You can spend thousands of pounds building a beautiful website, but if visitors can't understand what you offer, find the information they need or work out what to do next, you're likely losing potential customers.
A successful website isn't just about how it looks. It's about how well it helps people make decisions and take action.
From unclear calls to action and confusing navigation to unnecessary content and poor mobile performance, there are plenty of small issues that can make a website harder to use than it needs to be.
So, how do you identify where customers are getting lost before investing in a redesign?
Drawing on lessons from almost 900 website projects, here are seven practical ways to improve your website design, create a better user experience and turn more visitors into customers.
1. Make your website's first impression count
The first thing visitors see before scrolling is called the hero section. Think of it as a small website in its own right. Someone should be able to understand what your business does and where to go next without having to explore the rest of the page.
Ideally, your hero section should bring four elements together:
A clear headline: Explain what your business offers and what problem it solves.
Supporting information: Add context to help visitors understand the headline.
Relevant proof: Include something that gives people a reason to trust your offer, such as a customer review or example of your work.
A clear call to action: Tell visitors exactly what to do next.
Review your website's calls to action too. If you're asking someone to request a quote, say so. If you're inviting them to book a demo, make that clear. The wording on the button should also match the page or action it leads to.
A simple way to test your homepage is to show someone unfamiliar with your business the first screen for five seconds. Take it away and ask them two questions:
What does this business do?
What would you click next?
If they struggle to answer, you've found a good starting point for improving your website.
2. Create clear pathways for different audiences
Once someone understands what your business offers, they need an obvious way to find what they came for.
This becomes particularly important if your website serves multiple audiences. Different visitors might arrive with completely different goals, and forcing everyone down the same journey can make the experience unnecessarily complicated.
For example, Market Fair, a makers market in Melbourne, needed a website that catered to two distinct audiences: shoppers planning a visit and sellers looking for a stall.
Both groups needed to access the website, but their requirements were very different.
Rather than placing information for both audiences all over the homepage, separate pathways were created. This allowed shoppers and potential stallholders to find the information relevant to them without having to navigate through content intended for somebody else.
The same principle applies to many businesses.
Someone looking to purchase a product shouldn't have to work through information intended for suppliers or job applicants. Similarly, a business offering services to both individuals and companies should make it easy for each audience to identify where they belong.
Consider the different types of customers who visit your website. Does everyone have an obvious starting point? Can they quickly identify the section that leads them towards their goal?
Clear navigation isn't necessarily about having fewer pages. It's about making sure visitors can find the right information without having to work for it.
3. Simplify your website without removing important information
One of the most common pieces of website design advice is to keep things simple. Generally, that's good advice, but it doesn't mean removing information entirely.
The amount of content your website needs depends on what you're asking visitors to commit to and how much they need to understand before making that decision.
Consider the difference between choosing a sandwich and entering into a relationship with a wealth consulting firm.
Someone ordering lunch probably doesn't need an in-depth explanation of the business's methodology. However, someone considering a financial relationship needs much more reassurance before getting in touch.
For Attune, a wealth consulting firm, the website needed to explain:
The firm's approach and methodology.
The services available.
Who customers would be dealing with.
What happens when someone makes contact.
The website also included information about the founder, helping visitors understand the person behind the business.
Removing these explanations simply to create a cleaner-looking page would have left potential customers with important unanswered questions.
This is why you should consider the customer's decision before deciding how much content to include.
Ask yourself: what does someone need to understand before they're comfortable taking the next step?
Keep the information that helps them make that decision and remove anything that doesn't add value.
Customer reviews, case studies and examples of your work can also provide reassurance at the right moment. For instance, if someone is considering your pricing, a relevant testimonial alongside that information can help demonstrate the value of your service.
Rather than making visitors search for reassurance elsewhere on your website, bring the most relevant evidence into the pages where they're making decisions.
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4. Use visual hierarchy to make your website easier to navigate
Having the right information on your website is only half the job. You also need to present it in a way that makes sense.
This is where visual hierarchy comes in.
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of elements on a page to show visitors what's most important and where they should look first.
Without it, a page can quickly become overwhelming. If your headline, supporting text and buttons all have the same visual weight, visitors have to work out which information matters most.
There are several ways to improve visual hierarchy:
Use clear heading sizes
Your main headline should stand out, with supporting headings and body text following a consistent structure.
Make good use of spacing
Group related information together and leave enough space between different sections. This helps visitors understand which content belongs together as they scroll.
Keep your fonts consistent
One or two fonts will generally provide enough variety. Choose readable fonts for longer paragraphs and reserve more decorative styles for shorter headings or introductory text.
Pay attention to colour contrast
Your text needs to be easy to read against its background. Pale grey text on a white background might look understated, but it can make visitors strain to read your content.
You can use a free online contrast checker to make sure your text and background colours are sufficiently different.
A quick way to assess your website's visual hierarchy is to squint at the page or view it at a smaller size. Can you still identify the main message and where your attention should go?
If everything blends together, your layout probably needs clearer priorities.
5. Use visuals that communicate something about your business
Your website might explain exactly what you offer, but does it give visitors a reason to remember your business?
Imagine replacing your company logo with a competitor's. Would the copy, stock photography and icons still look just as appropriate?
If the answer is yes, your website might not be communicating enough about what makes your business distinctive.
Your visuals should help visitors understand something about your business, rather than simply filling empty space.
Your business might have a product worth showcasing, a physical location, a team at work or a process that's easier to explain visually.
The same applies to video content. Ask yourself what someone can learn about your business by watching the video without sound.
Footage showing a product in use or a team working on a project can provide useful context. Generic footage of someone typing on a laptop is unlikely to offer the same value.
You should also consider whether a video is actually improving the experience. If removing it makes the page clearer or faster without losing important information, it might not need to be there.
Every visual element should have a reason for being on the page.
6. Test your website on mobile and check that everything works
A website that looks fantastic on a desktop computer can be surprisingly difficult to use on a mobile phone.
With so many people browsing and making purchasing decisions on their phones, mobile website optimization needs to be part of the design process.
Before considering a website finished, open it on a real phone and work through it as a customer would.
Check the following:
Can you read the text comfortably without zooming in?
Are the buttons large enough to tap with your thumb?
Can you select buttons without accidentally clicking neighbouring links?
Does any content spill beyond the edges of the screen?
Are paragraphs easy to read, or have they become large blocks of text?
Do headings take up too much space and push important information further down the page?
You should also test your website's forms.
Leave a required field blank and try to submit the form. Does the website clearly explain what needs correcting?
Then send a test enquiry. Does the confirmation message tell you that your message has been sent? More importantly, does the enquiry actually reach the right person?
Both sides of the process need to work.
You can also check basic accessibility by navigating your website using a keyboard. Press Tab to move between links and form controls. You should be able to see which element is currently selected.
This is a useful starting point, although it doesn't replace a full accessibility review.
Finally, check your website's loading speed, particularly on mobile. Heavy images and background videos can slow down a page, and a fast office Wi-Fi connection might hide problems that visitors experience on slower connections.
A performance report can help identify technical issues, but you should always test the actual customer journey as well.
7. Use website analytics to identify where visitors are dropping off
Once your website is live, real visitor behaviour can help you identify which areas need improving.
Website analytics provide information about how people interact with your pages, where they go and whether they complete the actions you want them to take.
However, before using analytics to make design decisions, make sure you're tracking the right things.
For example, opening a contact page and successfully submitting an enquiry are two completely different actions.
If your analytics only record visits to the contact page, you could mistakenly assume that more people are getting in touch than actually are.
Make sure completed enquiries and purchases are being tracked properly. If you're planning a new website, include conversion tracking in the project before launch.
One useful metric to monitor is your visit-based conversion rate. This measures the percentage of website visits in which someone completes a particular action, such as submitting an enquiry or making a purchase.
Tracking this over time helps you understand whether a larger proportion of visits are resulting in the action you're measuring.
However, an increase in conversion rate doesn't automatically mean your website redesign is responsible. You might be attracting more relevant visitors or people who already know more about your business.
It's also important to look beyond the number of enquiries.
A smaller number of enquiries from people who are genuinely suited to your business might be more valuable than a busy inbox full of requests you can't take on.
Look at the quality of the leads your website generates, as well as how frequently visitors complete your forms.
If people are reaching your contact page but not submitting an enquiry, investigate that particular step. Is the form working? Are you asking for too much information? Is it clear what happens after someone submits it?
Identify the problem, make a change that addresses it and monitor what happens afterwards.
This gives you a much more useful approach to website optimisation than repeatedly changing colours, fonts or headlines based on personal preference.
Final thoughts: Build a website around your customers
A successful website doesn't necessarily need more pages, more animations or more complicated design features.
It needs to help the right people understand what you offer, find the information they need and take the next step with confidence.
Start by looking at your website from your customer's perspective. Check the first impression, follow the journeys different audiences take, review the information on important pages and test how everything works on mobile.
Then use real visitor behaviour to identify where improvements will make the biggest difference.
These small decisions can have a significant impact on how people experience your business online, helping you build a website that doesn't just look good but actually works.
