Landing page, website or store: what does your business need?
Choose a website format around your business goals: when to use a landing page, a company website, an online store or a web application.
Start with the action a visitor should take. Sending an enquiry, comparing services, buying a product and working in an account are different journeys. Those journeys determine the structure, features and scope of your website.
Start with the job to be done
Define one main goal for the first version, such as receiving enquiries about a specific service. Then describe the audience, where visitors come from and what they already know about the company. Someone arriving from an advert may need a different page from a partner checking your experience.
Separate what is essential for launch from ideas that can follow later. This makes the initial scope clearer and helps avoid delaying a useful first release for secondary features.
A landing page: one focused offer
A landing page suits an individual product, service, event or campaign. It explains the offer in sequence, answers common objections and leads towards one action. A clear headline, terms, evidence and an easy enquiry form all matter.
If you have several services with different audiences, putting everything on one long page can make relevant information harder to find. Separate service pages may be a better fit.
A company website: explain the business
A company website suits a business with several services, a team, a portfolio and different customer groups. Dedicated service pages make room to explain the problem, your process, the deliverables and the next step.
Plan the structure together with the content. Consider what demonstrates your expertise, which questions customers ask and how they move towards an enquiry. More pages alone do not create clearer navigation.
An online store: organise purchases
When people need to select products and place orders, you need a shopping journey: a catalogue, product details, a basket, customer information, delivery and payment. Product variants, stock and connections to business systems also affect the scope.
Decide who will maintain the catalogue, update prices and handle orders. The storefront and the team's work after a purchase need to fit together.
A web application: get work done online
Accounts with different roles, booking tools, internal dashboards and platforms with complex data go beyond a presentation website. Describe user permissions, process states and connections to other services. Start by validating one important workflow in a prototype.
Four questions to make the choice
Short answers are enough for an initial conversation. They give the team a basis for proposing a structure and explaining what affects the schedule and budget.
- What should visitors do on the website?
- How many distinct offers need to be presented?
- Do you need payments, accounts or data exchange?
- Who will maintain the content and processes after launch?
