How to Design a Website That Converts

As founders, we know that building a strong brand and website is crucial for any business owner looking to captivate their audience and drive sign ups. In today's digital landscape, over a billion websites compete for attention, and standing out requires more than just a visually appealing design—it demands a thoughtful strategy that resonates with your ideal clients. 

Emily Paulsen, Entreprenista League member and founder of Electric Collab, has helped so many entrepreneurs achieve this through her expertise in psychology-based branding and website design. In this Q&A, Emily shares her insights on how to create a website that truly converts, leveraging platforms like Squarespace to achieve the results founders need.

Use code ENTREPRENISTA10 for 10% off your new subscription to Squarespace right here.

Entreprenista Team: When a founder comes to you for help with their brand and website, what's the very first thing you do? 

Emily Paulsen: Branding is the way people understand us. Design grabs attention, words build emotional connection, and a strategic website moves people to take action, so we need to think big picture.

It’s important to understand where you are in the life of your business and what you believe branding will do to help you reach the next level. I want to know why you started, who you love to serve, why you believe your work has meaning, and the overarching impact you hope to have on your industry and / or society. It sounds a bit philosophical, but that’s intentional. We have the power to do huge things and thoughtful, psychology-based branding puts us on the path to accomplish those goals, now. We have to be ready for it. 

‍Entreprenista: What should a founder do before even thinking about their website?

Emily Paulsen: A website is the digital representation of your brand, and effective branding is a 50 / 50 equation - rooted in who you are, designed to convert the clients you want. 

Before we have fun with visual design and website development, focus on crafting your captivating headline, unique value positioning, and an understanding of your audience on an emotional level.

• Captivating Headline: The hook that helps people understand your brand in under 7 seconds and entices the right people to learn more. 
• Unique Value Positioning: Core messages you use again and again to articulate the one-of-a-kind way you meet your clients’ needs. This is what makes you un-copyable no matter how many competitors enter your space. 
• Audience Emotional Understanding: Take time to understand the fears, frustrations, dreams, aspirations, and deepest desires of your ideal buyers so you can show you know where they are, you know where they want to go, and your work is the bridge to take them there. 

Having these pieces in place first allows you to craft messaging that moves people to buy and direct visual design that will be effective for the long run. 

‍Entreprenista: Can you walk us through your typical process for developing a brand strategy for a client?

Emily Paulsen: I’ve seen too many founders struggle with generic strategy intended to be an internal document that ends up collecting dust vs. converting clients. Every project starts with your Future-Focused Foundation: straightforward strategy delivered in customer-facing messaging so you can use it to stand out and stay consistent everywhere your brand shows up. 

We start with a 90 minute deep dive to understand how you serve people, why you believe the work matters, what you want to stand for, how you’re unique in your industry (and believe me, you are!) what’s going on with your ideal clients, and ultimately how you want to make people feel. 

Psychology-based branding works because we all buy based on emotion, whether it’s a $5 cup of coffee or $50,000 car, so we start by going inward to understand how we can make a psychological connection with the customers you want. 

Post call, I build your foundation including your brand headline, values, voice, unique value positioning, audience emotional profile, SEO keywords, brand story and more, pausing for your feedback every step of the way. We consider your digital presence from the jump, tapping Squarespace resources to proactively plan the ideal user experience. It’s called Electric “Collab” for a reason - you share your essence, I package it into a high-converting brand.

‍Entreprenista: Once the brand strategy is in place, how do you translate that vision into a website design that attracts its ideal audience? 

Emily Paulsen: Your website is your digital home, and potential clients will come over whether you invite them or not. According to HubSpot, websites influence 97% of a clients’ purchasing decisions, so it’s critical to have a web presence that converts aligned buyers while making you feel wildly proud of the business you’ve built. When translating the foundation to web design, I prioritize:

• Skim-Proof Copy - Research shows the typical site user only reads about 20% of website copy, so we use strategic headlines and layouts to deliver your most critical messages quickly and ensure they don’t get missed. 
  
  
• Storytelling - Most people who visit your site have no idea who you are or what your business is, especially as you grow. Your website should tell a compelling but concise story that leads browsers to the exact information they need to make a purchasing decision.
  
  
• Creating the Right Emotional Response, Visually - Using your ideal client emotional profile, we consider what your audience needs to feel when they land on this site. Relieved? Sentimental? Inspired? Calmed? Shocked? Hungry? Happy? Using imagery, color psychology, and negative space, we can deliver that experience through design. 

• Intuitive Navigation - If people can’t easily find what they need on our sites, they’ll immediately move on. Navigation is not the place to get fancy. We lean on UX Design principles to make sure people can surf the site, on a computer or phone, without even having to think about it. 

Entreprenista: Let's talk about Squarespace. Why is Squarespace your platform of choice for building websites for your clients? What specific features or functionalities make it a great fit for the founders you work with? 

Emily Paulsen: At the end of the day, you want three core things from a website:

• Convert ideal buyers
• Stand out from competitors
• Cause zero tech headaches

I’ve found Squarespace to be the best platform for exceeding expectations in all three.

With over a billion websites online, distinct design is critical. Squarespace allows us to customize your site without bogging it down with complex coding that feels impossible for you to manage.

Although I’m a huge believer that you should perfect your site and let it ride, you’re going to need updates - new testimonials, new photoshoots, updated packages, etc. While we use special features to make the design really special, the Squarespace dashboard stays intuitive so you can make inevitable tweaks without worrying you’ll break it or waiting for a developer to come help you. Not to mention the SEO capabilities, responsive support, reasonable pricing, and easy add-ons that provide every functionality most entrepreneurs need. Dozens of websites later, I’m a big Squarespace believer! 

‍Entreprenista: Can you show us a few Squarespace websites you’ve designed for women founders? How did Squarespace help you achieve your clients’ goals?

Emily Paulsen:

Devin Lee -As an unconventional but incredibly intellectual Systems Strategist, Devin wanted a brand that clarified her value and showcased the killer results of her work to convert more premium buyers while allowing her personality to shine. (Beetlejuice was one of our brand inspo icons which was unbelievably fun to work with.) We started with her foundation, positioning her as the perfect partner for thoughtful processes and custom tech stacks that free your time and mind for high-impact work. I continually hear that the site feels totally unique, which is a huge reason why I love Squarespace. The combination of Fluid Engine grid capabilities with CSS coding functionality give us design flexibility to create something one-of-a-kind. Upon launch, Devin was immediately booked out for 2 quarters and is now almost fully booked for all of 2025!

Knownfully Holistic Therapy - Charlotte Haigh already had a thriving therapy practice, but she was ready to embody her next level of leadership with a group practice that expanded her impact. Transitioning to a business brand from a personal brand, we were very intentional about the tone and core ethos of Knownfully: A mind, body and spirit approach to healing human problems by knowing ourselves, fully. We centered her clinical expertise in inclusive, calming, language and design. Using Squarespace capabilities like animated background images, overlapping effects, saved page sections and customizable opt-ins, we were able to create a cohesive design that Charlotte can easily update as her team naturally expands. Since launch, Charlotte has hired a dream team member, opened a second location, and continues to broaden her impact on her California community

Boon Inventory Management - Mary Wiegand’s team brings 200+ years of retail expertise delivered through bespoke services, supporting mission-driven brands to confidently scale and supercharge profits with personalized forecasting, planning, and inventory management…but this high level of expertise wasn’t expressed in their original brand and website. We rebuilt their strategy, design, and website leaning on Squarespace’s CSS coding and plugins to add premium animations and a lot more FUN so site visitors get a sense of what it feels like to work with this energetic but dedicated all-woman team. A lead thought Boon had developed their own software because their new website felt so bespoke, which is exactly what you want people to think when they hire you to manage their inventory!

Storylock Legal - If you know Lauren Bercuson, you know she brings a unique level of warmth, sincerity, and open-heartedness to her work as an IP Attorney. She needed a brand and website that reflected that while articulating the importance (and seriousness) of trademark protection. We worked to strike the right balance of deep legal know-how with her upbeat personality, and her new brand and website started converting right away. Lauren’s sales tripled within the first month of going live and she continues to receive compliments on her brand and website from new customers week to week. 

Entreprenista: What are your top three "must-have" Squarespace plugins or integrations that you recommend to all of your clients, and why? 

Emily Paulsen: I consider some of this our secret sauce, but every website should include a compelling email opt-in, barrier-free contact capture, and expert-led SEO tied to Google Analytics. Squarespace makes it easy to sync all the pieces of your digital experience from sales to scheduling so aligned clients find, explore, and enjoy your site while you capture and convert. Not necessarily the sexiest stuff, but important when it comes to measuring website results, which is really the whole point.

Entreprenista: If a founder is feeling overwhelmed by the process of building their brand and website, what's the one thing you recommend they do to start moving in the right direction? 

Emily Paulsen: Try your best to take a step back and examine what’s already working. We tend to focus on what we’re missing, forgetting all the good stuff that got us where we are. 

What are you saying on sales calls that’s getting a “yes”? Use that in your messaging! How do your favorite clients feel after you work together? Reflect on that emotion when picking your colors and design elements. Where are your people spending most of their time online? Start with a simple landing page that articulates your unique value and talk about it on whatever platform your people use most. 

Don’t forget that the things that make your brand amazing are the things that are uniquely YOU. Those values, experiences, perspectives and ideas have been with you all along - branding is simply the way you share it with the outside world. Let that expression feel fun! 

When designing a website that converts, the right tools make all the difference. Use code ENTREPRENISTA10 for 10% off your new subscription to Squarespace right here.

Squarespace offers a powerful platform to bring your vision to life, with its intuitive design capabilities, robust SEO features, and seamless integrations. Whether you're just starting out or scaling your business, Squarespace provides the flexibility and support you need to stand out and convert your ideal buyers.  

Use code ENTREPRENISTA10 for 10% off your new subscription so that you can start crafting your digital home and begin converting your audience into loyal customers today right here.

Reach out to our Entreprenista Approved service provider Emily Paulsen right here for a complimentary branding and web design consultation today.