What is this about?
There are many problems web designers can solve. You hear many times things like “customers can’t find us online“, “the website looks outdated“, “visitors don’t trust us” and many others.
But how can you solve them? How to proceed? You’re maybe not sure how to approach those problems.
So here are nineteen problems and nineteen possible solutions you can use to make them disappear. Enjoy!
1) Their problem: “Customers can’t find us online”
Your solution: Simply, you must create a website that allows their customers to find them. The first thing you can do is to provide SEO services, which will enable search engines (Google, Bing) to find them more easily and rank them higher in the search results. You can start with an SEO-optimized website (mobile-optimized, fast, accessible, with a clear structure), then create a blog with articles that include keywords.
Use local SEO strategies for businesses that target a specific geographical area to help increase visibility in local searches. Optimise all the SEO with Google Analytics information.
Overall, the more links there are in online space that lead to their site, the more relevant their site becomes, so the higher it ranks in Google search results (this is called backlinks, build some). You can add the site to Google Search Console, upload a sitemap, and allow access in robots.txt.
Having a Google Business profile is essential if it is a local business. If you want to go this way, provide a basic description/explanation of your business, add your services, upload quality photos and get ratings from some of your customers.
Recommend your client to actively monitor and respond to reviews, it can positively impact SEO and of course their online reputation.
The second thing you should also offer is some basic and not so basic ideas and tips about social networks, which will make it far easier for their customers to find them.
2) Their problem: “Customers don’t understand what we do / what we do differently”
Your solution: The foundation is, of course, the text, with which you can help them, and which will convey what makes their brand special. You need a clear headline, a descriptive subheading, and ideally some visuals (or a VSL) that explain exactly what you do. State what you can offer them and the value you can bring, don’t overcomplicate this.
You can also create a special section on their website, titled “Why Choose Us” or “What We Do”.
By using various colours and fonts, you can better capture their uniqueness. You can add some pictures or diagrams to enhance the overall understanding of their mission (after you have added the mission itself). Thanks to visuals, animations, or videos, your customers can understand everything more clearly.
“what we do differently” is also much about branding. Do they have some branding strategy? If not, recommend them to start the brand. Remember that brand fundamentals consist of consistency in what you do (such as using the same colors in all your designs) and uniqueness in who you are and what you offer.
You can also add some comparison blog posts with other competitors in your field – but be careful with this, it can give them more credibility than you.
3) Their problem: “Customers don’t trust us”
Your solution: You need to add more social proof – mainly testimonials. The best are personal videos, screenshots of messages or emails. Then add whole personal stories of your customers, case studies, and star ratings from trusted sites (Google rating).
Be aware of colour psychology – we can use some shades of blue, which can generate trust.
Another great thing is to have logos and names of customers / companies / people you work with or for displays on the page. Especially the big ones. If you have reviews from celebrities or famous influencers, make them very visible.
Also, make your website more personal – add something about you, your photos, or a photo of the whole team. People love seeing people behind the business. Scammers will surely not have their photos and videos there. Consider creating and/or displaying certificates or awards their business or services have received, which will increase credibility.
Ensure transparency by publishing their ethical policies or information about sustainable and responsible business practices. Some people will love it.
And the last thing – showcase their work: if they create toys for children, show visitors the toys they’ve made. If they manufacture cars, display the cars on their website.
4) Their problem: “Customers can’t buy online from us”
Your solution: You can create an e-shop that will facilitate this. You can install a system that will assist you in listing their products on the e-shop, enabling customers to make purchases. There are several options from which you can choose, including Shopify, Shoptet, WooCommerce (with WordPress) and many others (or you can code your own system too).
You should add all the fundamnental payment options such as Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, or even Bitcoin and other crypto if you prefer. Ensure that the checkout process is simple and intuitive and that all fees are clearly explained to customers before the final purchase.
You should be able to offer discounts, showcase your best-selling products, and more. Or if you don’t wanna create a whole solution, adding some third party – for example link to Stripe, Gumroad or Amazon can be enough in some cases.
Consider multilingual support and local currency options for e-shops that target the international market too.
5) Their problem: “Customers can’t book services online”
Your solution: You can add a reservation/booking form/solution to their website. You enable them to either monitor it directly on the web, or it can send them emails with a copy of the submissions (or many other options). This can either be a small section of their existing website, or an entire one-page website can be dedicated to this form.
The form should be optimised – if you need many fields, create a two-step form. Make sure you grab the email address in the first step so you can bombard them with follow-ups in case they don’t complete the form.
6) Their problem: “Visitors can’t find the right information”
Your solution: Their website is probably poorly organized. There could be problems with the hierarchy of content, headlines, and sections. Perhaps the visitor is overwhelmed by the amount of information, so I would make it clearer, with less information and more links. If it’s important information, you can place it on the first page (hero section) or highlight it in the form of a notification popup.
Remember ‘less is more.’ Create a clear hierarchy so visitors can skip parts they are not interested in and quickly get to what they want. A clear, straightforward menu is non-negotiable (be aware of mobile optimisation).
Additionally, consider creating an ‘FAQ’ or ‘How it works’ section to help quickly answer common visitor questions and add a contact form or a live chat/chatbot so they can send you an email or ask a question whenever they have one. You can add a sitemap to the footer as well.
7) Their problem: “We don’t show up on Google”
Your solution: First make sure the site is visible on Google – search for ‘site:yoursite .com’. If nothing comes up, Google doesn’t have access to your website. Ensure the site is accessible to Google’s crawler bots. Then, there may be a problem with SEO – in other words, search engine optimization (see point number 1). You can do a lot of things here.
There might also be a problem with the security of the site, for example, an SSL certificate or something else. Again, create a Google Business Profile for them. Buy and run PPC ads if they want. Start a blog with a focus on keywords.
Be aware that search trends are changing and SEO requires constant work, not only a one-time effort.
8) Their problem: “We are not getting enough leads”
Your solution: There is a problem with attention which they’re not getting. Ask them to identify and address the main sources of their website traffic (and their goals in terms of this).
The traffic can be taken from many sources – for example social networks (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, TikTok, etc.), Google (SEO) or maybe email marketing. Overall, to increase the number of leads, you need more links to their site in the whole space of the web.
You can buy and run some ads, on Google or Facebook targeting their ideal customers too. You should recommend that they start social media accounts and create organic content. If they want attention from search engines, they should definitely start a blog.
Suggest setting up a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to help track interactions with potential clients.
9) Their problem: “Not enough visitors are converting”
Your solution: Navigation, no CTA (or poor CTA), too much information, too little information — there can be many problems. Focus on the fundamentals: the site must be clear (what it is about), consistent (I know I am still on their site), and have CTAs (rather too many than too few) – but only one action, two or three at most. What I mean by action? Buying a course, signing up for a newsletter, or booking a call.
Have a clear and interesting copy. Add benefits, reviews, testimonials, FAQ section, what’s included in the service/product, their process, and an About section. Have SOCIAL PROOF on the site. Overall prioritize business goals rather than aesthetic goals.
Recommend them and implement A/B testing for different website elements (CTA buttons, headlines) to find the most effective variations for increasing conversions. Use for example Convert.com. Use heatmaps to find out what visitors are doing on the sites – where they click, how much time they spend in certain sections, etc.
I was talking with a guy from marketing who was selling beautiful websites for about 6,000 dollars (which is a lot in Czechia). Then he switched to a simpler Word-looking-like site, and it had better conversions than the ‘better’ one. If you want a website with high conversions, a Word (Word not WordPress) site is literally all you need.
10) Their problem: “We need to impress potential employees / investors”
Your solution: If it must impress them, it must first impress you. ****The website must be aesthetic and fast. It should have a strong, clear value proposition in the hero section. It must be unique — add unique icons, micro-animations, and other types of animations. Include captivating visuals, both photos and videos.
Add special pages like a Career page and Investor Relations, and add links to these in the footer. For employees, highlight culture, benefits, and career growth opportunities. For investors, showcase financial health, vision, market position, and growth potential.
Include an About section. The site must feature reviews, brands you’ve worked with, and impressive case studies, as well as awards (if you have some).
Just ask yourself the question: Would you be impressed as an employee? Would you invest in it as an investor after seeing it? No? Then create something you would be interested in.
11) Their problem: “The website looks bad on mobile”
Your solution: Optimise it for the phone. We’re in 2024, baby. Use a base font size of at least 16 pixels. Design buttons and form elements to be large enough for comfortable tapping and make sure they are spaced well apart ( and be aware of that thumb thing).
Test it on different mobile devices and browsers to ensure a consistent and positive user experience. Don’t use just a mobile view on your laptop or monitor.
Just make it responsive and mobile-friendly, you know what I mean.
12) Their problem: “We look outdated”
Your solution: This is an easy one.
Look at the latest web design trends and make it fresh. Fresh colours (good colour scheme), and unique and modern icons (watch out for their branding, it might need to change a bit too). Have enough whitespace between elements. High-quality imagery, beautiful animations, good typography. Give them a modern look.
Also, ensure the site is responsive.
13) Their problem: “Our website is hard to maintain”
Your solution: Find out what the problem is. Is it outdated technology, complex code, poor documentation, or something else? If not already in place, switch to a more intuitive and user-friendly CMS like WordPress, OctoberCMS, Joomla etc.
Owners should be able to make minor changes without any significant problems. Please don’t charge them $500 a month for “maintenance and support” services when all you do is change a word in the headline. If it is coded, make sure to name the functions after what they do or add enough comments. Also, use a basic versioning tool when developing, Git is the most famous one.
Provide them with step-by-step guides or tutorials on how to maintain or update it.
14) Their problem: “Our website is not compliant with regulations”
Your solution: This can be very problematic and many issues may arise if not taken seriously. Find out which regulations and laws must be adhered to. If it’s in the EU, it’s likely about GDPR, if elsewhere, find out the exact laws. Implement these on the site – add a privacy policy, a cookies popup, etc.
Consider hiring a legal expert to ensure everything is correct. Ensure there are no issues with data storage, security (always update all the software), and consumer rights. Add or update terms of service, disclaimers, and refund policies.
Avoid aggressive marketing techniques and be cautious of 18+ content (like pornography, gambling, smoking), adding age verification processes and content warnings if necessary.
Keep records of actions taken to prevent problems as proof if issues arise.
15) Their problem: “Our competitors have a better website”
Your solution: Why exactly do they think their competitor has a better website? Is it the design? Is it the quality of the imagery? Is it the animations? Is it the better-written content? Is it a higher conversion rate? Is it a more unique solution? It will probably be aesthetics but always get to the core. Make sure you’re optimizing their site directly to their goals and wishes.
Then just make it better really. Focus on the established goals but also ensure good design work. Make it user-friendly, make it beautiful, make it converting, make it secure, make it consistent, make it intuitive, make it responsive.
16) Their problem: “We don’t look premium / big / innovative… enough”
Your solution: This can be quite hard. It requires you to really think about the design challenges and solutions. Every quality/trait needs something else, a different approach.
If you’re not sure exactly how to do it, simply look at other websites in the field that make the impression you’re aiming for and try to identify what makes that site feel the way it does to you.
Let’s do the premium first:
Upgrade their design. Focus on a colour palette that reflects luxury and exclusivity (black, gold, white, etc.). Use elegant typography and invest in high-quality fonts. Switch to a more sophisticated yet minimalistic design.
High-quality imagery only. Avoid AI-generated content and free photo banks, instead, buy premium imagery or tell them to invest in photographers who can deliver authentic visuals.
Enhance their content quality, everything must be premium. Emphasize their premium offerings, exclusive services, and customer service. Show how their products or services surpass standard offerings.
Now big:
Showcase the logos and names of significant figures in the industry you work with or for, including clients and partners. The more prestigious, the better. Feature influencers, celebrities, and major brands.
Include a photograph of your team, along with a photo and bio for each important member. Highlight your global clientele and display the countries where your service is available. Publish extensive case studies, presenting all the significant numbers, such as the number of people you’ve helped, the revenue you’ve generated, and the people who work for you.
Add your blog and include screenshots or links from major news and media mentions.
And the last, innovative:
Ensure their website is at the highest technological level, incorporating 3D, motion design, animations, and custom icons. Everything must be interactive yet quick to load.
Highlight their research and innovative solutions to problems they have solved. Include interactive systems on the website that allow visitors to explore their solutions and understand how they could change their lives.
Feature testimonials that prove your innovative approach.
17) Their problem: “They are struggling to retain visitors due to poor user engagement”
Your solution: First, analyze visitors’ behaviour. Find out where they click and how much time they spend on the site. Use some monitoring tools, for example, Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar or others.
Make sure the experience is absolutely without any problems (the mobile experience, of course, as well). Avoid slow loading, too slow animations, too fast animations, etc. Use interactive elements so the visitors can play with something. Consider including a chatbot on your site. Make sure that they capture visitors’ email with the initial newsletter popup form.
Personalize their experience – content, product/service recommendations. Make the copy interesting and enjoyable. Tell them to start a blog and make sure the blog posts are high quality. Provide value – free trials, discounts, or valuable resources. Consider implementing a loyalty program to reward returning visitors.
Suggest creating a content strategy that focuses on creating and sharing relevant content to keep visitors interested and keep them coming back.
In some cases, what you may actually need is a mobile app. There are certain limitations when interacting with websites, for example, you can’t implement features like push notifications, utilize device-specific hardware like cameras, or ensure a seamless user experience in offline mode, which are all possible with mobile apps, so consider this solution as well.
There are really many things you can do. Try something and see if it works.
18) Their problem: “They feel ashamed showing the website to prospect / friend”
Your solution: Gather as much feedback as you can. Literally, just ask them what exactly makes them feel ashamed. Is it the poor design? Is it the weak copy? Is it the lack of social proof? Is it the user experience? Poor imagery?
Find out the details and then improve it. Do your best work. They should be proud of having a website, if not, the fault is on your side.
19) Their problem: “Our site’s web design doesn’t reflect our brand’s personality”
Your solution: Ask them what exact personality their brand should reflect. Conduct some branding exercises with them to ensure that you understand which adjectives will best describe their brand identity.
Is their brand inspirational? Unique? Innovative? Reliable? Traditional? Friendly? Encourage them to select three adjectives that resonate most, identifying one as the primary descriptor. Give them time to really think about that, we will be building all the materials on that.
Once you have established the key adjectives, proceed to redesign the website. This will align the digital presence with the newly defined brand attributes. If you encounter any difficulties during this process, return to point 16.
End – what’s next?
This is everything. Thanks for reading :). If you have any questions, feel free to DM me on 𝕏 about anything, as well as if you need any help with something.
Only the best,
FERO.
(First published on 𝕏)
