Experience, results and testimonials belong on a website. But you can have dozens of them and people may still not understand why clients choose you. A sponsored post by a web designer first stopped me because of the words he used. But when I looked at his website, I noticed something far more important. Something that determines whether visitors see only you on your website—or whether they recognise themselves there too.
If your website isn’t about you, how can it show why clients choose you?
Today, a sponsored post from a web designer appeared in my feed. He wrote that a website can now be created quickly and can even look good. But, he continued, a beautiful website is not necessarily a good website. He said he doesn’t begin with a template, an AI tool or the colour of a button. First, he needs to understand his client’s business.
For a moment, I felt as though I were reading my own words. After all, this is exactly what I talk about.
I don’t begin a website with:
- colours,
- design or
- a template.
I begin with a conversation.
It stopped me. Why was he using the very words that my own approach is built on?
But I didn’t want to stay with that first reaction. I opened his website. I wanted to know whether the line about understanding the client was simply a way to stand out from other web designers, or whether that approach continued through the rest of his website.
Who is your website about?
As I read on, I began to feel that something was missing.
At the beginning, the focus was on the client: their business, their needs and their customers. But then the attention shifted back to the website creator:
- how many websites he had built,
- how many years he had worked,
- how many reviews he had and
- everything he had already achieved.
Testimonials, experience and results belong on a website. People need to know who they are entrusting with their business. But the question is: when you finish reading the website, do you mainly know what its creator has achieved? Or did you see yourself there—your situation, your problem and the reason this person is right for you?
Because the sentence
“I need to understand your business”
may still mean only that someone learns what you offer, who your customers are, which pages you need and what you want the visitor to do.
I don’t stop there.
Your website isn’t about you. But it has to come from you.
The website belongs to you, but it is not created for you. It is created for the person on the other side. That person needs to recognise themselves in it: their problem, their questions and the change they long for. They need to feel that you understand what they are going through and that you know the path along which you can guide them.
You are not the hero of their story. They are. Your potential client.
But that doesn’t mean you should disappear from your own website. If we removed your perspective, your values and the way you work, all that would remain is a generic website that could belong to anyone in your field. Your future client needs to recognise two things:
- This is about me.
- And this is the person I want to continue with.
That is why your website isn’t about you. But it has to come from you.
Your perspective, values and way of working are not extras. They are what help a visitor recognise that you understand them differently from everyone else—and that they want to continue with you. You can read more about how I create a website that reflects the person behind the service on my English website.
I don’t want to understand you only. I want to see you.
When we talk, I am not only looking for the information I need to create a website. I listen to the words you use. I notice what makes you light up, where you slow down and what you consider completely ordinary—even though that may be exactly where the reason people choose you is hidden.
I want to know what you do differently, even if you have never called it your uniqueness. What matters to you, what you protect in your work and what you would never want to do the way it is commonly done in your field. I want to see you in your beauty. In what is natural, alive and true about you. Even in what you cannot yet see yourself, because it comes so naturally that it never occurs to you to talk about it.
- You don’t need to bring finished copy.
- You don’t need to know how to describe what makes you different.
- You don’t need a prepared tagline or a precise vision for your website.
All of this begins to reveal itself during our conversation. I then continue assembling the full picture as I create.
This is exactly how Katka’s website, Enjoy Lightness, came to life. Our conversation gave me more than information about the Bowen Technique. I noticed the lightness, respect and the way Katka listens to the body—and carried these qualities into the name, the words and the atmosphere of her website. Read the full story: How Do You Bring a Feeling of Lightness to a Website? The New Enjoy Lightness Website.
The website is only the result of what I saw in you
What I notice does not remain in my conversation notes. I translate it into words that sound like you. Into a structure in which your people quickly recognise that they are in the right place. Into colours, photographs, space and rhythm that carry the atmosphere of your work. And into a journey that naturally leads the visitor towards the next step.
That is why, for me, web design is not the main product.
The website is the result of first seeing you and then finding a way to show what I see to your future clients. So yes, I first need to understand your business.
But that is only where my work begins.
I want to hold up a mirror until you can see yourself too. Then I translate that image into a website so that people who do not yet know you can see it as well. A website like this cannot be created from a template alone. And it cannot be copied with a single sentence.
Because you are its foundation.
If your current website explains what you do, but still doesn’t make it clear why people should choose you, get in touch. We will begin with a conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who should your website be about?
Your website belongs to you, but it is not created for you. Visitors need to recognise themselves, their problem, their questions and the change they long for. At the same time, they need to feel your perspective, your values and the way you work so they understand why they want to continue with you.
Aren’t experience, results and testimonials enough?
Experience, results and testimonials help to build trust. But on their own, they do not tell someone whether you understand their specific situation or why you are the right choice for them.
What is the difference between a web designer understanding me and truly seeing me?
Understanding your business may mean learning what you offer, who your customers are and what the website needs to achieve. Seeing you means noticing your own language, your values, your natural way of working and what you do differently—even when it feels completely ordinary to you. Then carrying all of it through the entire website.
Do I need to have my website copy ready?
No. You do not need finished copy, a tagline or a perfectly defined point of difference. We begin with a conversation in which what matters starts to emerge. I then assemble the full picture through the copy, structure and design.
How do you translate what you see in me into a website?
I translate it into words that sound like you, a structure in which your people recognise themselves, and colours, photographs and rhythm that carry the atmosphere of your work. The result is not merely a beautiful website, but a space that makes it clear why people should choose you.
The illustrative images in this article were created or graphically edited using artificial intelligence. They are used for illustration and to visually complement the text.
