You’ve had a website for a while. Somebody showed you a graph once, and there were visitors on it, a few hundred a month perhaps. But the phone isn’t ringing any more than it did before, and the contact form has produced two enquiries this year, one of which was trying to sell you something.
That gap between visits and enquiries is one of the most common problems a small business website has, and one of the most fixable. It usually comes down to a handful of things: the wrong visitors, an enquiry that isn’t being counted, or a page that makes it harder than it should be to pick up the phone. This article walks through how to tell which it is, in the order we’d check.
"A website for a trade business has one job: to get the right person to ring or message you. Every page should be judged on that. If something doesn’t help a customer decide to contact you, it’s decoration."
1. Check the visitors are the right people
Not every visit is a potential customer. Before you change a single word on the site, find out who is actually turning up.
The best free tool for this is Google Search Console. Its Performance report shows the searches that brought people to your site, how often you appeared, and how many clicked. Look at the list of search terms and ask yourself a simple question: would someone searching that ever need you?
You’ll often find a mix like this:
- Useful searches: "roofer Dewsbury", "boiler service Ossett", your business name.
- Curious searches: "how to bleed a radiator" or "what is a soffit", from people planning to do it themselves.
- Irrelevant searches: people looking for jobs, suppliers, or a business with a similar name somewhere else in the country.
If most of your visits come from the second and third groups, the website isn’t failing to convert. It simply isn’t being found by the people who’d hire you. That’s a different problem, and the fix is clearer pages for the services and places you want work from. Our article on what to put on a service page covers that in detail.
It’s also worth knowing that some "visitors" in basic hosting statistics are automated bots, not people. If the only figure you’ve ever seen came from your host’s control panel, treat it with suspicion.
2. Make sure you’re counting enquiries properly
Sometimes the website is working and nobody knows. Plenty of people looking for a tradesperson are on a phone, and they tap the number rather than filling in a form. Unless calls are tracked, a site can look as if it produces nothing while quietly sending you work.
Three simple checks:
- Ask every new caller how they found you. Write it down. "Google" isn’t enough: ask whether they saw your website or your Google listing.
- Set up tracking for the actions that matter. In Google Analytics, the important actions, such as a form being sent or the phone number being tapped, can be marked as key events, so you can see them alongside visits.
- Check where form emails go. More on that below, because it catches more people out than anything else.
Once you know the real number of enquiries, you can judge the website fairly. Our article on tracking where enquiries come from goes further.
3. Look at the first screen through a customer’s eyes
Open your home page on your phone and look only at what appears before you scroll. Within a few seconds a visitor should be able to answer three questions:
- What do you do?
- Do you cover where I live?
- How do I get hold of you?
A lot of trade websites fail this test. The top of the page is a large photo, a slogan like "Quality you can trust", and a menu. The services, the areas and the phone number are all further down or on another page.
Imagine a heating engineer based in Ossett. A better first screen would say, in plain words: boiler installation, servicing and repairs across Ossett, Wakefield, Horbury and Dewsbury. Gas Safe registered. Then a phone number you can tap and a button to request a quote. Nothing clever, but every question answered at a glance.
Hand your phone to someone who doesn’t know your business, open your website, and ask them to tell you within ten seconds what you do, where you work, and how they’d contact you. Then ask them to request a quote. Watch where they hesitate, and don’t help. Whatever they struggle with is your first fix.
4. Make contacting you effortless on a phone
Once someone has decided to get in touch, every extra step loses a few of them. On a mobile, that means:
- A phone number that dials when tapped, visible at the top of every page, not just the contact page.
- A short form. Name, phone or email, postcode or town, and a box to describe the job. Every additional required field is another reason to give up.
- A clear promise about what happens next. "We’ll ring you back the same working day" is far more reassuring than a form that vanishes into silence.
- A page that loads quickly. Google’s free PageSpeed Insights tool will test any page and flag the main problems. Large, uncompressed photos are a common culprit on trade sites.
If you’re out on jobs all day and can’t answer, say so honestly and offer the alternative: "We’re often up a ladder. Leave a message or send a text and we’ll call back by the end of the day." Then make sure you do.
5. Give people a reason to trust you
Someone looking for a roofer in Halifax will often look at two or three firms before ringing one. When the prices are unknown, they choose on trust. A website that looks like it could belong to anyone, anywhere, struggles here.
Things that build trust on a trade website:
- Real photos of real jobs, ideally local ones, rather than stock images of smiling models in spotless overalls.
- A name and a face. People want to know who will turn up. A short "about" section with the owner’s name and photo goes a long way.
- Memberships and registrations people can check, such as Gas Safe, NICEIC or TrustMark, where you genuinely hold them.
- A link to your Google reviews, so visitors can read them in full rather than a hand-picked few.
- Clear details: a business name that matches your van and invoices, a proper email address rather than a free webmail one, and the area you cover.
6. Answer the questions people would otherwise ring round to ask
If a visitor can’t find basic answers, they leave and try the next site. The questions that come up again and again for trades are:
- Do you do small jobs, or only big ones?
- Roughly what does this sort of job cost, or at least what affects the price?
- How soon could you come out?
- Do you charge for quotes?
- Are you insured, and do you guarantee the work?
You don’t need to publish a full price list. A sentence or two on each service page, plus a short FAQ, is enough to stop people bouncing off to a competitor who has answered them. It also filters out enquiries you don’t want, which saves you time on the phone.
7. Test the form and the phone number yourself
This is the dull part, and it’s where the most painful problems hide.
Contact forms fail silently. The form says "thank you", the visitor assumes you’ll be in touch, and the message goes to an old email address, a spam folder, or nowhere at all. Send a test enquiry from your own site at least once a month, from a phone, and check it arrives where you’ll actually see it.
While you’re at it, check:
- The phone number on the website matches the one on your Google Business Profile and your van.
- The number is answered, or goes to a voicemail that sounds like a real business with your name on it.
- Any email address shown on the site is one you still check.
Missed calls are a whole subject of their own, covered in our article on why missed calls cost jobs.
8. Know when the problem is bigger than tweaks
Sometimes you work through this list and realise the honest answer is that the website was never built to win enquiries. It may have been a cheap template, a favour from a relative, or something put together years ago and left alone. If it has no proper service pages, no mention of the towns you cover, and you can’t easily edit it, patching it may cost more time than starting again.
That’s a judgement call, and it’s worth getting a second opinion before you spend money either way. If you’re weighing it up, our guide to what a small business website should cost explains what you should expect for your money.
Your checklist for this week
- Open Search Console and read the list of searches bringing people to your site.
- Start asking every new enquiry how they found you, and keep a note.
- Look at your home page on a phone: are your services, areas and number visible without scrolling?
- Send yourself a test enquiry through the contact form and check it arrives.
- Run your home page through PageSpeed Insights and note the biggest issues.
- Add a few real job photos and a short answer to the question customers ask most.
Building websites around what customers need to see before they ring, then tracking the calls and forms that come in, is part of the Driving Sales Locally monthly plan at £225 a month, with the website build included. If you’d like Jeremy to look at how your current site is doing, book a free call.
Frequently asked questions
Why does my website get visitors but no enquiries?
Usually for one of three reasons: the visitors aren’t people who need your service, enquiries are happening but aren’t being counted (often phone calls), or the site makes it hard to see what you do, where you work and how to contact you.
How can I tell if my website visitors are real customers?
Look at the searches that bring people to your site in Google Search Console’s Performance report. If most are for your services and the places you cover, they’re likely customers. If they’re how-to questions or unrelated terms, they probably aren’t.
Should a trade website have a contact form or just a phone number?
Both. Many people prefer to tap a number on their phone, but others want to send details out of hours. Keep the form short and test it regularly so messages don’t go missing.
How often should I check my contact form works?
At least once a month, and after any change to your website or email. Send a test from a phone and check it arrives in an inbox you actually read.