Website foundations

Your website works while you sleep, but only if visitors understand what you do within seconds. Build pages that answer questions before they're asked and make the next step obvious.

Website foundations

Introduction

In 2014, I completed a seven-month traineeship at CXL, where I learned everything there is to know about conversion optimisation. Since then, I’ve built websites for my own marketing agencies and run experiments across e-commerce and B2B funnels.

One thing I’ve learned is that you don’t need huge amounts of traffic or complex A/B tests to start improving your site. Most B2B websites fail on the basics: structure, clarity, relevance and fixing those makes a big difference.

This playbook gives you a no-nonsense, step-by-step approach to improve your site’s performance. Whether you’re starting from scratch or want to refine what’s already live, you’ll learn how to boost conversions without overcomplicating it.

You don’t need perfect data to make progress. You just need to know what to fix and how to fix it. This guide will help you do exactly that.

Chapters

1

How to run qualitative research

Use heatmaps, recordings, and survey data to uncover friction. Discover confusion and blockers that hurt your conversion rates and user experience.

2

How to write an about page that builds trust

Tell your story in a way that establishes expertise, demonstrates values, and shows why buyers should choose you over competitors in the market.

Website foundations

tools

Webflow

Webflow

Webflow builds custom websites visually without code, offering designer control, CMS capabilities, and hosting for professional web projects.

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18

per month

Figma

Figma

Collaborative design for interfaces and assets excellent for landing pages, ads, and prototypes when marketing and design need alignment.

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15

per month

Hotjar

Hotjar

User behaviour analytics platform showing heatmaps, session recordings, and feedback from real website visitors. Understand exactly how people use your site.

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39

per month

Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity

Microsoft Clarity provides free session recordings, heatmaps, and user behaviour analytics without traffic limits or time restrictions.

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0

per month

Unbounce

Unbounce

Unbounce creates landing pages with drag-and-drop building, A/B testing, and dynamic text replacement optimised for paid advertising conversion.

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79

per month

Instapage

Instapage

Instapage builds post-click landing pages with A/B testing, personalisation, and collaboration features for paid advertising campaigns.

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99

per month

Leadpages

Leadpages

Leadpages builds landing pages, pop-ups, and alert bars quickly with templates and basic A/B testing for lead generation campaigns.

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49

per month

Squarespace

Squarespace

Squarespace builds complete websites with beautiful templates, hosting, and e-commerce features for creators, small businesses, and portfolios.

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15

per month

Books

Breakthrough Advertising

Eugene M. Schwartz

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Breakthrough Advertising

A field guide to message market fit. Use stages of awareness to pick angles, craft offers and brief ads that speak to real pains and jobs.

Dotcom Secrets

Russel Brunson

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Dotcom Secrets

Translate funnel templates into clean journeys. Focus on offers, sequences and pages that convert instead of tactics that age badly.

Wiki

Mobile responsive

Ensure websites display and function properly on all devices to avoid losing mobile traffic that bounces from broken layouts or tiny unclickable buttons.

Page speed

Optimise how quickly pages load to reduce bounce rates and improve rankings since slow sites frustrate users and get penalised by search algorithms.

Social proof

Display evidence that others trust and use your solution to overcome scepticism and reassure prospects they're making a safe choice by buying.

Trust signals

Display security badges, guarantees, and credentials to reduce purchase anxiety and prove legitimacy on pages where visitors make buying decisions.

Hero section

Design the prominent first section of pages to communicate value immediately and guide visitors toward conversion without requiring them to scroll or search.

Above the fold

Place critical information and calls-to-action in the visible area before scrolling to capture attention immediately when visitors land on pages.

AIDA

Map the buyer journey from attention to action, crafting messages that guide prospects through each stage to conversion.

Stages of awareness

Match your messaging to prospects' current awareness level from problem-unaware to solution-aware to speak directly to their mental state.

Offer

Structure your pricing, deliverables, and guarantee into a compelling proposition that makes buying decisions easier and more confident.

Customer journey

Map every touchpoint from initial awareness to repeat purchase, creating seamless experiences that guide prospects toward conversion.

Heatmap

Visualise user behaviour through colour-coded overlays showing clicks, scrolls, and mouse movement, exposing hidden friction points.

Call-to-Action (CTA)

Craft clear, compelling prompts that drive specific user actions across platforms, from clicking through to converting.

Related topic

Marketing funnel

How do you turn website visitors into qualified discovery calls on autopilot?

Website foundations

Other playbooks

Win bigger deals

Win bigger deals

Increase the average value of your initial contracts through better packaging, value framing, anchoring, and negotiation.

Convert more pipeline

Convert more pipeline

The full journey from first meeting to signed contract. How to improve conversion at every stage of your sales pipeline so more opportunities become revenue.

Sales sequences

Sales sequences

Build and automate sales follow-up sequences that keep deals moving through your pipeline without manual chasing.

Go-to-market strategy

Go-to-market strategy

Define your ideal customer profile, craft positioning that differentiates, and choose the channels that reach buyers when they are ready to act.

Lead qualification

Lead qualification

Build a scoring and qualification framework that separates genuine buying intent from casual interest, so sales invests time where it counts.

Project delivery

Project delivery

The operational wrapper for every consulting engagement. Covers kickoff, communication rhythms, progress reviews, and handover so nothing falls through the cracks.

Keep reading