Most websites that don't bring in enquiries aren't broken. They have one or two specific problems, and you can usually find them in an afternoon.

If your website looks fine but the phone isn't ringing, you're not alone. Most small business websites that don't bring in work aren't broken. They have one or two specific problems, and once you know where to look, you can usually find them yourself.

The causes fall into four groups: not enough of the right people arrive, they don't trust what they find, they don't understand what you offer, or contacting you is harder than it should be. Here are the nine we see most often, and how to check each one. If you'd rather have someone do this for you, that's exactly what our Website Growth Review is for.

Not enough of the right people arrive

  1. Google doesn't show your site for the searches that matter. Your site might rank for your business name, but not for what customers type: "wedding DJ Worcestershire", "accountant near me", "emergency plumber Kidderminster". How to check: open Google Search Console, go to Performance, and look at the Queries list. If almost every query contains your business name, new customers aren't finding you.
  2. Your Google Business Profile is thin or out of date. For local searches, the map listing often gets the click before your website does. Missing categories, old photos, few reviews and unanswered questions all cost you. How to check: search for your main service plus your town and see where you appear on the map, and what the businesses above you have that you don't.
  3. The traffic you get is the wrong traffic. Some sites get plenty of visits from people who were never going to buy: job seekers, students, people in other countries, or readers of an old blog post that ranks for something unrelated. How to check: in your analytics, look at which pages get the most visits and where visitors are from. If your busiest page has nothing to do with what you sell, that's your answer.

Visitors don't trust what they find

  1. There's no proof. People want evidence that you've done this before for someone like them: reviews, named examples, photos of real work, results with numbers. How to check: read your homepage as a stranger. Within 10 seconds, can you see one reason to believe you're good at this?
  2. The site feels neglected. A copyright date from three years ago, a blog that stopped in 2022, broken links or a slow, jumpy page on a phone all quietly suggest the business might not be active either. How to check: open your site on your phone over mobile data, not Wi-Fi. If you'd lose patience, so will customers.

They don't understand what you offer

  1. The message is about you, not them. "Welcome to our website" and "We're passionate about quality" don't tell anyone whether you can solve their problem. Visitors decide in seconds whether they're in the right place. How to check: ask someone who doesn't know your business to look at the homepage for 10 seconds, then tell you what you do, who for, and where. If they can't, the message needs work.
  2. Nothing tells them what it costs or what happens next. You don't have to publish a price list, but visitors who can't find any sense of cost, process or next step often leave to find a business that tells them. How to check: is there anything on your site that answers "how much, roughly?" and "what happens after I get in touch?"

Getting in touch is harder than it should be

  1. The contact route has friction. Long forms, a phone number hidden in the footer, no mobile click-to-call, or a contact page that asks for things you don't need yet. How to check: time how long it takes to send yourself an enquiry from your phone. Anything over a minute is too long.
  2. Enquiries are arriving, but getting lost. This one is more common than people think. Form emails land in spam, go to an old address, or reach an inbox nobody checks. How to check: submit your own contact form today and see where, and whether, it arrives.

What to do next

Most websites have more than one of these problems, but usually one matters much more than the rest. The trick is working out which one, and fixing that first rather than rebuilding everything.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes, our Website Growth Review looks at all of this in the context of your business, then gives you a prioritised list of what to fix first. It starts with a free 20-minute conversation. Book a free consultation.

For a checklist of what a good website needs in the first place, read What makes a good small business website?. If you're wondering whether AI tools like ChatGPT are sending customers elsewhere, see AI search for small businesses.