The first question I ask about a new website has nothing to do with colours or fonts. It is what your website should do: when somebody opens it, what do you want them to do next? It is tempting to answer with a list: more enquiries, more bookings, a better name, a place on Google.
That is a fair answer. A website feels as if it should do everything the business needs at once. A page that asks for three actions tends to get none of them, because every section either moves the visitor towards the action or dilutes the page.
A website has four possible jobs: bringing in enquiries, taking bookings, giving a business standing, and being found by strangers. Naming the one yours does comes before any design.
How does a website bring in more enquiries?
Somebody has already decided they want you. The page has to make writing to you feel easy and specific. This is the job for coaches, consultants, interior designers, event planners, and anybody selling their judgement by the hour or by the project.
You can judge an enquiry site by what arrives. An enquiry with a date, a rough figure and a postcode has been handled by the page. An enquiry that says only “can you send me a quote” has not.
When the messages arriving are empty, the form is asking the wrong questions. Add the questions you would ask on the phone. The form gets longer, and that is fine, because nobody can reply with a figure until they have the detail.
What should a booking website show first?
A booking is a date in a diary: a tour, a table, a room, a call. What is being booked already has a shape and usually a rate, so the page has less to gather and more doubt to remove. The visitor wants to know when they can come and what is included.
Lodges, coworking spaces, restaurants and venues all sell something that expires. A Tuesday that goes unsold is gone. That urgency should show in how the page is built, with the dates near the top and the rate beside each option.
“Our revenues grew significantly through Alan’s sales and marketing work. He brought clear communication and reporting, and a rare mix of efficiency and attention to detail, with creative problem-solving across the challenges inside the hotel.”General Manager, Rivertrees Country Inn
What if your work comes by referral?
Nobody books anything on this kind of site. It exists so that when your name comes up, what people find makes your rates look reasonable. Firms, new practices, speakers and anybody whose work arrives by referral need a site doing this job.
It is the hardest job to argue for, because it has no number attached. It is also the job where design does the most work, and where a cheap-looking site loses the most money without ever showing up as a lost enquiry.
On a standing site, the photographs and the writing carry the argument. A visitor who has been told you are good judges the claim by the page in front of them, and a page that looks rushed makes the recommendation look careless.
A page that asks for three actions tends to get none of them.
How does a website get found in search?
The visitor does not know you exist. They are searching for their problem. This job depends on structure more than persuasion, and it usually needs more than a handful of pages.
Morrow & Vale, a law firm website I designed, runs to eighteen pages for this reason. Six practice areas means six ways in, because people in trouble search for their problem before they search for a firm. They search for “can my employer do this”.
Each of those pages should open on the visitor’s question in their own words, answer it, and only then introduce the firm. The introduction can wait, because the stranger came for the answer.
What does the job decide on your website?
Name the job and most of the debates on a website project go away. You stop arguing about publishing your rates, because for bookings the answer is yes and for standing it might be no. You stop arguing about the page count, because being found needs many pages and enquiries can usually live on a single page.
Each job decides something different:
- Enquiries decides the form. It gets longer, because the detail is what lets you reply with a figure.
- Bookings decides the rates. They go on the page, because the visitor is comparing.
- Standing decides the photography. More of your investment goes there, because quality shows first in the pictures.
- Being found decides the page count. It goes up, because each problem needs its own entrance.
Some businesses have two jobs. A lodge wants bookings from guests who already know it, and it needs to be found by guests who do not. Start with the job that brings the money in, and give the second job its own pages once the first is working.
A website will not create demand for you. It takes the person who is already looking and moves them to a single action, and that action is the decision to make before any other.
Questions people ask about what a website should do
What is the main purpose of a business website?
To move the person who is already looking to a single action: an enquiry, a booking, trust in your name or the answer they searched for. Choose the job that brings the money in first.
Can a website do more than one job?
Yes, with separate pages. Start with the job that brings the money in, and give the second job its own pages once the first is working.
How do I know which job my website does?
Look at how your last few customers found you and what they did next. If they wrote to ask, the job is enquiries. If they booked a date, bookings. If they came recommended, standing. If they found you by searching their problem, being found.
