Why isn't your website bringing clients? 7 common mistakes

First, an important fork: if visitor numbers are low, that's a traffic problem, and we wrote about it elsewhere. This article is about having traffic and no enquiries.

Visitors don't stay silent because they dislike the site. They stay silent because they don't know what to do, or don't dare.

1. The first screen doesn't say what you do

The most common mistake is a slogan standing in for the service. "The home of your dreams" — that could be an estate agent, a builder, a furniture shop or a mortgage broker. Say what you do, for whom, and where. Brand-building can wait for the second screen.

2. There's no clear next step

Either there's no button, or there are five and all of them look equally important. One screen, one primary request. If a visitor has to choose between five equal options, the most common choice is the sixth: leaving.

3. Slow loading

Visitors don't wait it out. They don't complain, they don't email — they go back. The most common cause is almost always the same: oversized images that weren't resized before upload.

4. Unusable on a phone

It isn't enough that it "displays" on a phone. If the text has to be zoomed to read, if the button is too small for a finger, if the wrong keyboard comes up for a form field — each of those is a lost enquiry.

5. There's no proof

It isn't you the visitor disbelieves, it's the internet. What helps: real reviews, real photographs of your own work, named clients, concrete examples. What doesn't: "years of experience", "a reliable partner", a stock photo of an office that isn't yours.

6. You ask for too much up front

A twelve-field form at first contact is a lot. Ask for what you need to reply; the rest can wait for the conversation. If a longer form really is necessary, say up front how long it takes and why it's worth filling in.

7. There's no measurement

This one doesn't bother the visitor, it limits you. Without measurement you don't know which page they leave on, which source the good enquiries come from, or which fix helped. Without it, every change is an opinion.

What to do today

Open your own site on your phone, on mobile data, not wifi. Count the seconds until it's usable. Read the first screen as though you didn't know what the company does. Then try to contact yourself.

Those three steps usually find at least two of the seven.