A website can look excellent and still perform badly for a business.
That is because web design is only one part of the job.
A useful business website needs to answer three questions quickly:
- Am I in the right place?
- Can I trust this business?
- What should I do next?
Everything else should support those answers.
Your customer journey matters
Before designing pages, it helps to think about why somebody has arrived.
Perhaps they:
- searched Google for a local service
- followed a recommendation
- saw your van
- found you on social media
- scanned a QR code
- clicked through from Google Maps
They may know almost nothing about you.
The website needs to move them from uncertainty towards taking action.
Make the service immediately understandable
Business owners sometimes assume customers understand what they do.
They often don’t.
Within a few seconds of reaching the website, visitors should be able to establish:
- What you offer
- Who you help
- Where you operate
- Why they should consider you
- How to contact you
Clever headlines are no substitute for clarity.
Trust is part of website design
Customers look for signals that reassure them they are dealing with a genuine business.
Depending on the type of business, these might include:
- Real photographs
- Reviews
- Qualifications
- Accreditations
- Guarantees
- Case studies
- Experience
- Clear contact information
- Pricing guidance
- A named person behind the business
You do not need every trust signal.
You need the ones that are relevant and genuine.
Every page needs a purpose
One of the simplest improvements to many small-business websites is deciding what each page is supposed to achieve.
For example:
- Service page: encourage an enquiry.
- Case study: build confidence.
- Article: answer a question and move the reader towards the relevant service.
- Contact page: make getting in touch effortless.
Pages should not exist simply because websites traditionally have them.
Mobile isn’t optional
A website designed beautifully on a large monitor can be frustrating when squeezed onto a phone.
Mobile design needs its own attention.
That includes:
- Menu behaviour
- Button size
- Text size
- Image cropping
- Form usability
- Spacing
- Content order
The most important action should not be buried halfway down a poorly adapted mobile page.
The technical basics matter
Visitors may never know whether your website has:
- sensible page titles
- a sitemap
- structured data
- social sharing metadata
- clean URLs
- Search Console
But these pieces can help search engines and other services understand the site.
Google explains that structured data (opens in a new tab) can provide specific information that helps it understand page content, while Search Console (opens in a new tab) provides tools for monitoring how sites appear in Google Search.
These aren’t magic ranking switches.
They are part of building the site properly.
Your enquiry process matters too
Imagine a customer finally decides to contact you.
Then:
- the form doesn’t work
- the phone number isn’t clickable
- the email address is wrong
- the form asks 20 unnecessary questions
- they get no confirmation their enquiry was received
That is not primarily a design problem.
It is a business-process problem.
A website should support the way the business actually handles enquiries.
Speed matters
A giant uncompressed photograph may look beautiful when it eventually appears.
That doesn’t make it a good website image.
Images and other website assets should be prepared so the site remains practical to use.
What happens after launch?
A website also needs a proper handover.
The business owner should understand the important accounts, renewals and services associated with their website.
They should not be dependent on a designer simply because nobody ever told them where their domain was registered.
A website should work for the business
This is why my approach at The Business Workshop goes beyond simply designing pages.
I look at the website as part of the business:
- How customers find you
- What they need to know
- What builds confidence
- Where enquiries go
- What happens next
Then I make sure the relevant technical essentials are dealt with too.
That is the thinking behind The Business Workshop Standard.
Want a website that works for your business?
I plan websites around your customers, your enquiries and what the business needs to achieve, then take care of the technical essentials too.