Rethinking navigation for B2B sites with multiple stakeholders

From the individuals with roles and responsibilities such as procurement managers and technical specialists to the most important decision makers such as C-suite decision makers. 

When each of these audiences arrive at your B2B website, they all have their own individual agendas. With a differentiating level of knowledge, requirements on what they’re looking for and expectation of what they’ll find.

That makes navigation one of the most critical and most complex parts of B2B website design. If it doesn’t work for everyone, engagement drops, bounce rates climb and opportunities are lost.

We’ve helped many B2B brands tackle this particular challenge of creating navigation systems that can handle this diversity without overwhelming the user. This comes from years of delivering B2B web development services. And the results speak for themselves as we’ve helped deliver:

• Better engagement
• Clearer paths to conversion
• Stronger performance in search

So if you’re interested in how to design a navigation that genuinely works for multiple stakeholders? Let’s explore.

Why do multiple stakeholders make the navigation harder?

In B2C, a website's navigation is often straightforward. You’re selling shoes, electronics or furniture. The primary audience is the buyer. In B2B, things aren’t so simple. A site may need to answer procurement’s questions on compliance, speak to a technical buyer about integration and convince a budget holder of ROI all at once.

This multiplicity often creates two risks:

• Overloaded menus that try to serve everyone at once, creating confusion.
• Over-simplified structures that prioritise one stakeholder group while neglecting others.

The trick is finding a balance that acknowledges every audience without creating chaos.

Mapping user journeys across different decision-makers

Good navigation starts with good research. Before drawing boxes and labels, map the journeys each stakeholder typically takes.

• Procurement teams might start at compliance, certifications or case studies.
• Technical specialists want detailed specs, integration guides and product comparisons.
• Executives are more likely to look for ROI, strategic outcomes or customer success stories.

By mapping these flows, you can spot overlaps and common entry points. That helps you design pathways that serve multiple audiences without creating entirely separate silos.

From an SEO perspective, this exercise is just as valuable. Each stakeholder’s journey aligns with different keyword intents. Technical searches (“API integration with ERP systems”) differ from executive ones (“reduce operational costs in manufacturing”). By structuring navigation around these journeys, you’re also creating clearer signals for search engines.

Find out more about our B2B SEO Services here.

Structuring navigation to reduce friction

Once you know what stakeholders want, structure becomes the next challenge.

Some best practices we’ve found effective include:

• Tiered navigation: Start broad at the top level (Solutions, Industries, Resources), then provide depth as users drill down.
• Progressive disclosure: Don’t overwhelm people upfront. Let detail unfold as they navigate deeper.
• Sticky menus and breadcrumbs: Give users a constant sense of where they are and an easy way back.

Reducing friction is about creating clarity and delivering a clear picture, not cramming anything and everything into a mega menu. This is very much where SEO and UX truly align as the clearer your site structure, the easier it is for Google to crawl, index and understand relationships between pages benefiting your B2B website with discoverability as well as being easily navigated.

Should you prioritise role-based or solution-based navigation?

This is one of the big debates in B2B creative design. Do you build navigation around who the user is (e.g. “For Procurement,” “For IT,” “For Executives”) or around what they’re looking for (“Solutions,” “Products,” “Services”)?

In our years of experience delivering B2B websites we’ve found that when it comes to the navigation, there’s no one-size-fits-all. Some brands benefit from a clear role-based approach especially if the buyer groups are distinct and have unique needs. Then other brands with their offering are more suited to a solution-based navigation that lets stakeholders self-select by problem or outcome.

There’s also a third option here as we find the most effective websites often combine both role-based and solution-based navigation to focus on both aspects. A really good example is a top-level menu might focus on solutions, but the homepage or landing pages can guide role-specific journeys. This hybrid approach creates flexibility while keeping navigation lean.

From an SEO perspective, we find that solution-based navigation often works better more often simply because it naturally maps to keyword queries (“cloud security solutions” vs “For IT managers”). This makes your B2B website more discoverable from a search perspective if using a solution-based navigation. Role based content can still stand out, but it’s usually more powerful as a secondary pathway or within tailored landing pages.

The role of search and filtering in complex sites

No matter how carefully you structure navigation, there will always be users who prefer to search. For B2B sites with large product ranges or deep resource libraries, a strong search function is essential.

Key elements to consider:

• Autocomplete and suggestions that anticipate queries.
• Filters and facets that let users refine results by product type, industry or need.
• Synonyms and misspelling handling to make the experience forgiving.

From an SEO perspective, internal search can also provide a goldmine of data. Analysing what users type into site search tells you what they couldn’t find through navigation and highlights new keyword opportunities.

Balancing simplicity with depth of information

B2B audiences often require detailed, technical information before making a decision. But that doesn’t mean your navigation should dump everything on them at once.

The key is balance. At the surface level, keep things simple, broad categories, intuitive labels and clean menus. Deeper down, provide the detailed specs, compliance documents and technical content that specialist stakeholders crave.

This layered approach ensures your site feels welcoming to newcomers while still delivering depth for those who need it. From an SEO perspective, it also creates a clear hierarchy of information, high-level pages target broad, competitive keywords, while deeper pages capture long-tail, technical queries.

Examples of effective B2B navigation redesigns

We’ve seen plenty of B2B brands evolve their navigation successfully. A few standouts:

• HubSpot: Their navigation blends solution-based categories with role-specific pathways, supported by a powerful search bar. It works equally well for marketers, sales teams and executives.
• Siemens: With an enormous portfolio, Siemens uses tiered menus and strong filtering tools to keep things navigable. Technical users can dive deep, while executives still find high-level outcomes easily.
• Zendesk: Their site balances simplicity with clarity by grouping products around solutions (“Service,” “Sales,” “Platform”) while providing industry-specific routes.

What all three share is clarity. They don’t try to answer everything on the surface. Instead, they guide users smoothly toward the content that matters to them.

Creating a site that works for everyone

Designing navigation for a B2B website with multiple stakeholders isn’t easy. It requires understanding diverse user journeys, balancing role-based and solution-based needs and resisting the urge to overload menus.

The goal is always the same:

• To reduce friction
• Guide users quickly to what they need
• Create a structure that search engines can easily crawl. 

Get this right and your site doesn’t just “work”, it becomes a powerful tool for engagement, lead generation and long-term growth.

At Tiga UK, we believe great navigation is as much about empathy as it is about design. When you understand your audiences and reflect that in your structure, you build a site that works for everyone from procurement managers to C-suite executives.
 

Tiga is a Kent-based B2B creative agency helping brands design websites that balance user experience with SEO performance. From mapping complex buyer journeys to crafting navigation that reduces friction, we create digital experiences that work for every stakeholder and get results.

Want to rethink how your site navigation supports your B2B strategy? Let’s talk.