Is your company website costing you clients?

At Studiothink, we meet clients all the time who echo the same problem.

They have a firm filled with brilliant people. Bold ideas. A level of care and expertise that makes them the kind of professionals you’d trust with your finances, your business, or your next architectural masterpiece.

But then we look at their website. And it’s saying none of that.

That’s exactly what happened recently with PHL Financial.

PHL are disruptors in the finance world, connecting investors and mortgage seekers through innovative lending solutions. They’re all about helping people build legacies — wealth that fuels richer, more fulfilling lives. Yet their old website was whispering when it should’ve been boldly telling their story. It looked safe. Generic. It didn’t reflect how deeply they care about educating clients, or how they’re shaking up an industry that’s often stuck in tradition.

So we rebuilt it from the ground up. Modern design, clean layouts, thoughtful user experience, and words that made sense of complex financial concepts without sounding like a textbook. The result? A website that finally matches who they are: professional yet human, innovative yet trustworthy.

Here’s the thing: your website is often the first place people decide whether they’ll trust you. And in 2025, that decision happens faster than ever. Professional services firms — whether you’re lawyers, accountants, or architects — can’t afford a website that’s quietly costing them clients.

Let’s talk about how to know if yours might be.

So, how do you know if your website is costing you clients?

This isn’t one of those moments where you Google “website redesign checklist” and get the same five generic bullet points. This is real talk from people who’ve seen the inside of hundreds of professional services websites. Yep, we’ve witnessed the good, the bad, and the truly cringe-worthy (just ask our designers).

Here’s what we look for when we audit a professional services website:

Your website feels generic, or worse, interchangeable.

Law firm. Architecture practice. Accounting office.

We can’t tell which you are because your site looks like every other firm. Safe colours. Those dreaded stock photos (you know the ones, of people around a board table, laughing). Buzzwords like “solutions,” “partner,” or “trusted advisors.”

Here’s the problem: in professional services, your brand is your people and your thinking.

Does your website talk about what truly makes your firm different? Is your voice professional yet uniquely yours, or just corporate blandness? Can someone visiting your homepage instantly feel who you are?

At Studiothink, we believe a professional services website should feel like stepping into your office and meeting your team. Not just any office, a space where clients instantly know, “These are my people.”

You’re not educating anyone, you’re just listing services.

Especially in service businesses like law, accounting, architecture, clients are searching for answers.

PHL Financial’s old site barely explained alternative lending. Today, their site guides clients through it like a human conversation.

Are you giving away helpful insights? Do you explain complex services in language a client can actually understand? Do you show examples, stories, or results that prove you’re the expert?

When your website educates, it builds trust. And trust is how professional firms win clients.

It’s impossible to find what people came for.

We’ve seen professional services websites where:

• Practice areas hide under confusing and complex menus.
• Bios are buried four clicks deep. Your people matter.
• Contact info is nowhere obvious. There is no distinct call to action.

For busy professionals, or clients in a moment of stress,  that’s a deal breaker. Your website will be closed before they even get past the home page.

Instead, a good professional services website should:

• Make services easy to navigate.
• Put contact info in obvious places.
• Keep menus clear and jargon-free.
• Guide users to the next logical step without making them think.

When we redesigned PHL’s site, one of our biggest wins was simplifying how users get to specific lending services, and making sure calls to action were crystal clear.

Your design feels dated, or worse, untrustworthy.

Outdated design isn’t just about looking old-school. It signals risk in professional services.

If your website looks neglected, visitors subconsciously wonder:

• Are they still in business?
• Are they behind on industry trends, too?
• Will my information be secure with them?

We’re not talking flashy animations. We’re talking:

• Clean typography.
• Plenty of white space.
• Professional but modern colour palettes.
• Sharp, high-quality photography instead of cheesy stock photos.
• Fast load times.

Your website doesn’t have to be fancy. It does have to look like you care.

You’re invisible in search. And soon, in AI results.

Here’s where things get technical.

A lot of professional firms still have websites built like it’s 2012 (probs because they were built in 2012):

• No proper page titles or meta descriptions.
• Broken mobile responsiveness.
• Slow load speeds.
• Zero structured data.

That’s why even firms with huge reputations often don’t show up for key searches, or in emerging AI tools that pull structured data for quick answers.

A redesign involves strategic page titles, simplified URL structures, and content tuned for how people actually search for alternative lending. Suddenly, you’re visible not just in Google, but in AI search snippets too.

How to choose the right agency for a website redesign in 2025.

So let’s say you’re looking at your website right now thinking, “Okay, okay. Maybe we do have some of these issues.”

How do you choose the right partner to fix it? Other than the obvious choice of Studiothink, of course.

Look for an agency that understands professional services.

Designing for the service industry such as lawyers, accountants, and architects isn’t like designing for e-commerce or lifestyle brands. You need:

• A balance of professionalism and humanity.
• Awareness of industry-specific restrictions (like advertising rules for law firms).
• Experience translating complex services into clear language.

Ask to see examples of professional services work or any other projects that show the agency can make serious, trust-driven industries look modern without losing credibility.

Demand a collaborative approach, not just a handoff.

Your team’s input is gold. The best results happen when:

• Designers work alongside your internal stakeholders.
• Copywriters interview you about how you talk and what your clients care about.
• You’re part of decision-making around imagery, user experience, and content.

At Studiothink, we never “just design a website.” We become partners in making sure it reflects who you truly are.

Choose an agency that cares as much about words as visuals.

Professionals underestimate this all the time. Good design gets people to stay on your site. Great copy makes them believe you’re the right choice.

Make sure your agency has real copywriting talent. Check:

• Do they write case studies, not just marketing fluff?
• Do they understand how to balance professional language with clarity and warmth?
• Do they know how to structure messaging for both humans and AI search?

Ask about technical details, and insist on clear explanations.

You shouldn’t have to be a developer to understand:

• How your new site will rank in Google.
• What structured data is and why it matters.
• How long pages will take to load.
• How your site will look on mobile.

If an agency can’t explain those things in plain language, move on.

One last thing: don’t let fear keep you stuck.

Professional firms sometimes hang onto old websites because they’re afraid:

• The process will be overwhelming.
• They’ll lose existing rankings.
• A redesign means completely changing their brand.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

When we redesigned PHL’s site, we didn’t blow up their brand. We brought it to life. We kept their colours, typography, and personality intact, but elevated them to match who they are today.

That’s what a good agency does.

Final takeaways.

Your website is your firm’s digital handshake.

It’s often the first, and sometimes only,  chance to convince a potential client that:

• You’re modern and capable.
• You’re experts in your field.
• You’re the team they should trust.

So if you’re wondering whether your website is costing you clients, it might be time to ask the hard questions.

And if you want help finding the right answers, we’re always up for a conversation and a glass of wine. That’s the Studiothink way.

Sherry Jacobi