5 questions your website could ask visitors – and how to make the most of them

• A good website doesn’t need lots of questions. It needs the right questions.
• The purpose of these questions is to help us understand the visitor’s needs, objectives, circumstances and schedule.
• You don’t need to ask every possible question. The key is to gather just enough information to enable the website to help visitors more effectively.
• A good question doesn’t just gather information. The answer should influence what happens next for the visitor.

Most websites tell visitors a lot and ask them very little. They present visitors with services, products, testimonials and the company’s story. After that, visitors are expected to find the right option for themselves and eventually click ‘Contact us’.

What if a website operated more like a good salesperson? A good salesperson doesn’t start a meeting by listing everything the company sells. They ask a few questions first.

What do you need? What are you trying to achieve? What is your situation like?

Only then does he suggest a suitable solution. A website could do the same. And it doesn’t necessarily require a lengthy questionnaire or a complex system. Sometimes, just one good question is enough to turn things around.

Here are five questions to get you started.

1. What are you looking for?

A visitor may arrive at a website without knowing the names of the company’s products or services. Instead, they usually have a much clearer idea of the problem they are trying to solve.

Instead of the first option being:

Service A / Service B / Service C

you might ask:

What are you looking for?

And provide options that are understandable from the user’s perspective.

On the Digitoimisto website, the options could include, for example:

• I want to revamp our website
• I need an online shop
• I want more leads
• I am looking for a partner for continuous development

Visitors no longer need to be able to translate their own needs into the language in which the company provides its services.

The website does it for him.

2. What is your main goal?

What a person is looking for does not always reveal why they are looking for it. Two visitors may be interested in exactly the same service for completely different reasons. One wants to boost sales. The other wants to save working time. A third wants to improve their customers’ experience. The service may be the same, but the rationale, content and next steps can be completely different.

That is why the question: “What is your main goal?” can be surprisingly valuable.

If the aim is to increase sales, the website can highlight relevant solutions, customer stories or results. If the main priority is to save time, automation, efficiency or streamlined processes may be of greater interest.

Good personalisation doesn’t start with who the user is. It starts with what they’re trying to achieve.

3. Who will receive the solution?

The same service can look completely different depending on who it is being purchased for.

The software can be made available to a single team or to the entire organisation. Training can be organised for your own staff or for customers. An event can be for ten employees or a thousand customers.

That’s why it’s sometimes worth asking directly:

“Who will the solution be for?”

This question helps to narrow down the options, but also makes the following questions more meaningful. If we already know that the solution is intended for the marketing team, there is no need to ask the same questions as we would of someone planning a roll-out across the whole organisation. At the same time, the company gains valuable context about a potential customer even before making contact.

But the order is important: a question is not asked simply because the information is of interest to the company.

It should also help visitors enjoy a more tailored experience.

4. How much do you need?

Sometimes a single figure can make a significant difference to a recommendation. An event for ten people and one for a thousand do not require the same solution. The software requirements for five users and a roll-out across an entire organisation are two completely different matters.

Therefore, depending on the situation, the question could be phrased, for example, as follows:

How many users will benefit from this solution?

• How many leads are you aiming for each month?
• Just how big is this event?
• How many products are there in your online shop?

The aim is not to collect data for the sake of it. The response should either help the user receive a more relevant recommendation or help the company assess which solution is best suited to the situation.

5. When would you like to get started?

The timetable tells you a lot about what stage the visitor is at.

For example:

• Immediately
• Within 1–3 months
• Later this year
• I’m just looking into the options

Anyone could be a good potential customer. But why should they all be offered exactly the same next step? If a visitor wants to get started straight away, a conversation with a sales representative might be just the right next step. If they’re just exploring their options, ‘Book an appointment’ might feel a bit too soon.

→ Perhaps a more useful next step would be a comparison, a guide, a customer story or some other content that helps with the decision.

This way, the website doesn’t have to try to push every visitor towards the same conversion. It can help people progress at a pace that suits their circumstances.

Don’t just ask for the sake of it

From a business perspective, it would be tempting to ask everything possible straight away:

• Name?
• Email?
• Telephone number?
• A company?
• Job title?
• Budget?

They don’t offer visitors anything at all just yet. That’s why, for each question, it’s worth pausing for a moment and asking:

What does the visitor get out of answering this?

If they state their requirement, the website should take some action in response.

• Recommend a suitable solution.
• Narrow down the options.
• Shows more relevant content.
• Calculate the estimate.
• Provides personalised results.
• Or guide them to the next step.

That is when interaction gives rise to a fair exchange:

A visitor tells the website what they need → the website is then better able to help them.

A website does not have to display the same path to everyone

The aim is not simply to take a traditional contact form and split it into five neater boxes. If everyone answers the same questions and ends up in exactly the same place, not much has actually changed. A visitor’s response should be able to influence what happens next.

If they are looking for a venue, the next question might be:

How many people?

If he’s looking for a hotel:

When and for how many people?

If he is looking for software for his business:

What is it used for?

This could be called a branching customer journey or conditional logic. It may sound technical, but to the visitor it shouldn’t feel technical at all.

For him, the experience should feel something like this: “Exactly. This page understands what I’m looking for.”

A good website asks questions, listens and responds

The purpose of a website is not simply to get visitors to spend more time on the site. It should help them move forward. That’s why you don’t need to tell them everything at once. Sometimes the best first step is to ask one good question.

What are you looking for?

Once the visitor has answered, the next relevant question can be asked. And then the next one. As a result, the visitor finds the right path more easily and the company gains a better understanding of what the visitor needs.

A good website doesn’t just tell you things. It asks questions, listens and helps you move forward.