What Do We Mean by Strategy in Web Design?

“Strategy” gets tossed around so casually in design circles that it risks losing its meaning. In web design, it’s often shorthand for “make it look nice but purposeful.” But strategy is not an accessory you add at the end. It is the structure that shapes every choice.

A strategic website is built on deliberate choices. Choices that earn trust, guide decisions, and differentiate you from competitors. It positions you to win in your market.

Why Strategy Is the Missing Piece

Borrowing from Roger Martin, a leading business strategist and former dean of Rotman School of Management (where I earned my MBA), a plan is just a wish list. Strategy is the set of choices you commit to. For a website, that means every element has a purpose, and just as importantly, plenty of things are left out on purpose.

Your site isn’t meant to hold everything you could show. It’s meant to communicate your purpose clearly. Purpose ties every design decision, every headline, and every call to action together. It’s also what makes you stand out.

Visitors arrive with three silent questions: Is this for me? Can it solve my problem? What do I do next? They expect answers in seconds. Google’s research shows it takes just 50 milliseconds for users to form an impression, and 94% of that judgment is design-driven. If your purpose isn’t clear, trust evaporates before your words even register.

Strategy is not an afterthought you tack on. It is not a mood board of intentions or a list of goals. Strategy lives inside the choices you make and shows up in how your site works. When those choices are driven by purpose, the site stops being decoration and starts being a statement. It makes you unmistakable, sets you apart, and puts you in a place you are poised to win.

When Choices Become Strategy

Roger Martin, in Playing to Win, defines strategy as “an integrated set of choices that positions you to win.” That applies to web design as much as it does to Fortune 500 companies.

I distinguish Design from Art in that Design is ALWAYS intentional, functional, in the service of some kind of commerce. By this definition, Design without strategy is just a string of disconnected decisions:

• A headline written for cleverness instead of clarity

• A button colour chosen for aesthetics instead of usability

• A navigation built for the founder instead of the visitor

When choices are disconnected, the site may look good but it won’t work. In other words, it is misaligned with its purpose.

When choices are integrated, so that every headline, layout, and visual cue connects back to a business goal, design becomes strategy. The website stops being a collection of pages and starts functioning as a system that positions the business to win.

The Cost of Skipping Strategy

Skipping strategy is not neutral. It comes with real costs:

• Lost sales. A site that converts at 0.5% instead of 2% doesn’t sound catastrophic, but at scale it’s thousands in lost revenue. For every 100 potential clients, 75 walk away.

• Lost trust. Stanford’s Web Credibility Research found that 75% of users judge a business’s credibility on website design. If your site feels off, high-value clients move on.

• Lost time. Brochure-style sites force founders to explain themselves in every interaction. “I know my website’s outdated, but…” becomes a constant caveat. That’s energy you should be spending on growth.

• Rework costs. A poorly thought-out site almost always leads to redesigns — wasted money fixing what could have been built right the first time.

In business, hope is not a strategy. Relying on a “pretty” website to do the work of a strategic one is an expectation that is bound to meet disappointment.

How EPIC Brings Business Thinking Into Design

The cost of skipping strategy is too high to leave to chance. That’s why I built the EPIC Framework™: to make sure every website I design doesn’t just look good, but is structured to win. EPIC combines design thinking with business thinking so that every choice — from headline to layout — positions my clients to win.

• Engage
  Attention is scarce. You have seconds to make people stop scrolling. That’s why a homepage needs a bold headline that doesn’t just describe but hooks. For example, “Helping women founders show up with confidence online” is clearer and more magnetic than “Welcome to my site.” Strategic engagement is about winning those first seconds.

• Problem
  Your audience isn’t shopping for features. They’re seeking solutions. A strategic website doesn’t just say “I design websites.” It says, “I help entrepreneurs stop losing clients to unclear, underperforming sites.” It mirrors the pain points your client is already living with. That simple act of recognition builds instant trust.

• Insight
  Insight comes from the founder. It’s the perspective, process, or philosophy that makes their business different. My role is to uncover that and translate it into design and messaging so it’s unmistakable on the site. This is where positioning lives: without it, the brand blends into a sea of sameness. With it, the site communicates a clear edge and claims premium positioning.

• Call to Action
  A site without pathways is just online art. Strategy means every page leads somewhere: book a consult, buy now, download a guide. These steps should be obvious, compelling, and friction-free. If a visitor has to think about how to take the next step, you’ve already lost them.

EPIC ensures that every choice — from copy to layout — is anchored in strategy. Because design without strategy is decoration, and strategy without execution is just theory.

Why This Matters for Women Founders

For women entrepreneurs, the stakes are even higher. Too often I see websites that are beautiful but timid. They showcase talent without showcasing value. They explain what they do without making the case for why they are the best choice. They soften their calls to action until they disappear.

This results in them attracting praise but not clients who would pay. Interest but not investment.

A strategic website changes that. It makes value visible. It filters out bargain hunters and attracts clients ready to invest, and it turns soft language into confident positioning. It stops revenue from leaking through weak messaging.

Strategy is what gives design its confidence. And when your site speaks with confidence, you no longer have to over-explain, over-deliver, or over-compensate. You stand in your value, and the right clients step forward.

A Case in Point

Consider two coaches with nearly identical expertise and pricing.

One has what I’d call a brochure site. It looks polished, lists her services, and includes a contact form at the bottom. But like most brochure sites, it doesn’t give visitors the experience of what it’s like to work with her. It doesn’t show her edge or why she’s the better choice. The deeper problem is that it avoids making choices. Strategy is about emphasis — deciding what matters most and what to leave out. A brochure site tries to cover everything at once, and in the process, it waters down the message and makes the business forgettable.

The other coach has a business-asset site. Her homepage speaks directly to overwhelmed founders, names their pain points, positions her unique process as the solution, and offers a free guide in exchange for an email. Her site nurtures leads automatically and guides them to book calls. Within months, her pipeline is consistent and her revenue grows.

Same talent. Different outcomes. The difference is strategy.

Stop Guessing. Start Winning.

Strategy in web design isn’t something abstract. It is practical, disciplined, and measurable. It’s the difference between a site that fills space online and a site that earns its place in the market, with gumption.

Strategy is about making integrated choices that position you to win. On a website, those choices live in the details — the headline that hooks, the layout that guides, the navigation that feels effortless. When those choices are random, the site is decoration. When they’re deliberate, the site serves your business.

That is the difference a strategic website makes: it is not a plan, not a vision board, not decoration. It is a coherent set of choices, expressed through design, that puts you in a position to win.