Getting visitors but no enquiries? Here's what to check first

If your website gets visitors but no enquiries, the cause is usually one of six things, and it pays to check them in order. Do people understand what you do in the first few seconds? Is the next step obvious? Do they trust you? Is getting in touch easy, and does it actually work? Does the site work on a phone? Is it fast enough? Sometimes the honest answer is a seventh thing: the visitors were never likely customers in the first place.

Start at the top of that list. A slow site with a clear message still gets some enquiries. A fast site that doesn't say what you do gets very few. This guide takes each check in turn, with what to look for and what to change. It's written for service businesses that want calls, quote requests and bookings. For a broader list, our guide to why a website isn't converting covers twelve common problems.

First, check your enquiries are actually reaching you

Before you change anything, send yourself a test enquiry. Contact forms break more often than people think. A plugin update, a full mailbox, an email filed as spam or a form still sending to an old address can all stop enquiries without anyone noticing. Your visitors think they've been in touch. You think nobody's interested.

• Fill in your own form on a phone and on a computer, then check both arrive
• Look in your spam or junk folder, and check which address the form sends to
• Ring the number on your website, and the one on your Google Business Profile
• Email the address shown on the site and make sure it still works

If any of these fail, you've found your problem. Fix it before you touch anything else.

1. Do people understand what you do in five seconds?

Open your homepage on your phone. Read only what's on screen without scrolling. Could a stranger tell what you do, who it's for and where you work? "Quality you can trust" says nothing. "Kitchens designed and fitted in Bristol and Bath" tells people they're in the right place.

Most visitors arrive from a search or a Google listing, glance at the first screen and decide whether to stay. If they're not sure, they go back and try the next result. You never hear from them. They just show up in your stats as a visit.

• Put what you do in the headline, in the words a customer would use
• Name the towns or area you cover near the top
• Cut slogans that could belong to any business

2. Is it obvious what to do next?

Every important page should make the next step clear: call, ask for a quote, book a visit. Pick one main action and make it the button that stands out. Word it as what people get, such as "Get a free quote" or "Book a survey", not "Submit" or "Learn more". On long pages, repeat it further down so nobody has to scroll back up.

Watch out for too many equal choices. A row of buttons for calling, emailing, WhatsApp, the newsletter and social media leaves people unsure which one you want. Keep the others, but make them quieter.

3. Would a cautious customer trust you?

Hiring a service is a risk. People are handing over money, and often letting a stranger into their home or business. Before they get in touch, they look for signs you're real and good at what you do.

• Reviews from named customers, ideally about a specific job
• Photos of your own work, team and van, not stock images
• A real person's name and face, so they know who they'll be dealing with
• A phone number, and an address if you have premises
• Accreditations and memberships that matter in your field

Put some of this proof near your main button, not only on a testimonials page that few people visit. That's the moment they're deciding.

4. Is getting in touch easy?

Count the fields on your contact or quote form. For a first enquiry, a name, a phone number or email, and a short description is usually enough. Every extra question, like budget, full address or "how did you hear about us?", is another reason to give up. Ask for the rest when you reply.

Then say what happens next. "We'll reply within one working day" is reassuring. Silence after pressing Send is not. And offer more than one way in: some people want to call, others hate the phone. If a form is the only option, you'll lose some of each.

5. Does it work properly on a phone?

Many of your visitors will be on a phone, often in a hurry. Check your own site on yours, and tap everything.

• Does the headline and a button show without scrolling, or is it all photo?
• Does tapping the phone number start a call?
• Can you tap each button without hitting the one next to it?
• Does anything run off the side of the screen?
• Does a pop-up, chat bubble or cookie banner cover the page?

Our free mobile-friendly test loads your page at phone size and checks for sideways scrolling, small tap targets, small text and a missing button on the first screen.

6. Is it fast enough?

A page that takes too long to appear loses people before they've read a word. Test your homepage with Google's PageSpeed Insights, and look at the mobile result, not the desktop one. The usual causes are very large images, too many plugins, and third-party scripts such as chat widgets and old tracking tags you no longer use.

When it isn't the website: the wrong visitors

Sometimes the site is fine and the visitors are the problem. If people who were never going to hire you make up most of your traffic, no amount of website fixing will turn them into enquiries. Signs to look for:

• Most visits come from other countries, or from areas you don't cover
• Most visitors land on an old blog post that ranks for something unrelated to what you sell
• Paid ads are matching broad searches, so check the search terms report in your ads account
• Visits jump suddenly and almost all leave at once, which is often bots
• Visitors are looking for jobs, suppliers or free advice rather than your service

Google Analytics, or your website builder's own stats, will show you where visitors come from, which pages they land on and which country they're in. If the traffic looks wrong, the job is getting the right people to the site: a complete Google Business Profile with recent reviews, listings in the directories your customers use, and ads limited to the area you serve.

Be realistic about numbers too. If your site gets a handful of visits a week, a quiet month may just be a quiet month. You need a steady flow of visitors before you can judge what's working.

What to do this week

1. Send yourself a test enquiry and make a test call.
2. Rewrite your homepage headline so it says what you do and where.
3. Choose one main button and word it as what the customer gets.
4. Move two or three real reviews next to that button.
5. Cut your form down to the fields you need for a first reply.
6. Check the site on your own phone, tapping every button.
7. Look at where your visitors come from, and whether they could be customers.

If you'd like a second pair of eyes, the free check below looks at your page on desktop and mobile and shows the three things most likely to be costing you enquiries, with screenshots. It can't see your analytics or your inbox, so the test enquiry and the traffic checks are still yours to do.