Most websites fail because they’re polite, not persuasive
To turn visitors into buyers, fans, or subscribers, ruthlessly cut everything that doesn’t serve one goal: making them act.
Start by answering, “What’s the ONE thing I want them to do?” Build your entire design around that action. Use contrast to highlight buttons, directional cues (like arrows or eye-leading layouts), and language that taps into instincts—urgency (“Last chance”), FOMO (“500 people joined today”), or trust (“As seen in…”).
Ditch stock photos of smiling strangers. Use real faces, real results. Write headlines that scream their pain point (“Sick of slow websites?”), then solve it in bulletproof bites. Assume visitors are distracted, impatient, and skeptical. Speed matters—if your site takes longer than 3 seconds to load, they’re gone.
Make the desired action stupid simple
Could your grandma do it one-handed on a phone? If not, strip steps. Autofill forms. Add a progress bar. Kill jargon.
Finally, remove risk. “Free trial,” “No card needed,” or “Money-back guarantee” near your CTA crushes hesitation. Track everything, tweak endlessly, and remember: your site isn’t a brochure—it’s a salesperson that never sleeps.
The magic? Design for the human, not the algorithm.
