely the one with the urgent, high-value job.
What the best do: Keep the detailed order form for returning customers, and give first-time buyers a short one: name, email, company, what they need, and a file upload. Everything else gets asked in the reply, once they're already engaged. More on what an RFQ page should ask for.

Finding 06 of 08Mobile

Your buyer is on a phone, away from their desk

44%

The gapfail Google's mobile-friendly test, even as roughly a third of a typical B2B site's traffic arrives on a phone.

~1 in 3 visits are mobile
Checked on the go, between meetings, after hours

What it means: A lot of established sites were built assuming buyers look you up at a desk. That stopped being true. A purchasing manager between meetings, or a buyer comparing vendors in the evening, meets your company on a screen the size of a hand.
What it costs: They arrive to pinch-and-zoom through tiny text and tap links too small to hit. Most don't fight it. They leave, and they look identical to any other bounce.
What the best do: One responsive site that reshapes to any screen, readable type, tap targets a thumb can hit, and a phone number that dials in one tap, not a hunt through the footer. More on manufacturing website design.

Finding 07 of 08Proof

Decades of proof, shown nowhere

71%

The gapshow no proof a first-time buyer can verify above the fold: no named clients, no certifications, no real projects.

Just 22% name a real client
Certifications shown on 1 in 5

What it means: Credibility on a website isn't the same as being credible in real life. A first-time buyer can only judge what the page shows them, and "trusted by industry leaders" proves nothing they can check.
What it costs: A buyer choosing between three vendors leans toward the one they can verify. The company with decades of happy customers loses to the one that simply showed a named client and a real project.
What the best do: Show proof an outsider can check: named customers, certifications and tolerances, real photos of the facility and the work. The reputation you earned, made visible. More on trust signals a buyer can verify.

Finding 08 of 08Getting found

Invisible to the tools buyers now use

82%

The gaparen't structured for AI search to read them: capabilities trapped in PDFs and vague copy a machine can't recommend.

Only 9% use structured data
Half hide their specs in PDFs

What it means: Buyers increasingly ask AI to compare vendors, and the AI answers by reading websites. Capabilities buried in spec-sheet PDFs and "quality solutions for a variety of industries" copy give it nothing specific to work with.
What it costs: In a head-to-head, the AI describes the competitor it could actually read in confident detail, and describes you in a vague sentence, or leaves you out. Vague loses the comparison before a human weighs in.
What the best do: Put capabilities in plain page text, name industries and specs, and add structured data. The same clarity that helps a person helps the machine that now recommends you. More on AI search optimization.

What the sites that win actually do

The minority of B2B sites that convert first-time buyers share a short list of traits. None of them is about being flashy.

They answer four questions in five seconds. What you do, who it's for, why you, and the obvious next step, all before a buyer has to scroll.
They load in under two seconds and work on a phone. Speed and mobile aren't features; they're the price of being considered at all.
They show proof an outsider can verify. Named clients, real projects, certifications, actual photography. Specific beats flattering, every time.
They make first contact almost frictionless. A short form and a visible phone number. Qualify in the conversation, not at the door.
They describe the company they are today. Current capabilities, current focus, the real ideal customer, spoken to in plain language a person and a machine can both read.

What to do about it

The instinct is either to leave the site alone or, when it finally bothers you, to rebuild the whole thing. Both usually miss. Most of the buyers a site loses come down to one or two specific things on the page, and the goal isn't to fix everything, or to fix a small thing just to feel productive. It's to find the change that is actually costing you buyers and prioritize that first.

Resist busywork

A new logo, a fresh stock photo, a reworded "about" page. It feels like progress and moves nothing, because none of it was what a first-time buyer bounced on.

Resist the reflex rebuild

"We need a full redesign" is the expensive answer to a problem you haven't diagnosed. Often the site is fine structurally and just never says what you do, which is a rewrite, not a rebuild.

Find out what a first-time buyer actually sees, decide which one gap is losing you the most, and fix that before anything else. Seeing your own homepage the way a buyer does is the one thing you can't do from the inside. If you are weighing the two paths, redesign vs. rebuild covers which problem each one actually solves.

Methodology

Every figure in this report comes from the same corpus: more than 55,000 business-to-business websites across the United States, covering manufacturers, distributors, equipment makers and specialized service firms. Sites were scored on load speed using Google PageSpeed, mobile-friendliness, clarity of the value proposition, contact friction, and visible proof.

Where a figure describes what a buyer can see, it was measured above the fold on the homepage at a standard desktop viewport, because that is the surface a first-time visitor actually judges. Percentages are the share of sites in the corpus exhibiting the pattern, rounded to the nearest whole number.

Two limits worth stating plainly. The corpus is US-only, so it says nothing about B2B websites in other markets. And it measures what a site shows someone who doesn't work there, not what a company is capable of: a business with an unclear homepage is very often excellent at the work, which is the entire point of the report.

Sample: 55,000+ US B2B websites
Sectors: Manufacturers, distributors, equipment makers, specialized service firms
Measured: Load speed (Google PageSpeed), mobile-friendliness, value-proposition clarity, contact friction, visible proof
Surface: Homepage, above the fold, standard desktop viewport
Geography: United States
Published: July 2026

We re-run the audit every year. The 2027 edition publishes in July, and we will send it to anyone on the list below.

Cite this study as: Alkali, The State of the Established B2B Website (2026). The full 17-page PDF is available to download, and these findings may be quoted with attribution.

Common questions

What are the key statistics about B2B websites?: Across more than 55,000 US B2B websites we measured: 68% don't say what the company does in the first five seconds, 65% take longer than three seconds to load anything, 57% give no clear next step above the fold, 49% look visibly dated, 44% fail Google's mobile-friendly test, 71% show no proof a buyer can verify above the fold, 82% aren't structured for AI search to read them, and the average first-contact form asks for 12 fields.
What is a good website load time for a B2B site?: Under two seconds to show meaningful content. Our dedicated speed study is the figure to quote: measuring 56,005 US B2B homepages on Google PageSpeed's mobile strategy, the median scores 59 out of 100, takes 3.7 seconds to show anything, and 70.5% land beyond the three-second mark. The earlier corpus run in this report put the median at 43 out of 100; the speed study is the newer number and states its method.
What percentage of B2B websites are mobile friendly?: 44% of the B2B websites we measured fail Google's mobile-friendly test, so roughly 56% pass. That matters because about a third of a typical B2B site's traffic arrives on a phone, often from a buyer checking you between meetings rather than at a desk.
How many fields should a B2B contact form have?: Fewer than most sites use. The average first-contact form in our audit asks for 12 fields, the longest we found runs to 18, and 1 in 5 still asks for a fax number. A first-time buyer is only deciding whether to start a conversation, so name, email, company, what they need and a file upload is enough. Keep the long form for returning customers placing an order.
How do you optimize a B2B website for AI-driven search?: Put your capabilities in plain page text rather than in spec-sheet PDFs, name the industries and specifications you serve, and add structured data. In our audit 82% of B2B sites aren't structured for AI search to read them and only 9% use structured data at all, so the bar is low. The same clarity that helps a person helps the machine that now recommends you.
How do you improve B2B website conversion rates?: Start with the three things our audit found missing most often: 57% of sites give a buyer no clear next step above the fold, 71% show no proof an outsider can verify, and the average first-contact form asks for 12 fields. One obvious next step, a named client or certification a buyer can check, and a short form address the gaps that lose the most people.
How often should a B2B website be redesigned?: Less on a schedule and more when the site stops describing the company. 49% of the sites we measured look visibly dated, and the median last redesign was more than seven years ago. Businesses change continuously while websites change in jumps, so the useful trigger is the gap between what you do now and what the page still says.
What makes a good B2B website?: The minority of B2B sites that convert first-time buyers share five traits: they answer what you do, who it's for, why you and the obvious next step within five seconds; they load in under two seconds and work on a phone; they show proof an outsider can verify; they make first contact almost frictionless; and they describe the company as it is today, in plain language a person and a machine can both read.

Want the PDF version?

Everything in the study is on this page. The PDF is the same research laid out for sharing internally, and we will send the next edition when it publishes.