A website that converts is one where visitors take the step the business is aiming for: they send an enquiry, call, buy or book. A redesign often starts from “the site looks old”. Looks matter, but enquiries come mainly from clarity, speed and forms that work.
Below are the elements we check in every redesign project, before we talk about colours and fonts. The list is also useful if you just want to assess your current site yourself.
In short
Check, in order: the first screen says what you offer, to whom and what comes next; each service has its own page; the proof is real; the site is fast on mobile; forms confirm only successful submissions; redirects preserve the old pages; tracking starts after consent.
A clear offer on the first screen
The first screen, meaning what visitors see before they scroll, has a single job: to answer quickly the questions “what does this company offer?”, “is it for me?” and “what do I do next?”. An elegant but vague slogan answers none of them.
A simple test: show the first screen to someone who doesn't know your company for a few seconds, then ask them what you offer. If the answer is uncertain, the headline and subheading need to be rewritten, not decorated.
In practice, a clear first screen contains a headline that names the service or product, a sentence that says who it is for and what problem it solves, a main button with a specific action and, possibly, a genuine trust element. Sliders that rotate five different messages usually do the opposite: they split attention and hide the main message.
Structure based on visitor intent
Not all visitors come with the same purpose. Some are comparing suppliers, others are looking for a specific service, others just want a phone number. The site's structure must let each of them find what they are looking for quickly.
- Dedicated pages for each important service or category, not a single page that crams them all in.
- A menu with labels customers understand, not the company's internal terms.
- Practical information that is easy to find: area served, ways to get in touch, opening hours, how working together goes.
- Answers to the questions that often come up in sales conversations, placed where they naturally arise.
A good source for the structure is the questions you receive by phone or email. If people keep asking the same thing, the site isn't saying it clearly enough or is hiding it somewhere hard to find.
Real proof, not decoration
Visitors look for signs that the company has done similar things before. The most convincing are those that can be verified: portfolio projects with a link or real images, case studies that explain the problem and the solution, certifications that can be confirmed.
Made-up testimonials, logos of companies you haven't worked with or inflated figures do more harm than good. Besides the reputational risk, they may breach the rules on commercial practices. If you don't have public proof yet, it is better to describe honestly how you work than to fabricate it.
Important limitation
Don't publish testimonials, reviews or results you can't back up and for which you don't have the client's consent. A single piece of real proof, well explained, is worth more than ten generic, anonymous quotes.
Speed, Core Web Vitals and mobile
A slow site loses visitors before they get to read anything. Google measures page experience through a few indicators called Core Web Vitals: how quickly the main content appears, how quickly the page responds to a click and how much the content “jumps” while loading.
The usual causes are unoptimised images, too many external scripts, heavy fonts and themes loaded with unused features. You can check them for free with PageSpeed Insights, on your most important pages, not just the home page.
For many businesses, a large share of visits comes from phones, so check your own analytics data. Test the site on a real phone, not just in a small browser window: buttons that are easy to tap, text readable without zooming, menus that open correctly, forms that are easy to fill in.
Forms and calls to action
The form is the moment when interest becomes an enquiry. Surprisingly often, it is also the most fragile point: messages that go nowhere, errors that aren't flagged or a “sent successfully” message displayed even when the submission failed.
- Ask only for the fields you really need at first contact.
- Show clear errors next to the wrong field, without clearing what the visitor has filled in.
- Confirm success only after the message has actually been received, and if the submission fails, say so and offer an alternative.
- Check regularly, with a real test, that messages reach the right person.
- Put one main call to action on each page, matched to its intent: “Request a quote” on a service page, “See the project” in a portfolio list.
The call to action, meaning the button or link that invites the next step, must be visible and say exactly what happens after the click. “Submit” or “Learn more” are vague; “Book a phone call” or “Get an estimate” are specific, provided the promise is kept. Too many buttons of equal importance on the same page dilute the message.
Technical SEO, accessibility and consent-based tracking
Technical SEO means search engines can find, read and understand your pages. The basics include unique titles and descriptions for each page, a single clear heading structure, readable URLs, a sitemap, correct redirects from old pages to new ones and structured data where it makes sense. Redirects are critical in a redesign: without them, you can lose some of the visibility gained over time.
Accessibility means the site can also be used by people with visual, motor or cognitive disabilities. Sufficient contrast, alternative text for images, keyboard navigation and clear labels for fields help everyone, not just one group of visitors.
Measuring conversions is necessary to know what works, but it must be done while respecting the visitor's choice. Analytics and marketing scripts that use non-essential cookies load after consent, and the banner must make refusing as easy as accepting.
Practical tip
Before launching a redesign, export the list of indexed pages from the old site and make sure each one has an equivalent or a redirect on the new site. It is one of the simplest measures for preventing a loss of traffic.
Quick website redesign checklist
- The first screen says clearly what you offer, to whom and what the next step is.
- Each important service has its own page, with one main call to action.
- The proof is real and verifiable: portfolio, case studies, certifications.
- The main pages load quickly and pass the Core Web Vitals assessment.
- The site has been tested on real phones.
- Forms work, show clear errors and confirm only successful submissions.
- Titles, descriptions, the sitemap and redirects have been checked.
- Contrast, alternative text and keyboard navigation are in order.
- Tracking starts only after consent and measures the conversions that matter.
At WEB-AZ we use this list as a starting point for every web project. Priorities differ from one site to another, but the question stays the same: what does the visitor need to do, and what stops them from doing it today? If you would like to go through the list together for your site, send us a few lines about it.
Next steps