Make your studio website easier to choose

Sam has made progress on Cedarline Web Studio's website.

The homepage draft now tells visitors that Cedarline designs websites for service businesses. The services-page draft explains the difference between a new website, a redesign and optional website care.

Now picture a cleaning business owner who has found Cedarline while looking for someone to improve an outdated website.

The owner reads about website redesign and thinks, “This sounds like what I need. But what has Sam actually designed?”

That question matters. People don't choose a designer only because the service description sounds good. They often want to see the work, understand what the designer did and feel comfortable making contact.

This lesson is about helping them take that next step.

Cedarline already has a Work page with two project previews. The designs look polished, but the short descriptions don't tell a potential client much about Sam's role.

Sam opens the file for one of those projects. It's a homepage redesign for a small service business.

The file shows what Sam worked on: the homepage layout, the way the services appear in the navigation, and the placement of a contact link.

Those are useful details. They tell a potential client what Sam can actually design.

Sam also knows the difference between showing a design decision and claiming a business result. A screenshot can show where the contact link appears. By itself, it cannot show how many new customers the client received.

So Sam writes about the work that can be seen and explained.

Sam opens the existing Work page.

The page contains two visual previews with short descriptions. A visitor can see the layouts, but has little context for deciding which project is relevant or what Sam contributed.

Sam drafts a clearer introduction and adds context to the first project:

Sam keeps the second preview on the page.

Why does the first project description work better?

It does three things the image alone cannot easily do:

1. Says what kind of work the visitor is looking at.
2. Explains what Sam contributed, using details the project can support.
3. Gives the visitor a useful next step if the project feels relevant.

The main heading on /work describes the project collection. The project heading describes an example within that collection. It is not another sales page trying to explain all of Cedarline's redesign services.

As a web designer, you may feel that a great screenshot should speak for itself. But someone reviewing your work may not understand which parts you designed or what problem a layout was intended to address.

A useful project description can be short. Start with:

The type of project → Your role → What the visitor can see

If you have permission and supporting evidence for a client result, you can explain it accurately. If you don't, describing your design choices is still worthwhile.

Give informative project images a short description for people who can't see them. For Sam's first preview, that could be: “Homepage design showing a service overview, service navigation and a contact link.”

The surrounding text explains the project; the image description explains the image. Neither needs a string of repeated search keywords.

Sam checks what happens after someone views the project.

They might want to understand Cedarline's other services, so Explore website services leads to /services.

Or they might already know what they need, so Tell us about your website project leads to /contact.

Both links have a clear purpose. The Work page gives evidence. The Services page explains the offer. The Contact page is where someone can ask about a project.

Sam will check the contact form's mobile experience and delivery in a later lesson. For now, the first improvement is making the route to the form easy to understand.

If someone discovers Cedarline through Google or an AI-powered answer, these same pages still have to do their jobs once the person arrives. The path from the first useful page to an inquiry shouldn't depend on how the visitor found the studio.

Open your own Services or Work page and imagine a potential client asking:

• Is this the kind of project I need?
• Can I see something you've actually worked on?
• Do I know how to get in touch?

You don't need to redesign the whole site today. Choose one example and make the next step clearer.

Sam now has a connected plan for Cedarline's own website. The homepage introduces the studio. The services page explains the options. The Work page shows design decisions Sam can stand behind, and the Contact page gives visitors somewhere to start a conversation.