A beautiful website can make a great first impression. But looking good and generating leads are two very different jobs.

A website can have impressive animations, polished graphics and a modern layout and still leave visitors wondering what to do next.

Here are five things that matter more than simply making a website look good.

1. Design needs a job

Every important element on your website should have a purpose.

• What should visitors understand first?
• What information do they need before contacting you?
• What action should they take?
• Does the page guide them toward that action?

Good design supports the strategy. It shouldn’t exist simply because it looks impressive.

2. Talk about the visitor, not yourself

Your homepage isn’t primarily about your company. It’s about the problem your customer is trying to solve.

If visitors have to dig through your history, list of services and company achievements before understanding how you can help them, you are making them work too hard.

Lead-generating websites answer quickly:

What do you do? Who is it for? Why should I care? What should I do next?

3. Don’t make people figure it out

Confusion kills conversions.

If someone lands on your website and isn’t sure where to go, what to click or how to contact you, there’s a good chance they’ll simply leave.

Clear navigation, focused pages, strong calls-to-action and straightforward messaging can make a bigger difference than another visual redesign.

4. A pretty website that loads slowly isn’t pretty for long

Speed and mobile experience matter.

Your website might look fantastic on your desktop computer, but what happens when someone visits from their phone on a slow connection?

Test the experience from the customer’s perspective, not just the designer’s.

5. If you aren’t measuring it, you’re guessing

You need to know what visitors actually do.

Track things such as:

• Form submissions
• Calls
• Key page visits
• Conversion rates
• Traffic sources

As we discussed in The 5 Marketing Numbers I’d Track If I Could Track Nothing Else, the goal isn’t to collect every possible metric. It’s to track the numbers that help you make better decisions.

The bottom line

Pretty websites can win design awards. Strategic websites generate leads.

If your website isn’t producing results, the answer isn’t necessarily another redesign. It may need better messaging, a clearer customer journey, stronger calls-to-action or better measurement.

Your website should look good.

But more importantly, it should work.