A site people compliment,
and nobody enquires
Dongwook Kang — founder, mitgeurim · planning-first web studio
Straight to it — the problem isn't the design. It's that nothing on that site tells a visitor what to do here. That's the reason.
The redesign that only earns compliments
You launch the new site and the compliments come in. "That looks great." "Nice feel to it." And the enquiry count sits exactly where it was before the rebuild.
Meanwhile visitors arrive quietly and leave quietly. Whatever you're spending to get them there keeps going out, and the people it delivers do nothing and go. What you've built, without meaning to, is a slow leak.
The usual next move is to make the design better still. But looking good and performing are two different problems. What a site produces comes out of how the action was designed — not out of how it looks.
They come to solve something of their own — the site has to tell them what to do next.
Three fixes that turn it into a site people enquire through
- One answer on the first screen. Pin down what a visitor gets here, in a single sentence, on the first screen. Not a company introduction, not a welcome message — one sentence written from the visitor's side. Without it, people decide within seconds that this place has nothing to do with them, and leave.
- One action per page. The next step — enquire, book, call — should be visible on every page, and there should be one of it. Give someone several buttons and they press none of them. Pick one, and put it where nobody has to hesitate to find it.
- Proof in front of the button. Reviews, past work and real photographs belong directly before the enquiry button. People doubt one last time right before they act, and that is the spot where the evidence has to be sitting for the button to get pressed.
With all three in place, a visit that used to end at "that looks nice" turns into a path towards an enquiry. And all three can usually be fixed without tearing the design down — which is why they're worth checking before you pay for another rebuild.
Check yours right now
Open your own site and go through these three lines.
- Is there one sentence on the first screen saying what a visitor gets here?
- On each page, is there a single next-step button, visible without hunting for it?
- Is there proof — a review, a past project, a real photograph — directly in front of the enquiry button?
If any one of those is a no, then your first screen is most likely not asking your visitors to do anything at all.
Frequently asked
My site looks good. Why aren't the enquiries coming?+
If the first screen never says what a visitor gets here, and the next step isn't obvious,
people leave with an impression of the design and nothing else.
What do I actually change to get enquiries?+
and the proof sitting directly in front of the enquiry button.
Check and fix them in that order.
Do we need another redesign?+
More often than not they can be fixed without tearing the design down.
mitgeurim is a web studio that draws this — the plan for what a visitor does — before any of the visual work.
If you want to know where your own site is leaking —