The average person goes to 130 websites per day and spends less than a minute per page.

We spend a lot of time in marketing talking about how to get people TO your website...but all of the traffic is pointless if they aren't actually converting.

For reference, a "good" conversion rate on a website is 2-5%, which means for every 100 people on your site, we want to average 2-5 people taking some action.

(It's like when Jesus fed the five thousand...we'd expect that 100-250 people would take some sort of action as a result. Which, we don't know the exact number, but we do know that a big crowd of people did meet up with Him the next day in John 6.)

So, is your website doing what it needs to do to stand out? Here are five things you can do this week to give your website a mini refresh:

1. Make it clear what you're doing.

I can't tell you how many websites I go to that I just...don't know what they do.

There was a Catholic website I was on recently that it took me 3 scrolls before I finally found what it was they actually did, hidden in regular text in the midst of an "About Us" paragraph.

I spend a lot of time talking about why over what, that we need to convince people with why we're helping them, what that transformation will look like, what problems you're going to solve for them...

...but we can't ONLY do that, at the cost of them actually knowing what it is you practically do.

So look at your home page, and without scrolling, ask yourself: "Would they know what I offer just by landing here?"

If not, add it! It doesn't have to be in big giant letters in the middle of the screen (it probably shouldn't be), but somewhere on that main screen should be what it is you do practically, in a way people would be searching for.

Ideally, you have that "why" language really prominent too...but for that home page splash, "what" is just as important.

2. Have a call to action button "above the fold."

"Above the fold" is a fancy marketing term for the amount that shows up on your screen before you have to scroll.

We want an easily-accessible button right there that encourages them to take one single action.

Bonus points if you can get a button that stands out in the header too (typically at the far right of the menu, set apart as a button rather than just another link).

The menu can send them lots of different places. But ask yourself: If everyone was only going to take one action from here, what would I want it to be? Then, make that your call to action button.

3. Shorten your menu space.

To help with getting more "above the fold," see if you can shorten the header/menu space.

Instead of stacking your logo on top of your menu, see if you can integrate the two, with the logo all the way to the left or the center of your menu.

And while almost all websites could use extra "white space" (space around the sides and top of sections on your site), your header is the one place you probably want less, just so you get the most within the "above the fold" frame as possible.

4. Get rid of vague, cheesy stock photos.

We all know cringey, cheesy stock photos when we see them. There is simply nothing appealing about a stock photo. It just gives an instant impression of being outdated and generic.

Please, I beg you, whenever you can: Use photos of real people with real things in real places.

They don't have to be of you specifically (though it's great if they are). You can still use stock photos or staged mock-ups. But just take the extra time to find ones that don't look staged, but like they were actually realistically taken without stock photography in mind.

You can find some on Canva or Pixabay if you dig far enough, but my favorite free realistic stock imagery site is Unsplash (and for paid realistic Catholic stock imagery, Cathopic — affiliate link). I also really like PlaceIt for realistic mock-ups.

5. Look at your website on mobile.

If you're like me, you do everything possible on your computer because you hate looking at things on your phone.

But apparently most people are not like me, because 60%+ of website traffic is from mobile devices.

In fact, I haven't audited or redesigned a single site in years that had more desktop traffic than mobile.

So, go look at your website on mobile. And because you most likely cringed, now go back to your website editor and see if you can edit in mobile view.

The same principles as above apply — try to get things "above the fold" on the phone screen — and then resize and reformat as necessary (especially spacing! That tends to be the tricky one) to make it a more appealing experience.

There's obviously many more things that could be done to your website, but if you accomplish those five things this week, you should see big improvements from just those small tweaks. Happy editing!

For His greater glory,

Emily

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Gloriam named #1 Catholic web design company by The Catholic Best Thanks to The Catholic Best for naming Gloriam the best Catholic web design company of 2025! I'm truly honored and blessed that I get to be a small piece of my clients' incredible work in glorifying God! Read article

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