Your Website Looks Great. So Why Is Nobody Getting in Touch?

If your website looks good but nobody gets in touch, it's usually one of five things:

1. There's no clear next step, or too many competing ones.
2. Getting in touch takes too much effort.
3. The words are about you, not the customer.
4. There's nothing that shows you can be trusted.
5. It's awkward to use on a phone.

All five can be fixed without a redesign. Check first that people are visiting, because if they aren't, you have a different problem.

Is it a traffic problem or a conversion problem?

Look at your visitor numbers in Google Analytics or your host's stats.

• Hardly anyone visits. That's a traffic problem. It's about being found, through Google, your Business Profile and people recommending you. The usual causes are in why your business isn't showing up on Google.
• People visit but don't get in touch. That's a conversion problem, and it's what this post is about.

Can visitors tell what to do next?

Look at your homepage as if you'd never seen it. Work out the one thing you want a visitor to do, and check it's obvious.

People decide fast. Jakob Nielsen's research found that users often leave web pages in 10 to 20 seconds unless the page makes its value clear. If "Call us", "Email", "Book", "Follow" and "Read more" all look equally important, the easiest option is to leave.

Pick one main action. Make it a proper button that stands out, and repeat it down the page so it's always close by. Make everything else quieter.

Is getting in touch too much effort?

Every extra step between "I'm interested" and "done" loses people. A form with twelve fields. A phone number you have to hunt for. A Book button that opens a clunky, different-looking page.

• Make sure someone can contact you in one tap from any page.
• Make your phone number a tappable link on phones.
• Only ask what you need to reply. Name, a way to reach them and a line about what they need is usually enough.

Are the words about you or about them?

This is where good-looking sites most often fall down. The design is lovely and the words are all "we". We're passionate. We're established. We pride ourselves.

People get in touch when they can see you'll sort out their problem. Lead with what they get. "Fifteen years of experience" becomes "done right first time, so you don't need a second call-out." It's the same fact, told from their side.

This is the part most owners find hardest to write about their own business, which is why the words are included in my £300 website. More on what makes a whole site work in what makes a good website.

Is there anything that shows you can be trusted?

Someone's about to give you their details or their money, and they're quietly asking whether you're safe to trust. Answer it with:

• real reviews with real names, or a link to your Google reviews,
• photos of your actual work, not stock images,
• a real face and a real name,
• your area and a way to reach you,
• prices, or at least a fair range.

These do more for enquiries than any redesign.

Does it work properly on a phone?

Most of your visitors are on one. Ofcom found that smartphones account for 77% of the time UK adults spend online. If the button sits somewhere awkward, the text is cramped or the form is fiddly with a thumb, people leave and you never know they were there.

Open your site on your phone now and make an enquiry, all the way through. Anything that makes you pause or pinch to zoom is losing you customers.

What's a quick self-check I can run today?

Most sites fail two or three of these, and each one can be fixed on its own.

Do I need a new website?

Usually not. When enquiries are flat, the instinct is to start again. More often the design is fine, and what needs work is the clarity, the words, the trust and the effort. Those are targeted fixes.

Sometimes the foundations are the problem. A site can be so slow, so old or so hard to change that patching it isn't worth it. Then a rebuild pays off, and a four-page site from me is £300.

Not sure which you've got? Send it for a free website check. I'll record a short video showing where I think it's losing people and whether it's a quick fix or a bigger job.