In this note
- The one salesperson everyone meets
- How most websites are built
- Building it from the moments
- Launch day is day one
- What it takes
- Do this this week
- Questions people ask
We call the focused changes we make to a brand adaptations. One moment, one change, one written prediction. Most are small and sharp: a new proof page, a sales deck rebuilt for the sceptic, a set of answer pages for the questions buyers ask AI assistants.
One adaptation is different in size and reach. The website. It's the change we call the hero adaptation, and this note explains why, and why so many websites waste the chance.
The one salesperson everyone meets
Think about who sees your website. The champion, early, deciding whether you're worth a call. The money, checking prices and terms. The sceptic, looking for proof or problems. The user, wondering what working with you is like. The boss, glancing at it before a meeting. The adviser, asked for a view and checking you out.
All six buyer types meet the website. They meet it at nearly every stage, too. It helps you get Found by search and AI assistants. It's where buyers go to get Answered. It's where proof lives for Believed. It carries the reason to choose you for Preferred, and the first step for Bought.
No other single change touches so many of the 42 selection moments at once. That's what makes it the hero, and also what makes getting it wrong so expensive.
A website is the one salesperson every buyer meets. Most get a big launch, then never change again.
How most websites are built
The usual process starts with a sitemap. Home, about, services, case studies, contact. Someone writes copy for each page. A designer makes it beautiful. It launches, everyone celebrates, and a maintenance agreement keeps the plugins updated for the next three years.
The trouble is where the sitemap came from. It came from what other websites look like, not from what your buyers need to decide. It's written for everyone, so it speaks clearly to no one. And it's finished on launch day, so it slowly drifts out of step with buyers, rivals and the way people now ask questions.
Building it from the moments
The alternative is to build the website from evidence about how your buyers choose.
Start with the weakest moments
Before anyone draws a sitemap, find out where buyers are cutting you. If the money can't find a price, the site needs pricing that answers them. If the sceptic can't find proof, it needs proof beside every claim. The sitemap comes out of the moments, not the other way round.
Write for all six buyers
Each buyer type has different questions. A site written for the champion alone leaves five people without answers. That doesn't mean six versions of every page. It means making sure every buyer's main questions are answered somewhere they'd look, in words they'd use.
Make it easy for machines to quote
AI assistants and search engines now summarise websites for buyers. Pages that answer real questions plainly, with structured data and fast load times, are easier for them to understand and quote. That's part of being found today, not an optional extra.
Explore more than one direction
The design should look like no one else in your category. The way to get there is to explore several genuinely different directions, test them against buyers, and keep the one that wins with the reasons written down.
Launch day is day one
Here's the biggest difference. A website built this way doesn't stop at launch. It launches with a written prediction for every key page: what that page should move, for which buyer, by when. Then the testing starts.
For the first months after launch, the predictions are checked and variations are tested on the pages that aren't performing. Winners are kept, losers are dropped. The site gets fitter rather than staler. In our own website work, that period is 90 days of tests after launch, with the option to keep going month by month.
This is what we mean when we say a website should never stop evolving. Launch is the halfway point, not the finish line.
What it takes
A website built from the moments is a bigger piece of work than a template refresh. Ours start from $14,900 for a focused site of around ten pages, take about 12 weeks to launch, and are built in Webflow or WordPress depending on who will update the site and what it has to connect to. They start from a Fitness Test, because the moments are the brief.
That's not the only way to do it. But whoever builds your next site, ask them where the sitemap comes from, who each page is written for, and what happens the day after launch. The answers will tell you whether you're getting a hero or a brochure.
Do this this week
- List the six buyers. For your business, write who the champion, money, user, sceptic, boss and adviser usually are.
- Walk the site as each one. Spend five minutes per buyer on your own website, looking for answers to their main question. Note where each one would give up.
- Check the price and the proof. Can the money find a price or range in under a minute? Can the sceptic find evidence beside your main claim? Write yes or no.
- Ask what happens after launch. If you're planning a new site, write down what will be measured and changed in the first 90 days. If the answer is "nothing", that's the first thing to fix.
Questions people ask
What is the hero adaptation?
It's our name for the website, because it's the single change that touches the most selection moments. All six buyer types meet it, at nearly every stage from Found to Bought, so improving it moves more of the 42 moments than any other one change.
What should a new website be built from?
From evidence about how your buyers choose: the moments where they currently cut you, the questions each buyer type asks, and the rivals they compare you with. The sitemap should come out of that evidence, not from what other websites look like.
What should happen after a website launches?
Each key page should launch with a written prediction of what it should move. In the months after launch, those predictions are checked, weaker pages are tested with variations, and the winners are kept, so the site keeps improving instead of freezing.