What is the best architecture for B2B websites? Sea sponge or coral?

What a strange question!

What is the connection between the architecture of a website and the animals that have lived on the seabed for thousands of years?

Let's start with corals.

Coral has a flat structure, attached to the ground by a single trunk divided into several branches, which multiply into many smaller branches.

The sea sponge 🧽 has no trunk, no branches, it is made up of a multitude of alveoli that attract water from the outside to the inside.

But what does this have to do with B2B website architecture?

Traditionally, a B2B website has a main trunk, a gateway for visitors called the homepage.

Then several branches, for example: who we are, our products, our services, our latest news, contact us..., divided into as many branches, etc., with very brand-centric content.

Visitors passing through the home page already know the brand, or know the product names and are looking for them. They reach the web content thanks to branded searches.

The sea sponge, on the other hand, does not have a single entry point. It is made up of several outward-facing entry points. Its design aims to attract from the outside, wherever it comes from.

As you can see, the coral is a showcase site whose content responds to branded searches, whereas the sea sponge is a user search-intent-based site whose content responds to user concerns and needs (aka unbranded searches), favouring qualified traffic. See the related article "How to find relevant keywords to generate performing content in B2B".

Therefore, on a sea-sponge page, the call-to-action should be placed directly on the page, and should obviously be related to its content and, de facto, to its main targeted user search intent.

So what is the best for a B2B website?

In terms of biodiversity, a harmonious mix of the two is ideal, responding to both branded and unbranded searches.

But once the coral content is developed, based on brand and product names (preferably defined as unique or natural, with little semantic competition), the growth will come mainly from sea sponge content, targeting more and more user search content, starting with the best in terms of search volume, competition and, above all, qualified traffic, to provide the best conversion rate to the website.