Start with strategy, not design.

This is where almost every weak website goes wrong. Before colours, fonts, images, page layouts or clever effects, you need to answer a few basic questions.

• Who is the website actually for?
• What do visitors already know when they arrive?
• What do you want them to do next?
• What do they need to understand before they are willing to do it?

Those answers determine the whole site. They influence the pages you need, the order of information, the calls to action, the tone of the copy and the structure of each individual page.

This is why the first conversation should not be, “What do you want it to look like?” It should be, “What does success look like? Who are we trying to reach? And what does that person need to understand before they pick up the phone or fill in a form?”

Structure turns interest into action.

Once you know the strategy, the next step is to map out the structure. This starts with a site map: a simple plan of every important page and how those pages connect.

Most people skip this. They start building and add pages as they think of them. The result is a website that grows into a tangled, piecemeal mess. Visitors click around, get no clear direction, and leave without doing anything.

That does not always happen because they were not interested. It often happens because the website never guided them down a clear path.

Your site map should match your business goal

If the goal is to generate enquiries, every major page should have a route towards an enquiry. If you have different audiences, such as domestic and commercial customers, the structure should route each person to the information that is relevant to them.

After the site map comes the wireframe. A wireframe is a rough layout of a page before the visual design is added. No colour palette. No final imagery. No polished styling. Just the page structure and hierarchy.

Clarity beats cleverness.

Once the structure is clear, the design can start. But this is another point where many websites lose their way.

Everyone wants the site to look impressive. I do too. The real question is: impressive to whom? A website should not be designed to impress the designer. It should be designed to help the visitor understand, trust and act.

The design choices that really matter

• Typography: fonts have a huge effect on how professional and readable a website feels.
• Colour: a tight, disciplined palette usually works better than lots of colours used inconsistently.
• White space: space is not wasted. It gives the message room to breathe.
• Calls to action: one primary action repeated clearly is usually stronger than several competing buttons.
• Mobile layout: for many visitors, the phone version is the real website.

Google/SOASTA research found that as the number of page elements rises from 400 to 6,000, the probability of conversion drops by 95%. In plain English: clutter has a cost.

For small and medium-sized businesses, this is where a lot of value can be unlocked. The company, the service and the offer may already be strong. The problem is often that the website is hiding the value under clutter, weak hierarchy or unclear copy.

You can see examples of this kind of practical website thinking in my website design portfolio, including projects where structure, usability and conversion clarity were just as important as the visual design.

Build it so the business can use it.

This is something that is often ignored during the design stage, but it affects what happens after the site goes live.

At some point, the business will need to update the website. A new service. A new case study. A changed phone number. A campaign landing page. A new product. A revised offer.

If the site has not been built with that in mind, every change becomes a problem. A support ticket. A wait. A cost. Sometimes a small change becomes such a hassle that it never gets done.

My preference is to build websites in a way that feels logical to the people who own them. That means a sensible structure, editable sections, clear handover, and support after launch so the business is not left guessing.

This matters even more for ecommerce. Product pages, category pages, promotions, delivery information and seasonal campaigns all need to be manageable. If every change needs a developer, the website becomes a bottleneck instead of a business tool.

Launch is the beginning, not the finish line.

For many website projects, launch day is treated as the end. The site goes live, everyone is relieved, and then it is left alone until someone decides it needs another redesign in a few years.

That approach produces websites that may look good on day one but gradually stop working over time.

Three things should be ready from day one

• SEO foundations: the site structure, page headings, copy, internal links and technical basics should be considered from the start.
• Analytics: you need to know where visitors come from, what they look at, and where they drop off.
• Contact flow: visitors should have clear ways to enquire, call, email or take the next step.

Retrofitting SEO later is much harder than building with it in mind. The same is true for analytics and enquiry journeys. If the site launches without measurement, you are guessing. If the contact flow is weak, good visitors can disappear without a trace.

This is why my approach to website design is not just about producing pages. It is about creating a structure that can be understood, measured and improved.