We all want more and better customers—and not just because we want to increase our revenue for its own sake. Ultimately, it comes down to:

Achieving a better work-life balance, because with higher rates, we’ll have to take on fewer clients each month or year.
And to enjoy our work even more, because we feel that we’re finally building a team with “our people.”

Figuring out what we want to achieve with our business and defining our own version of success is a process that involves some soul-searching and may take a little time.

But defining what we want is only the first step; achieving it is another story.

Table of Contents

If you're reading this post, it's because:

You already have clients but need more, or you need clients who appreciate your work more so you can raise your rates and slow down a bit. In other words, you know what you want, but you’re not sure how to get there.
What’s more, you’re convinced that your website can be one of your main business tools —not just something you have for the sake of having it. A good website will help you convey your brand message and turn visitors into customers—and the right kind of customers at that. If it’s designed with care and strategy, it will act as a filter: it will weed out those who don’t fit your ideal customer profile, but it will be like a magnet for those who do.

If you have a clear understanding of these two things, then it’s time to figure out how you can implement a better strategy on your website to help you attract the customers you really want.

1. Clearly define your branding and visual identity

In 2019, I learned firsthand just how important it is to strategically design our branding, our business goals, and our website, and to integrate all those elements into a brand message that truly resonates with the type of customers we want to attract.

At the beginning of the year, I undertook a rebranding effort that started with redefining my mission and brand values, identifying the specific characteristics of my ideal client, and determining which values we shared.

Once I had a clear understanding of the key elements of my brand strategy, it was time to:

To determine which visual elements would best represent my new vision and help me achieve my business goals. In other words, how I could translate the concept of my brand’s personality into graphic elements.
Once I had defined the graphic elements that would convey my brand personality, it was time to design the new branding system and integrate the new visual identity into my website.
Finally, I needed to refine my messaging and update the website content to better communicate what I do and who I specifically serve, as well as adjust my service offerings.

The results of my rebranding and website redesign were very good, and I could see that almost immediately:

A steady increase in customers throughout the year.
Clients who are much more in tune with my values and who truly appreciate my sensitivity, my work, and my experience.

With this specific example, I want to show you the importance of branding—not as a standalone element, but as an integral part of designing a website that actually works:

A website that serves as an ambassador for your brand, showcases your value, and helps you attract your ideal customer.

If you feel that your visual identity no longer reflects who you are, that you’re not attracting enough clients, or that the clients who do come to you don’t value your work, you likely have a branding issue. If this sounds like you, I recommend this post, which outlines the steps to build your brand from the ground up. It will help you clearly define your mission, the values you want to promote, and exactly who your ideal client is.

2. Complement your visual branding with well-written copy

As I mentioned earlier, one of the key aspects of my website redesign was refining the page copy. Although most female entrepreneurs prioritize the visual aspects of web design, the text is often pushed to the background; however , the reality is that both text and visuals play a fundamental role, complementing and reinforcing each other:

Images grab attention quickly (the human brain processes images much faster than text) and convey a wide range of emotions without the need for words, but it is the text that provides context, delves deeper into those emotions, and builds a connection with the reader.
A great design paired with terrible copy won’t keep your website visitors reading, and they’ll eventually lose interest… just as good copy paired with a terrible design will be hard to read or understand the context of the message.

Both elements—graphics and text—convey your brand message and work together to make it more impactful and clear.

The better you can communicate who you are, what you do, and for whom—as well as the value your product or service offers your ideal customer—the higher your website’s conversion rate will be , and the more customers you’ll attract. Plus, with a much clearer brand message, the people who contact you will be a better fit for your business and will be higher-quality customers for you.

That’s why I always recommend that my clients work with a copywriter if they’re serious about launching their website—it really is the best option. However, this isn’t possible for everyone, or it may not have been included in the initial budget, and in that case, we’ll have to write the content ourselves.

If this applies to you, keep the following in mind when writing your website content:

Write scannable content. Visitors to your website rarely read all of your content the first time they visit. They usually scan the pages to see if the content interests them. That’s why it’s very important to write clear, concise text that’s well-structured with headings, subheadings, lists, short paragraphs, etc.
Keep your message simple. Especially when we do it ourselves, we often struggle to condense and simplify our content, and end up with websites that look like newspapers. This not only makes the design process more difficult, but also results in very long pages that lack a clear purpose and convey a diluted or complex brand message.
Write in a friendly tone. Your language can be more playful or more formal, depending on the identity you decided to project when you defined your branding and brand values, but being formal doesn’t mean you have to sound stiff or robotic. Our advantage as small businesses—often one-person operations—is precisely our approachability and human warmth, so let your writing show the person behind the business.

3. Set clear goals for the website

Your ideal customer has just landed on your site: your brand message is clear, and you’ve managed to capture their attention and win them over. Something tells them that you share common values and that, perhaps, you can solve their problem.

Now the goal is to encourage that potential customer to take action on your website—whether that means making an inquiry, making a purchase, or signing up for a masterclass… And this is where a web design optimized for conversion is essential.

What do you want your website to do for you and your business? And, therefore, what do you want a potential customer to do when they visit it?

These are the first questions you should answer when designing a website, because they will determine the strategy you should follow for both the design and the content so that your website can drive conversions. Naturally, these goals must align with the business objectives you’ve defined—or rather, they must be in sync with them—so that your website truly functions as a tool to help you achieve them.

In another post, I discussed the topic of goals and the importance of strategic web design in much greater detail, but in general, these are my recommendations:

Set no more than three goals for your website, and prioritize them.
Every page on the website should have a clear purpose and be designed to help achieve it.
Think about the different channels through which your visitors arrive, and how you’d like the user journey to unfold in each case.

4. Simplify navigation

This is something you can take care of in five minutes: go through your website’s main navigation menu and remove any links that aren’t essential. How do you know which ones are essential and which aren’t? Well, that depends on the goals you’ve set for your website.

Your site's main navigation should not include links to every page on your website, but only to those you want to highlight in order to achieve your main goal.

And what do you do with the other links that you want to be visible even though they're secondary? Well, you include them in other parts of the website, for example:

You can use the footer to include a menu of useful links.
If your blog has a sidebar, you might want to consider putting the links there.
There are cases where a top-level secondary navigation bar can work well (with Squarespace, you can easily create something like this if you use one of the templates from the Brine family).

The simpler and more uncluttered a menu is, the easier it will be for users to find what they're looking for and decide to click.

5. Design a footer with purpose

The website footer is often overlooked in design, even though it’s a place to include important (albeit secondary) information or to reiterate details you’ve already covered elsewhere. If someone has scrolled down one of your pages far enough to reach the site’s footer, it’s very likely that they either didn’t find the information they were looking for further up, or they found your content interesting and want more. In both cases, you should take advantage of this user interest with a well-designed footer.

What can you include in a footer to make it useful and interesting for users?

It's a good idea to include links to other sections of the website in the footer, because it shows visitors that, if they're interested, there's even more content waiting for them.
Something that needs to be visible at all times on every page, such as a sign-up box for your mailing list or a contact form.
You can also include a menu with the same links as the site’s main navigation bar, especially if you have long pages, so that users can easily access these links without having to scroll back up (keep in mind that at least half of your visitors will view your site on a mobile device).
Links to your social media accounts, and even a preview of your Instagram, Twitter, or whichever account you'd like to highlight.
Contact information, business hours, or even a small map if you have a physical location.
Finally, links to the site’s legal pages should always be visible, so the footer is the ideal place to include them.

6. Include clear and visible calls to action

A call to action (CTA) is exactly that: something you ask the user to do. It could be visiting a page, downloading a resource, buying a product, filling out a questionnaire, signing up for a mailing list…

There are many options, and they depend on each specific case; that’s why they must align with the website goals we defined in step 3, so there’s consistency between what you want the user to do and what you want to achieve with your website.

To create effective calls to action, we must:

Write compelling copy that, above all, motivates users to take the action we want them to take.
Design a visual context that helps that text really stand out, and even reinforces its motivational impact (think, for example, not just about the color of a button, but also about the type of image that could accompany it to make it more compelling).
Precisely because CTAs are meant to have a strong visual impact, it’s best not to overuse them (if everyone is shouting, no one is heard) and to focus on the specific goal we’ve defined for each page. However, if we need to include multiple CTAs on a single page, we should establish a hierarchy or logical order so as not to overwhelm our visitors and ensure they can quickly understand what to do at any given moment.

7. Add testimonials to your pages

Social proof is essential for building trust, especially when you're positioning yourself as a brand with premium pricing.

The higher the investment, the greater the perceived risk for the buyer. It’s only natural—you’ll think twice if you have to shell out 1,000 euros rather than 100, and the sad reality is that the digital business world is full of snake oil salesmen.

Being able to show that our past clients were satisfied, have a positive opinion of us, and recommend us helps boost our credibility as professionals and as people.

To make the testimonials on your website more effective, I recommend three things:

Think carefully about where to place them, as they’ll be much more effective near a contact form or a purchase button than within a blog post or any other page that isn’t directly related to the decision to work with you.
Include meaningful testimonials. What I mean is that your ideal client will value different things than mine… perhaps your work process is very important to yours, but for mine, the durability of the product they receive is what matters most. Think about this first and be very clear on it so you can determine which testimonials will best help you show your ideal client the value of working with you.
When you ask a client for a testimonial, ask them exactly what you want them to say. If you’ve decided you need to highlight your workflow, ask them what they thought of it; or if you want them to talk about how great your product is, ask them how long they’ve had it and how it’s worked out for them. Plus, asking specific questions will make things much easier for your client, because simply asking for a testimonial is too broad… Where do they start? What exactly should they talk about? When you ask for a testimonial with 2–3 very specific questions, you get information that’s relevant to you, and you increase the likelihood that the person will respond.