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You wouldn’t judge a restaurant by its signage alone. So why are we still judging websites by how good they look?
Don’t get us wrong: visual design matters. But a polished site with a smooth scroll and modern font can still fail your business if it doesn’t support your customer’s journey from stranger to sale. And most don’t.
This is the silent killer of digital growth: beautiful websites that look the part but quietly leak revenue, confuse users, and create internal headaches.
Why this matters: Growth, efficiency, and trust
If your website isn’t aligned to how your customers buy, it:
- Misses sales opportunities
- Confuses or frustrates potential buyers
- Creates more work for your team
- Undermines brand trust and confidence
In short, it quietly undermines your growth.
We’ve seen too many businesses pour tens of thousands into design-led sites that win awards but don’t move the needle. This article is your guide to spotting and fixing the cracks beneath the polish.
Key Tip: Clarity, not cleverness, is what gets people to click 'Buy'.
What a broken customer journey looks like
A broken customer journey isn’t always obvious. The site might load fast. The images might be crisp. But under the surface, these issues lurk:
1. There’s no clear path to purchase
Users land, browse, click around, and leave. Not because they aren’t interested, but because it’s unclear what the next step is.
Example: A SaaS site with a big, beautiful homepage but no pricing, no demo booking, and a buried CTA.
2. The site talks more about the company than the customer
Good design is often mistaken for good communication. But if your content is self-centred, users will feel unseen.
Example: A consulting firm whose site opens with “We are innovators in…” instead of focusing on client pain points and outcomes.
3. Different customer types are lumped into one journey
If you serve both wholesalers and consumers, or both SMEs and enterprise, they need different paths. A single generic page can’t do both jobs.
Example: A retailer with B2B and B2C arms using the same nav and checkout experience for everyone.
4. Pages answer the wrong questions
Design often highlights what looks good, not what customers actually want to know. This creates gaps and guesswork.
Example: A high-end product site with gorgeous imagery but no info on specs, shipping, returns or guarantees.
5. The CMS is a nightmare to update
A customer journey isn’t static. It needs tweaking based on what’s working. If your site is hard to edit, small changes never happen.
Example: If changing homepage copy means calling a developer, it usually just doesn’t happen.
What a healthy customer journey looks like
Here’s what a smart, strategic customer journey delivers:
1. Clear entry points and fast orientation
Visitors should know within 5 seconds where they are, what you offer, and why it matters to them.
Tactic: Strong homepage copy + visual hierarchy + differentiated CTAs (e.g. "I’m a retailer" vs. "I’m a wholesaler").
2. Frictionless navigation
Menu structure and page hierarchy should match the way customers think, not internal org charts.
Tactic: Use top tasks and common objections to structure your nav, not your service list.
3. Content that sells without fluff
Every page should support a key decision: learn more, compare options, trust you, get in touch.
Tactic: Use real customer questions as section headers. Show proof. Don’t bury your CTAs.
4. Custom journeys for different user types
Create tailored content and flows for different segments.
Tactic: Personalised landing pages, segmented forms, and navigation paths for different customer types.
5. A system your team can actually use
Your site should empower your team, not bottleneck them.
Tactic: Choose a CMS (like Webflow or Shopify) that marketing can update themselves.
Objection: “Can’t we just tweak it?”
Sometimes. But often not.
If your site’s foundation is off (wrong structure, poor CMS setup, generic messaging) then tweaks won’t solve it. You’ll spend more money on patch-ups than a strategic rebuild.
Here’s a litmus test: If you can’t map a clean, clear customer journey from homepage to conversion for each segment you serve, it’s not a tweak. It’s a rethink.
What to do now
- Walk your own customer journey — Pretend you’ve never seen your site. Can you buy or enquire within 2 clicks? Do you know what to do next?
- Check your analytics — Where do users drop off? Which pages get traffic but no conversion?
- Interview recent customers — Ask what made them hesitate, what they couldn’t find, and what convinced them.
- Prioritise by value — Don’t fix everything. Start with the highest-impact pages and flows.
- Choose tools your team can run — If your marketing team can’t update content weekly, it’s not a sustainable platform.
Need a hand figuring it out? We work with business owners to diagnose what’s really holding their websites back, and what to do instead. Reach out if you’d like a fresh pair of (strategic) eyes.
