7 Website Lessons From 5 Years of Building Sites

I've been building websites for about five years. The same handful of lessons come up with almost every client. None are complicated. Most get skipped because they seem too simple.

1. Steal like an artist

If you try to invent your whole website from scratch, you'll waste a lot of hours guessing.

Look at what's already working in your industry. Say you're opening a gym. Instead of guessing for months, look at the gyms doing well. Maybe many of them show workout videos before asking people to book a call. If the leaders in your space share a pattern, there's usually a reason.

How to do it: Study the top five to 10 companies in your industry. Take notes on:

• Their headline
• The offer they promote
• Their calls to action
• The type of proof they show

You'll have a much better starting point than a blank page.

2. The words matter more than the design

It's called web design, so people think about images, colors, animations and layouts. But a good web designer knows the words are the most important part of the site. The words explain what you do, who it's for, and why someone should pick you. The visuals support the text. They don't replace it.

We changed our own process because of this. The traditional way is to gather info, design a rough layout, then a more polished design, then build it. The words often got lost somewhere in the middle.

Now we write the copy first and lay out exactly what words go on each page. Then every design choice supports those words.

How to do it: Before you think about visuals, answer these in writing. What does your company do? What is the website for? What problems do you solve? What services do you offer? Once the words are clear, the design decisions get much easier.

3. Spend most of your time on the opening section

I tell clients to spend about 80% of their effort on the top of the homepage. That's the part people see before they scroll, also called "above the fold."

There's a line from David Ogilvy, the ad man that I bring up all the time: five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. The same is true on a website. Lots of people never make it past the first screen. Yet most teams spend their time polishing pages deep in the site that barely get visited.

One of the worst things I see is a homepage that opens with "Welcome to XYZ Company." That tells the visitor nothing. If someone is looking for a pool cleaning company and your headline says "pool cleaning," you've already won their attention.

How to do it: Within about three seconds, a visitor should know exactly what you do and what to do next. Your opening section should include a clear headline, a short line explaining what you do, a supporting visual, and one obvious call to action.

4. You need way more proof

People don't believe what you say about your company. They believe what other people say about it.

I define proof as anything that backs up a claim on your site. If a plastic surgeon in Dallas claims to be the best in the city, proof would be before and after photos, an award from a local publication, and video testimonials from happy patients.

Other kinds of proof:

• Case studies
• Customer reviews
• Logos of companies you've worked with
• Certifications
• Press or media features

Not all proof is equal. A video of a real client talking is stronger than a text quote. Recent proof is stronger than old proof. Before and after photos from last year beat ones from 1999.

The common mistake is a testimonial section with one or two quotes. If the goal is to convince people you're great at what you do, 30 or 40 pieces of proof will do more than two.

How to do it: Put proof everywhere it fits naturally. Spread testimonials across pages. Add logos in more than one place. The goal is for a visitor to think, "All these people got great results. I can too."

5. Set up a design system early

A design system is just a set of rules for how your site looks. Fonts, colors, buttons, spacing and layouts all follow the same standards.

Without one, things drift. Blue buttons on one page, red on another, headlines in different sizes. It looks unprofessional, and it gets expensive. If SEO matters to you and you're adding new pages every month, an inconsistent site makes every new page slower and costlier to build.

How to do it: Before you build, define:

• Two to four core colors
• One to three fonts for headings and body text
• Your core components, like buttons, cards, forms, testimonials and navigation

Design those once, then reuse them everywhere.

6. Confusion is killing your sales

A confused prospect doesn't buy. If someone lands on your site and doesn't get what you do right away, they leave and go to the next result on Google.

You search for pool builders in Dallas. The first site doesn't say whether they work in your area or what warranty they offer. You click back and try the next one. That first company might have been perfect, and they lost you anyway.

There's also a "trying to look cool" problem in modern design. Navigation moved to odd places, unusual fonts, heavy animation. It might impress other designers. It often confuses regular visitors.

How to do it:

• Use simple language. Aim for a low reading level while keeping your point.
• Make your call to action buttons obvious.
• Stick to the patterns people already know, like navigation at the top.
• Have real people test your site. You know how your site works because you built it. A new visitor doesn't.

7. Your website is never done

A lot of businesses launch a site and never touch it again. We've seen sites that went 15 years without a single edit.

I tell clients most websites fall into one of three buckets. Bad, broken, or old.

• Bad: The design looks dated next to others in your industry.
• Broken: Forms, buttons or tracking have stopped working, and nobody noticed.
• Old: The information is out of date, like a team page listing partners who left years ago.

A launch is an educated guess. Great sites keep testing and improving.

How to do it: Run your site through PageSpeed Insights from Google. It scores performance, accessibility, best practices and SEO. Then go through your site like a customer would. Fill out your own contact form. Click every button. If it's hard for you, it's harder for them.

Where to go from here

If you want the full walkthrough, watch the 5 Years of Website Advice in 20 Minutes video. If you'd rather do the work yourself, my DIY kits walk you through it step by step.

Questions people ask

What is the most important part of a website? The opening section at the top of your homepage. It's what most visitors see, and it needs to say what you do and what to do next within a few seconds.

Should I write the copy or design the website first? Write the copy first. The words explain your business. The design should support them, not the other way around.

How often should I update my website? Check it regularly, at least monthly. Test your forms, review your content for anything outdated, and run a speed and accessibility check.