6 min read
A customer lands on your website, looks for a delivery price or a phone number, then gives up because they cannot find it. That’s a useful place to start a website review. Before spending money on a new look, check whether people can actually do the things they came for.
For a Gateshead trades business, that might mean requesting a quote from a phone. For a WooCommerce shop, it could mean checking product sizes before ordering. These ten tips focus on removing the obstacles between that first visit and a useful enquiry or sale.
Give visitors a clear starting point
1. Say what you sell and where you work
Your main heading should tell visitors what you offer. Follow it with a short explanation of who you help and the area you cover, where location matters.
A vague line such as “Bringing your vision to life” leaves too much work for the reader. Name the service instead. A local electrician should make their trade and service area obvious, rather than expecting visitors to piece them together from photographs.
Choose a main action for the page: request a quote, book an appointment or browse a product range. Give the button a label that describes what happens next. “Request a quote” tells people more than “Discover”.
2. Build the menu around customer tasks
Use labels your customers recognise. “Repairs”, “Delivery” and “Contact” are easier to understand than department names or clever phrases.
Sketch the route from your homepage to an enquiry or purchase. If someone has to open several unrelated pages to find the next step, simplify it. Keep contact details within easy reach and give shop visitors useful product categories.
For a business with a narrow service offering, a single-page website for local search may be enough. A larger catalogue or several distinct services usually need more room. Let the content decide the structure.
Make the site usable on a phone and without a mouse
3. Test mobile layouts with your own hands
Open the site on a real phone. Accept or reject cookies, open the menu, complete a form and try the checkout. A desktop preview can miss awkward interactions with the phone’s keyboard or browser controls.
Look for buttons squeezed together, text running off the screen and pop-ups covering the next step. Check that a sticky header does not hide most of the page.
Use suitable form fields so email addresses and phone numbers are easier to enter. Keep enquiry forms short enough to finish comfortably, but ask for the information you genuinely need to respond. A quote request may need a postcode; a newsletter signup probably does not.
4. Check accessibility while you design
Try moving through the page using the Tab key. Can you see which link or button has focus? Can you open the menu and submit a form without touching the mouse?
Give fields visible labels, use readable colour contrast and write useful alternative text for informative images. Form errors should explain what needs fixing, rather than relying on a red outline.
WCAG 2.2 provides testable accessibility criteria. Automated tools such as axe DevTools can flag some problems, but manual checks still matter. Accessibility also deserves attention under the Equality Act 2010; it belongs in the build brief, rather than being left until launch day.
Improve loading speed and answer searchers’ questions
5. Measure speed before buying another plugin
Run important pages through PageSpeed Insights, including a product page and your main service page. Read the individual findings instead of chasing a score without understanding it.
Google’s Core Web Vitals guidance gives good thresholds of LCP within 2.5 seconds, INP below 200 milliseconds and CLS below 0.1. These cover loading, responsiveness and layout movement. Where field data is available, use it to understand visitors’ actual experience.
On WordPress, investigate oversized images, unnecessary plugins, third-party scripts and hosting before adding more software. Serve images at sensible dimensions and reserve space for them so content does not jump around. For WooCommerce, check that caching rules exclude customer-specific basket and checkout content. Our WordPress speed optimisation guide covers the technical work in more detail.
6. Give each page a useful job
A service page should help someone decide whether to enquire. Explain what the work includes, where you provide it, what affects the price and what happens after contact. A product page needs details buyers can use, such as dimensions, materials and compatibility.
Give each page a descriptive title and a clear main heading. In WordPress, check the permalink before publishing and avoid vague addresses based on internal project names.
Write to answer the customer’s question fully. Google’s people-first content guidance says there is no preferred word count. Repeating “Newcastle” throughout a thin service page will not make it more useful. Describe your actual coverage and the work you do there.
Remove doubts before asking for a commitment
7. Show evidence people can check
Publish accurate contact details and explain who runs the business. Use genuine photographs where they help customers understand your work. If you include qualifications or memberships, keep them current.
Testimonials need to be real and used with permission. Case studies should describe work you actually completed, with results you can support. If you have no case studies yet, explain your process and show relevant evidence you do have. Do not fill the gap with made-up success stories.
Pricing guidance can help too. Where a fixed price would be misleading, explain the factors that change a quote and what information you need to prepare one.
8. Explain delivery and returns before checkout
For a WooCommerce shop, check shipping zones, delivery methods and product variations against what you can actually supply. Make delivery charges and restrictions easy to find before customers start entering payment details.
Write returns information in plain English and keep it consistent with your checkout and confirmation emails. Check your obligations against the UK guidance on online and distance selling.
Test guest checkout if your setup supports it. Only require an account when there is a genuine reason. If buyers need to ask about compatibility or availability, put the answer near the product rather than burying it in a general FAQ.
Protect the site and keep checking the important journeys
9. Set up maintenance and privacy properly
Use HTTPS throughout the site, keep WordPress and its extensions updated, and remove software you no longer use. Arrange backups and test that you can restore them. A backup file is little comfort if nobody knows how to recover the shop.
Check what your cookie tools actually do. A banner alone does not prove that scripts are being blocked. Under ICO guidance, non-essential cookies generally need consent before being placed or read, subject to applicable exemptions. Your privacy notice should also reflect the information your forms and other tools collect.
10. Test enquiries and orders after changes
Submit your contact forms and confirm the messages arrive in the right inbox. Check spam folders too. For a shop, use your payment provider’s test mode or approved testing process to check payment, shipping and order emails.
Repeat those checks after changes to checkout, forms or related plugins. Check important pages in different browsers and on phones as well as desktop screens.
Measure completed enquiries and purchases where consent and your tracking setup allow. Then compare that data with actual inbox messages and orders. If records disagree, investigate before spending more on advertising.
Want a hand finding what’s getting in your customers’ way? Ask Dan at Baltic Design to take a look.
