Seven reasons your website is not bringing in enquiries

First, work out which problem you have

There are only two failure modes: nobody is arriving, or people arrive and leave. The fix is completely different, so check before you act.

Open Google Analytics. If you are getting fewer than about 100 visitors a month, you have a traffic problem and redesigning the page will not help. If you are getting several hundred and no enquiries, you have a conversion problem, and the rest of this article applies.

The seven reasons

1. It is slow on a phoneMost South African visitors arrive on mobile data. If the page takes more than about three seconds, a large share leave before seeing anything. The usual culprit is uncompressed images straight off a camera. Run your URL through PageSpeed Insights and start there.
2. There is no obvious next stepEvery page needs one clear action. Call, WhatsApp, book, request a quote. When a page offers five equally weighted options, most people take none of them.
3. Your contact details are hiddenPhone number in the header, WhatsApp button floating on mobile, full details in the footer. Never put contact details in an image, because they cannot be tapped or copied.
4. It talks about you instead of themOpening with the company history is common and ineffective. Lead with the problem the visitor has and what it costs them, then explain that you solve it.
5. Nothing proves you are realReviews, named clients, photos of actual work, a real address. A site with no evidence asks a stranger to take a financial risk on faith.
6. The form asks for too muchEvery extra field drops completion. Name, contact and a message is usually enough. You can ask the rest once they reply.
7. Nobody answers quicklyThis one sits outside the site and undoes all the rest. Enquiries go cold within hours. Route the form to a mailbox you actually watch, and check that submissions are not landing in spam.

A one-hour audit you can run yourself

• Open the site on your phone, on mobile data, with the office WiFi off. Time it.
• Ask someone outside your business to find your price and contact you. Watch without helping.
• Submit your own contact form and confirm the email arrives and is not in spam.
• Check that every phone number is a tappable link, not text or an image.
• Read your home page opening line out loud. If it is about you rather than the visitor, rewrite it.

That list finds the problem on most sites within an hour, and the fixes are usually small.