Website research is the foundational step that differentiates strategic, high-impact designs from mediocre ones. Many companies skip research entirely, jumping straight to design based on internal assumptions. Without research, you might beautifully execute the wrong strategy—creating a visually stunning site that doesn't convert, doesn't address customer needs, or doesn't align with your actual market position. Comprehensive research uncovers customer psychology, competitive positioning gaps, content gaps, and conversion opportunities that strategic decisions should address.
Begin with deep customer understanding. Who actually visits your website? What are their jobs, goals, and challenges? What are they trying to accomplish when they land on your site? Conduct customer interviews with real prospects and customers—not internal stakeholders. Ask open-ended questions about their buying process, evaluation criteria, pain points with current solutions, and how they discovered you. Understanding the customer journey is critical: Are visitors in early research stages or late evaluation stages? Are they technical audiences or business stakeholders? Different audiences need radically different content and messaging. For B2B companies, mapping multi-stakeholder journeys is essential; a CFO's goals differ from an engineer's goals. Use surveys and analytics to understand visitor segments: What pages do high-converting visitors view? What pages do tire-kickers bounce from? This data informs content strategy. Create detailed buyer personas reflecting real customer data, not guesses. Each persona should include challenges, success metrics, objections, and decision criteria specific to your solution.
Map the competitive landscape: Who are your top 5-10 competitors? How do they position themselves? What are their messaging claims? What are their unique angles? Visit their websites thoroughly. What information do they emphasize? What content do they feature? How do they structure their buying process? Notice gaps: Is there positioning territory they're not claiming? Is there a customer need they're not addressing? These gaps represent positioning opportunities for your brand. Analyze their traffic and audience (via tools like Similarweb) to understand where they're winning. Look at customer reviews and feedback about competitors—what do customers praise or criticize? This reveals what actually matters to customers versus what marketing departments think matters. Conduct perception research with your target audience: How do they perceive you versus competitors? What are your perceived strengths and weaknesses? Perception often differs from reality; your website must address perception gaps.
Audit existing content: What content currently attracts your best customers? What content is outdated or underperforming? What topics generate inquiries? Search your website analytics: Which pages get most traffic? Which pages have highest bounce rates? Which pages convert visitors to leads or customers? This tells you what content resonates. Analyze search behavior: What keywords drive traffic to your site? What keywords do competitors rank for that you don't? What questions are customers asking in search that your content doesn't address? Keyword research identifies content opportunities. Create a content strategy based on customer journey: What information helps prospects in discovery stage? Evaluation stage? Purchase stage? Develop an information architecture that guides prospects through their natural buying process rather than your preferred sales process. Test information architecture with users: Can they find what they're looking for? Do they understand your navigation structure? User testing reveals whether your site structure actually works for customer needs.
Analyze current site performance metrics: Load speed, mobile usability, conversion rates, bounce rates, time-on-page. Tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and heat mapping tools (Hotjar, Crazy Egg) reveal user behavior and technical issues. Mobile usage matters increasingly; if your site isn't optimized for mobile, you're losing significant traffic. Analyze competitor technical performance: Are they faster? More mobile-responsive? Do they have better user flows? Use competitor testing to set benchmarks. Test your current site's usability: Have users attempt critical tasks (finding pricing, requesting a demo, understanding core value prop) and observe where they struggle. Usability testing often reveals that users interpret your site completely differently than you intended. Problems on your current site must be addressed in the new design; rebuilding without understanding current problems often perpetuates them.
Understand your broader market context: Is your industry growing or declining? Are buying patterns shifting? Are new competitors entering? What external trends affect your customers' priorities? Industry research informs positioning strategy. Understand your customer's customers: Who do your B2B customers sell to? What pressures do they face? How does your solution help them succeed with their customers? This reveals deeper value propositions. Monitor industry publications, analyst reports, and thought leaders to understand market narrative. Position your brand in relation to larger industry trends.
Conduct thorough research with our strategic research approach. Explore our research-based design process or schedule a discovery conversation.
