16 Frequently Asked Questions About What Makes a Great Business Website
Posted by: Carl Jones
October 1, 2025
Let me paint you a picture.
You spend weeks (maybe months) building your business website. You obsess over fonts, pick the perfect stock photos, agonize over whether your CTA should be “Get Started” or “Let’s Go.” Then you finally launch it and start driving traffic. Ads, emails, maybe even some influencer shoutouts. People are actually showing up!
But here’s the punchline: no one’s buying. No one’s calling. No one’s even filling out the contact form...
Hi, I’m Carl Jones, Senior Marketing Manager at Strategic Connection. Over the past 12 years, I’ve helped businesses of every shape and size turn their sites into well-designed business websites. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: the secret sauce is almost never what you think it is.
It’s not the logo. It’s not the background video of your smiling team. It’s how well your website is designed to convert.
A well-designed business website doesn’t just look nice. It works like your best salesperson, your most patient customer service rep, and your most persuasive marketing funnel, all rolled into one.
In this post, we’re going to answer 16 of the most frequently asked questions I get about building a site that actually performs. Whether you’re redesigning from scratch or just want to tweak what you’ve got, these insights are your roadmap to a site that not only looks great but actually gets results.
Table of Contents
1. Why doesn't my website convert visitors?
You could get 10,000 visitors a month and still have no real conversions, I mean, that is a nightmare. Conversion rate, or visitors who take your desired action, should be your north star. A good benchmark is typically somewhere between 2% and 5%, though there is certainly a lot of variety across industries (uxcam.com).
If your site is not converting, there is a problem: your messaging, your design/layout, or your call to action. All you want to do is guide people along in a relatively straight line, without letting them stray. That is what a well-designed business website actually does.
Traditional search is no more. It's personalized, AI-generated, and designed to get users the information they want faster and more efficiently.
2. What should go on my home page?
Your home page is your handshake. First impressions matter. Visitors should see immediately who you are, what you do, and what they can do next. Keep it clean, overloading animations, fancy scroll triggers, and multiple calls to action all trying to be first confuse visitors.
If it takes someone digging around to figure out your value, you‘ve lost them already. A well-designed business website delivers super clear messaging from the header, all the way down the page.
3. How do I lower bounce rate?
When you see bounce rate, that simply means people are arriving and leaving almost immediately. This often happens when the page is confusing, loading slowly, or has provided no next step for action. You can lower bounce rate by improving the page's load speed, or messaging, and offering next steps.
A well-designed business website subtly leads the readers eye without overpowering over communication and where your attention should be focused, which is your message.
4. How should I structure content?
Great structure is invisible. Use visual hierarchy: headings, subheadings, whitespace, bullet points. A classic rule from Smashing Magazine is simplicity, clarity, emphasis—include only elements necessary for communication. (smashingmagazine.com)
A well-designed business website subtly guides the visitor’s eye, never overwhelms, and keeps attention where it belongs: on your message.
5. Why does my call to action (CTA) not convert ?
Your call to action represents the bridge between interest and action, and if your action is vague like "learn more", the opportunity for visitors to cross the bridge is significantly lower. Use action verbs, state specific benefits, and use the most contrast possible. Fermàt states that "get your free trial now" is statistically much better than "click here". (fermatcommerce.com)
The most effective business websites have a bold, visually visible CTA that is impossible to miss.
6. What is "friction" and how to remove it.
Friction is defined as anything that will cause your visitor any hesitation to progress: slow pages, form fields, and unclear navigation can cause friction or hesitation. Your intend is a seamless path, as frictionless as possible for each single step.
A well-designed business website removes mental or technical friction from a user spending time to attention to what matters.
7.What inspires trust on my website?
Trust signals are the unsung champions. Utilize testimonials, case studies, logos of clients you have provided services for, secure badges, and transparent "About Us" pages. The Stanford Web Credibility Project has been saying for decades that people evaluate trustworthiness in a matter of seconds.
A well-designed business website will apply these components naturally - no gimmicks, no overpromising.
8. Which means more: design or copy?
Trick question - both mean something. Design will capture attention, but copy will close the deal. The best websites use benefit-oriented copy - not just the features. Design should frame the message, but not distract from it. A well-designed business website will be seamlessly well balanced.
9. How do I make my site mobile friendly?
In today's world mobile is not optional. Your site must convert to screens, touch, and speed. Utilize responsive designs, test on as many devices as possible, and prioritize performance. The most effective sites today emphasize responsive designs alongside content that works regardless of screen size. (artversion.com)
If your site looks like a desktop page shrunk down, you are losing visitors.
10. What is a conversion journey?
Think of it as a map: homepage → page of interest → offer page → decision point → action. Every step gradually moves people closer but in a way that is clear and not manipulative. No mixed messages, no need for surprises, and keep calls to action aligned at every step.
A well-designed business website will never leave people wondering what to do next.
11. Should you use video on your homepage?
Yes, but use it with restraint. A demo, explainer, or client story video can increase engagement, but make sure it doesn’t hold up your website too much. If someone doesn’t want to or can’t press play, you should still serve them some fallback content or a transcript.
12. What role does SEO have?
The answer: SEO needs to be baked in, not bolted on years later. Site architecture, page titles, headings, internal linking, all are part of what makes you discoverable.
Content that is people-first and relevant is also good for rankings. (surferseo.com)
No well-designed business website that’s built well ignores SEO. Visibility must go hand in hand with user experience.
13. How often should I update my website?
Forever. The best sites evolve. Add new case studies, try new offers, optimize pages where users fall off. Forbes wrote about constant maintenance, updating content, and checking the site back in March as normal but critical aspects of running a website. (forbes.com)
Even the best business website is never "finished."
14. How do I select the best layout for my brand?
Choose layouts that work for your story, not just because they look different! Stick to conventions that users expect (menu bar across the top, logo clicks go home, familiar colors) while putting your brand's stamp on it. Lyfe Marketing says follow known conventions to reduce friction. (lyfemarketing.com)
15. Do I need to hire a professional, or can I do it?
If your goals are modest, blog, side business, etc., yes, use a DIY tool. But if you are looking for leads and growth, you want someone who knows conversion, not just someone's pretty pages. It's worth it to have a business website that is designed with strategy in mind.
15. Do I need to hire a professional, or can I do it?
Clarity of purpose. Every page of a well-designed business website should answer: Why does this exist? What should I do next?
A clear purpose is the basis for any successful business website, according to The E Digital. (theedigital.com)
Conclusion
I once had a client in the outdoor gear industry whose website looked amazing but had zero leads. After we trimmed distractions, sharpened the copy, added trust signals and simplified the CTAs, leads spiked 320% in just six months. Because a well-designed business website is not about bells and whistles... It’s about guiding people toward something meaningful.
Need professional support to revamp your website? Reach out to us at Strategic Connection today, and together we'll build your well‑designed business website that actually performs.
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