The businesses we work with that sell both software products and services online face a particular challenge that pure ecommerce sites do not. Their website has to do two very different things at once: sell a product clearly and efficiently, and build enough trust that a prospective buyer will also pick up the phone or fill in a contact form about a service contract worth considerably more.
When those two functions are crammed onto a website that was never designed for either, the result is almost always the same. Visitors arrive, find the experience confusing, and leave. Google notices the short sessions and high bounce rates. Rankings fall. Enquiries dry up.
For companies in sectors like data management, construction software, and document control — where buying decisions are made by technical managers and project directors rather than casual shoppers — the website is doing heavy lifting. It needs to convey credibility quickly, show exactly what the software does, and make the path to purchase or consultation obvious from the first page a visitor lands on.
We have also seen a consistent pattern with companies that have a training or events arm running alongside their core product business. The two audiences rarely want the same thing. One wants a product demo and pricing. The other wants a course schedule and an online booking form. If the site does not separate those journeys cleanly, both audiences leave frustrated. Getting this architecture right before a line of content is written is the work that determines whether the finished site actually performs.
For a broader look at what effective website architecture means for businesses selling multiple products and services online, see ProfileTree’s guide to ecommerce website design best practices. For context on how content strategy fits into a services website, read our article on website design for service businesses.
Pentagon Solutions is a specialist provider of data management and document control software for the construction and engineering industries. They operate across the UK, Ireland, Europe, and the US, serving clients in sectors where version-controlled documentation is not optional — it is a compliance requirement.
Alongside their core software product, Pentagon Solutions also runs training courses for teams looking to get the most from document management systems. That combination of a software product, a training service, and an international client base made the website redesign more demanding than a standard ecommerce build. It needed to be technically capable, clearly structured, and credible to a professional audience.
Before any design work began, we mapped out the audience split. The primary audience for the software product and the audience for the training courses needed separate, clearly signposted paths through the site. We also reviewed the existing site’s performance in organic search to identify what content was working and what was pulling irrelevant traffic.
From that audit, we built the information architecture: a structure that put the software product at the centre of the homepage while creating a distinct, bookable training area that did not compete with the main conversion goal.
The ecommerce element of the redesign centred on making Pentagon Solutions’ software products purchasable and demonstrable online. We integrated ecommerce functionality that allowed clients to view product information, access demos, and progress through a purchase or enquiry process without needing to speak to a sales rep first — while keeping that option clearly available.
Contact forms were built to route directly into the sales team’s workflow, with separate form logic for product enquiries and training bookings. This reduced friction and made it easier for the team to respond to the right enquiries with the right information.
To improve Pentagon Solutions’ visibility in organic search, we also developed SEO-targeted website content that positioned the company clearly for the queries their ideal clients were already using. This covered product descriptions, landing pages for their training offer, and a blog structure that could carry ongoing content about document management and construction technology.
The aim was for someone searching for document control software or BIM training to find Pentagon Solutions’ content and immediately understand that this company serves exactly their sector and scale of business.
As part of the project, ProfileTree’s video and animation team produced an explainer animation for Pentagon Solutions. Explainer animations are particularly effective for software products where the thing being sold is a system rather than a physical object. Showing the workflow in motion is significantly clearer than describing it in text. The animation was embedded into the homepage and used as a sales tool across the client’s digital channels.
Following the launch of the new website, Pentagon Solutions saw measurable improvement across the indicators that matter for a business operating at their level.
Site speed improved significantly, with the new build scoring 72 on Google’s On-Page SEO metrics — a meaningful gain over the previous site. Bounce rates fell as visitors found the content relevant to their actual needs and moved further through the site. Organic traffic grew as the new SEO-targeted pages began to index and rank for relevant construction and document management queries.
The ecommerce and training booking functions operated without technical issues from launch. The animation content drove engagement on the homepage and was repurposed by the Pentagon Solutions team for use in their own marketing materials.
Every website design project at ProfileTree starts with the same question: what does this site need to do for the business that owns it? That question sounds obvious, but most websites are built without a clear answer to it. The design is made to look professional. The content is written to fill the pages. The site goes live and performs exactly as well as a site with no clear purpose should.
For ecommerce and services businesses, we start with audience mapping. Who are the distinct groups arriving at this website? What does each of them need to find, understand, and do? Those journeys become the skeleton of the information architecture before a design brief is written.
“The businesses that get the most from a website redesign are the ones that go into it knowing exactly what they want the site to change about their commercial performance. More enquiries from the right type of client. Better conversion on the product page. Fewer support calls because the documentation is clear. Those are the briefs that produce the strongest results.” — Ciaran Connolly, Founder, ProfileTree
The technical build, the content strategy, the SEO work, and the animation or video elements are all in service of that initial brief. We do not upsell capabilities a client does not need. If a business has a modest product range and a clear buying journey, they do not need a complex ecommerce build. If they are selling to enterprise clients who need to see credibility signals before they make contact, the site needs to look and feel like a serious business from the first second. To find out how ProfileTree can help your business with ecommerce website design in Belfast and Northern Ireland, get in touch with our team.
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