The only question that matters
A first-time visitor is not reading your website. They are answering one question, fast:
Is this for someone like me?
Everything else — your story, your process, your values — only gets read after that question comes back yes. Most sites spend the first screen on the everything else.
Run the test on your own site
You cannot judge your own homepage, because you already know what you do. So borrow eyes.
Show it for eight seconds
To someone who does not know your business. Then take it away.
Ask three questions
What do they do? Who is it for? What would you do next?
Repeat with three people
One person is an anecdote. Three is a pattern, and the pattern will be obvious.
If they hesitate on any of the three, that is your problem. Not the design, not the colours — those three answers.
Fix 1 — Say what you do in six words
Not a slogan. A sentence a customer would recognise as their own problem.
| Instead of | Write |
|---|---|
| Innovative solutions for modern business | We fill empty restaurant tables |
| Transforming the way you work | Your quotes, sent in 20 minutes |
| Your partner in digital growth | We answer your customers at 2am |
The test
Could a competitor put their logo on your headline and have it still make sense? If yes, it says nothing.
Fix 2 — Name the customer out loud
«For businesses» excludes nobody and attracts nobody. «For restaurants with under fifty covers» makes the right person feel found and lets the wrong one leave quickly — which is a feature, not a loss.
If you serve three types of customer, say the three. A visitor scanning for their own kind will find it.
Fix 3 — One proof, high up
Not a testimonials page. One piece of evidence in the first screen:
- A number: used by 40 restaurants
- A name they recognise
- A concrete result: from 3 days to 20 minutes
Proof placed below the fold is proof nobody sees, because the decision already happened.
Fix 4 — Make the next step small
«Contact us» asks for commitment before trust. Offer something smaller: see a 3-minute demo, get the checklist, check availability.
One primary action per screen. Two buttons of equal weight is the same as none — the visitor has to choose, so they choose to leave.
Fix 5 — Cover the hours you are not there
40%
of enquiries arrive outside working hours. Evenings, weekends, the gap between closing and opening.
A form that replies «thanks, we will get back to you» is not an answer — it is the start of a wait. By the time you write back at 11am, they have asked two other places.
What works at 2am: the actual answer when it is answerable, a real next step they can take alone, and an honest flag on what needs a person and when that person arrives.
What to cut
- The carousel that rotates before it can be read
- «Founded in 2019» above what you do
- Stock photos of people in a meeting
- A cookie banner that covers the headline
- Autoplay video with sound
The order to fix them in
| Order | Fix | Effort |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Headline | One afternoon. Biggest change |
| 2 | Proof | You already have it, it is in the wrong place |
| 3 | Next step | Usually just deleting two of four buttons |
| 4 | After hours | The one that needs a system |
| 5 | Cutting | Last — it is the easiest to argue about |
The first three are copy and layout. If you do only those, the test result changes.
Then run it again
Same method, three new people. If the three questions now get answered without hesitation, you are done — and no amount of redesign would have done more.
Want us to run it?
We do a free Process Diagnosis, and the website is part of it: we run the eight-second test with fresh eyes, show you where the enquiries are leaking, and tell you what to fix first. No cost, no commitment.