How We Design a Website That Converts

Start with the questions, not the layout

Every buyer runs the same sequence in their head: do these people do what I need, have they done it for someone like me, can I afford them, what happens if I get in touch. A page that answers those in that order converts. One that opens with a mission statement does not.

So we start by writing the questions down, usually from sales calls and support emails rather than from imagination. The page structure follows the list.

The five-second test

Show someone the top of the page for five seconds, take it away and ask what the company does and who for. If they cannot say, nothing below matters, because most visitors never get there.

• A specific headline — what you do, for whom
• One sentence of substantiation underneath
• One obvious next step, and one only
• Proof within the first screen: a client name, a number, a credential

“Transforming businesses through innovative solutions” passes no five-second test ever conducted. “Custom software for UK wholesalers, since 2020” passes every one.

Proof beats adjectives

Every claim on a page should be checkable. “Experienced team” is worth nothing; “UK-registered since 2020, 1,000+ clients across 13 countries” is worth a great deal, because it can be verified and therefore is believed.

1. Named clients, with permission
2. Specific numbers with units and dates
3. Third-party ratings people recognise
4. Case studies with a before and an after
5. Photographs of actual people, not stock

Remove friction from the one thing you want

The contact step is where conversion is won and lost. Every field is a reason to leave. We start with name, email and one open question, then add fields only if sales genuinely cannot proceed without them.

Give people a choice of channel, too. Some will fill a form, some will only WhatsApp, some want to book a slot without talking to anyone. Offering all three costs nothing and reliably lifts total enquiries.

Speed is a conversion feature

A slow site loses visitors before any design decision applies. On mobile connections the difference between a two-second and a six-second load is a large fraction of your traffic.

• Images sized and compressed properly — the single biggest win, every time
• No render-blocking scripts for things nobody sees
• Defer analytics and chat widgets until after first paint
• Fonts that do not hide your text while they load

What we do not do

No carousels — people see the first slide and nothing else. No pop-up before anyone has read a sentence. No auto-playing video with sound. No hiding the phone number to force a form.

And no redesign purely because the current site looks dated. If it converts, dated is fine; the work should go into the pages that do not.

Frequently asked questions