Before You Hit Publish: 5 Essential Steps for a High-Converting Wedding Business Website
You’ve spent hours perfecting your brand-new website template, making sure every detail reflects your style and expertise. Your photos look stunning, your fonts are on point, and your colour palette is dreamy. But before you pop the champagne and announce your launch, have you checked the behind-the-scenes essentials that turn a pretty website into a powerful, client-winning machine?
At Hope Nicholson Marketing Consultancy, we don’t just launch websites—we create tools that work as hard as you do. Whether you’re a cake maker, florist, hair and makeup artist, photographer, or wedding venue, we’ve worked on countless websites for wedding suppliers, ensuring they’re not only visually stunning but also strategically designed and optimised to attract inquiries and bookings. So, before you hit that launch button, here are five things we always do—and trust me, you should too.
5 Essential Steps Before Launching Your New Calluna & Thyme Website
1. Optimise Every Page for SEO (Because Google Needs to Find You!)
- Meta descriptions: Make sure each page has a unique, keyword-rich meta description (no copy-pasting from cloned pages!).
- Headers: Use H1, H2, and H3 tags strategically to structure your content. Remember: what’s good for Google is good for your couple. Meaning the easier to read, the better the experience!
- Keywords: Choose a primary keyword for each page and naturally integrate it into your copy, image alt text, and URL.
💡 Insider Hint: Don’t settle for the default SEO settings in Showit. Instead, customise them to reflect your unique brand and content for maximum visibility! Tip: turn to AI to help you research and analyse market trends to nail down your keywords.
2. Set Up Google Search Console, Google Analytics & Google Tag Manager
- Google Search Console: Submit your sitemap to help Google index your site faster. This way, you can also track the actual search terms that couples use on Google to find your website.
- Google Analytics: Track site traffic, visitor behaviour, page performance, and conversions.
- Google Tag Manager: Set up event tracking (like contact form completions) for deeper insights.
📊 These tools tell you what’s working (and what’s not) so you can refine your website strategy over time.
Before launching, we also install site monitoring and heatmap software for our clients to track real user behaviour. Microsoft Clarity is a free, user-friendly tool that helps you understand how people navigate and interact with your website. It shows which pages might be underperforming, where buttons and navigation cause confusion, and the most common user pathways through your site. This insight helps you take control of the user journey—so visitors land exactly where you want them to and convert more easily.
3. Ditch the Email Address—Use a Contact Form Instead
- Contact forms are easier for couples to complete (no copy-pasting emails).
- They protect your email from spam bots.
- You can track form submissions in Google Analytics to measure conversions. With email, however, you have less control and insight over the data, especially if you want to do historical reporting (e.g., monthly or seasonally) on the types of enquiry you received and where they originated.
📝 Bonus: Add an automated thank-you message or email response to create a seamless client experience. This is a game-changer for those busy times when you can’t stay on top of admin. When implemented, we see major breakthroughs in conversions for our clients. If you’re often saying, “Sorry, I haven’t replied yet—I’ll be back on the laptop tomorrow,” you won’t have to anymore. With a nurture sequence in place, your leads will stay engaged while you’re out creating magic for your booked couples.
4. Check Load Speed & Fix Any Bottlenecks
- Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights.
- Compress large image files to prevent slow load times.
- Remove unnecessary files or scripts that could slow things down.
A slow website kills conversions. Just like a killer playlist keeps guests dancing all night, a fast website keeps your potential clients engaged and ready to take action. The quicker it loads, the longer visitors stay, and the more inquiries you’ll get!
5. Make Your Pricing & Brochure Easy to Find
In a sea of sameness and overwhelming volume of content, your ideal couples don’t have the time or attention span to figure out if you’re the right fit—they want clarity, confidence, and ease. Make it simple for them to fall in love with you.
- We make sure our clients have a downloadable brochure (that includes pricing – even if it’s a guide price or ‘from’ price – and ‘what to expect’ details) clearly visible on their website.
- Ensure the brochure is mobile-friendly (because that’s where your couples are).
- If you require an email to download it—great! That means they’re now in your world, and you can nurture them through an email sequence that moves them from the awareness stage to the buyer-ready stage. If you don’t want to capture an email address for the download, have a retargeting ad set up with your best-performing content. This way, you can follow that lead around and guide them into your marketing funnel.
💡 If your competitors make it easier for couples to get the information they need, guess who’s getting booked? (Hint: It’s not you.) Don’t make your dream clients chase you—make it effortless for them to say, “I need to book you in right now before you’re fully booked.”
Launch with Confidence
Your website is more than just a portfolio—it’s your hardest-working sales tool. Take these five steps, and you’ll transform your site into a high-performing, high-converting machine that turns visitors into your dream clients.
Thinking of giving your website a refresh? Whether you need a full strategy overhaul or just a few tweaks, we’d love to help. Reach out to us at @hopenicholson.co and we’ll partner with Calluna & Thyme to ensure your beautiful Showit template is not only stunning but also a client-winning powerhouse—where every detail is optimised to attract and convert leads into bookings!
P.S. One last thing before you launch—test your site on mobile! Most engaged couples will be scrolling your website from their phones, with Bridebook reporting that 93% of couples use their mobile devices for wedding planning – a figure we agree with! Check text readability, image placement, and button spacing to ensure a smooth experience. If it’s hard to use on mobile, potential couples will leave—and book someone else!
About Hope Nicholson
Hope Nicholson is the founder and lead strategist of Hope Nicholson Marketing Consultancy, where strategy meets selling power for wedding venues, hotels, and top-tier wedding suppliers. With a hands-on, all-woman team, we know that marketing in the wedding industry is more than just a numbers game—it’s about creating an unforgettable experience that connects with couples on a deeper level.
We blend high-calibre strategy with the art of execution, offering Done-For-You, Done-With-You, and Consultancy services that ensure your brand isn’t just seen, but fully booked with dream clients, season after season. As hospitality insiders, we understand the rhythm of service, the pressure of peak seasons, and the power of turning “just browsing” into “just booked.”
Based in North Wales, UK, we specialise in marketing that doesn’t just look good—it drives bookings. If you’re tired of relying on referrals, random inquiries, or hope-and-pray marketing, we’re here to help. Let’s make your brand magnetic, memorable, and market-leading.
