If people are visiting your website but nobody gets in touch, the problem is usually the words on the page.
Your visitors arrived, so something is working. Google or a recommendation brought them to you. Then something on the page made them leave without getting in touch.
You've probably heard the usual advice to add reviews and a call to action. Plenty of sites have both and still get no enquiries, because of where and how they're done. The five reasons below are the ones that most often sit behind a quiet website. Each comes with a fix.
One of them is a question your customers are too embarrassed to ask you.
Short on time? Email me via the contact form on GVincentCopy's with a link to your website and tell me what you're trying to achieve. Within 24 hours, I'll send you the one change I'd make first.
After years in your trade, technical terms feel normal. Your customers don't use them.
Someone with water coming through the ceiling doesn't search for "roof membrane replacement". They're more likely to type "roof leaking when it rains". If those words aren't on your website, Google has less reason to show it to them. Visitors who do find you have to translate what you mean.
Customers also describe what they want differently. You sell a roof repair. They want to stop putting a bucket under the leak every time it rains.
Fix it: Read through your reviews, emails and messages from customers. Note the exact phrases they use for their problem and for the result they want. Then use those phrases in your headlines and service descriptions.
Plenty of websites keep their reviews on a separate "Testimonials" page. Few visitors go looking for it.
Reviews work best at the moment someone is deciding whether to get in touch. That's usually right next to your contact button. They're also written in your customers' own words, which makes them more convincing than anything you could say about yourself.
The reviews that work hardest describe a result. "Great service" helps a little. "A re-roof of our terraced house... no more leaks!", from a review of Stenning Roofers on thebestof Eastbourne, helps a lot more.
Fix it: Put two or three of your most specific reviews next to the contact button on your main pages. If you're a member of thebestof Eastbourne, the reviews on your listing are a ready-made source.
"Contact us", "Submit" and "Enquire" appear on almost every small business website. They tell the visitor to do something without saying what they'll get for it.
Getting in touch feels like a commitment. The visitor wonders whether they'll be pressured, kept on the phone or tied into something. Button text that names the result takes away some of that doubt.
Fix it: Change your button text to say what the visitor gets. "Get my free quote", "Check if my date is free" or "Book a 15-minute call" all tell the reader exactly what happens when they click.
Your website probably covers the obvious questions, like what you do, where you cover and how to book.
The worries that stop people getting in touch are often ones they'd never type into a contact form. Will you judge the state of my house? Is my job too small to bother you with? Will I get stuck on the phone with a hard sell?
If your website doesn't answer those worries, the visitor fills the gap with the worst answer and leaves.
A cleaner might write "We've seen worse. We never judge." A handyman might write "No job's too small. Changing a tap washer is a proper job to us." One line like that can be the reason someone finally gets in touch.
Fix it: Think about the last few customers who were nervous or apologetic when they first contacted you. What were they worried about? Answer that worry in one sentence on the page they're most likely to read before getting in touch.
Visitors go to your About page to decide whether they can trust you. Many About pages answer a different question instead: what's the history of the business?
"Founded in 2005, we have grown into one of the area's leading firms" tells the reader about you without telling them why it matters to them.
You can keep your story and still make it about the customer. Explain why you work the way you do and what that means for the people you work for. "I went on my own after years of watching customers get fobbed off. The price I quote is the price you pay."
Fix it: Read your About page and, after each sentence, ask "What does that mean for my customer?" If you can't answer, add the answer or cut the sentence.
When I rewrote the sales copy for The Work Body Lab, founder Elyna Douglas said of the new version: "I want to buy this. Where do I sign up."
That's the reaction you want from your own visitors. The design and the traffic can stay exactly as they are. The words make the difference.
Email me via the contact form on GVincentCopy and let me know what you're trying to achieve, along with a link to the page you'd like reviewed.
Within 24 hours, I'll send you the one change I'd make first to help turn more of your visitors into enquiries.
It's free and there's no obligation.
