The question that determines everything else.
THE QUESTION
What do you want a visitor to do?
Call you. Buy something. Book an appointment. Send an enquiry. Read something and remember you.
A site that tries to do everything does none of it well.
WHY IT MATTERS
Every decision afterwards follows from this: what pages exist, what appears on the homepage, where the contact details go, what the buttons say.
Without an answer, you build a site that describes your business and asks nothing of anyone.
TYPICAL PURPOSES
Generate enquiries for a service business Sell products directly Establish credibility, so people who heard of you elsewhere trust you Provide information, so customers stop phoning to ask Take bookings
WRITE IT DOWN
One sentence: "This site exists so that people looking for X in Y contact us."
Then judge every page against it.
THE COMMON MISTAKE
Building a site because a business should have one, without deciding what it is for. The result is a brochure nobody acts on.
