Building a business website: 7 things to decide first

About to build a website for your business? Then let me say one thing before you do anything at all. Do not start with colors, and do not start with a template. Start with seven simple choices.

I have seen it happen many times. A hairdresser pays for a pretty site. It looks great. And then nothing happens. Nobody calls, nobody books. The site is nice, but it is not working.

The reason is almost always the same: nobody decided what the site was supposed to do before it got built. Make the seven choices below now, and you avoid rebuilding everything six months down the line.

1. Who the site is talking to
2. What the main action is
3. What is stopping the customer
4. How you build trust
5. Who is going to update the site
6. What the site needs to connect to
7. How you measure whether it works

1. Who the site is talking to

A site that talks to everyone talks to no one. Pick one person to write for. A dentist treats children, adults and emergency toothaches, but on the front page she cannot shout it all at once. If she picks "adults who are a little scared of the dentist," the words turn warm and calm, and that lands. Ask yourself which customer you would most like more of, and use the words they use themselves. People click when they recognize themselves.

2. What the main action is

Every page should have one job. Call, book, or send an inquiry. Pick one. For a hairdresser it is "Book now," big and clear, at the top and the bottom. For an electrician it is a phone number you can tap from your mobile, because the job is urgent. The mistake I see most often is ten buttons fighting: call, follow us, download, subscribe, chat. One clear action beats ten weak ones every time.

3. What is stopping the customer

People want to buy, but something holds them back. Your job is to find that brake and remove it. A new customer at a physiotherapist might wonder: does it hurt, how long does it take, do you take patients without a referral? If the site does not answer, people get unsure, and unsure people wait. Write down everything customers usually ask about on the phone. That is your list. Answer every point on the site, and the doubt disappears.

• Common questions you get by phone or email
• Things people are afraid of but do not say out loud
• Practical things: opening hours, parking, how long it takes
• What happens after they get in touch

4. How you build trust

People buy from those they trust. Online they cannot look you in the eye, so you have to show you are real in other ways. A builder has an advantage: the work can be seen. Before and after photos of each job, with a short sentence about what was done, are proof, not promises. An accountant shows a name, a face and two or three short customer quotes.

And remember: real photos always beat slick stock images. A photo of you in the workshop says more than a stock shot of people laughing around a laptop. A slow, cluttered site makes people skeptical even when you are good, so it is worth thinking through the difference between a professional website and a template before you pick a solution.

5. Who is going to update the site

A website is not finished when it goes live. Prices change, and opening hours shift around at Christmas. The question is who fixes that. A hairdresser who posts new photos every week needs a site she controls herself from her phone. A lawyer who changes a few words a year would rather send a message and have it done. Both work fine, but choose before you build. Otherwise you end up with a site you are afraid to touch, or a system you pay for and never open.

6. What the site needs to connect to

A website rarely lives alone. A dentist wants to connect booking straight into the calendar, so nobody types in appointments by hand, and the customer gets a confirmation by SMS right away. An electrician just needs the inquiry to land in his inbox with a name, address and a short description, so he can call back from the van. Connections like that are far easier to build in from the start than to bolt on afterward. Write down which tools you use today.

7. How you measure whether it works

Almost everyone forgets this, and that is a shame. Be careful what you measure: visits pay no bills, what counts is how many people get in touch. A lawyer set himself one goal, five new cases a month from the site. He tracked how many people sent a message, and discovered the button sat too far down. He moved it up, and the messages came. What you do not measure, you cannot improve. Start simple and follow one number for three months: how many people get in touch via the site each month?

Common mistakes when building a website

When a site does not bring in customers, it is usually one of these reasons:

• The site talks to everyone at once, so nobody recognizes themselves.
• Too many buttons, so the customer does not know what to click.
• It does not answer what people actually wonder about, so the doubt stays.
• Slick stock images instead of real photos of you and your work.
• Nobody can update it, so it gets old and wrong.
• Nobody measures anything, so you have no idea whether it works.

Notice that we have not talked about colors or fonts a single time. That is on purpose, because those choices are easy once the seven above are in place. If you want help putting them into practice, I build websites for businesses with this plan as the foundation. Wondering whether the site you have today works, I can give you a free website analysis.