Your website looks fine. It has the right pages, a decent logo and maybe even steady traffic. But the phone isn't ringing, the contact form sits empty and you're left wondering why the website is not generating leads.
It's one of the most common problems business owners bring to us, and it's almost always fixable. The causes fall into three groups: the wrong people are arriving, the right people can't see what to do next, or they don't trust you enough to get in touch. Below are the ten problems we find most often, roughly in the order we check them, with the fix for each.
Why is my website not getting enquiries?
If you're getting no leads from your website, find out which of those three groups the problem sits in before you change anything. A site with almost no visitors has a search or advertising problem, and no amount of redesigning the contact page will fix it. A site with plenty of visitors and no enquiries has a problem on the page itself, which is what most of this guide covers.
If you can't tell which it is, start with number one, because good website lead generation depends on knowing where enquiries come from.
1. You can't see where enquiries come from
Many business websites have analytics installed but no conversion tracking, so the owner knows how many people visit and not how many of them get in touch. Without that, every change is a guess.
The fix
- Google Analytics 4, with form submissions, phone number taps and email clicks set up as key events.
- Google Search Console, which shows the searches bringing people to your site and how each page performs in Google.
- A heatmap and session recording tool such as Microsoft Clarity, which is free and shows where people click, how far they scroll and where they give up.
Then set aside half an hour a month to look at which pages bring in enquiries and where visitors drop off.
2. The page doesn't say what you do or who it's for
Visitors decide very quickly whether they're in the right place. A large photo and a line like "Excellence in everything we do" gives them nothing to go on, so they go back to the search results and try the next business.
The fix
Write one clear sentence that says what you do, who you do it for and why someone should choose you. Show it to someone who doesn't know your business and ask them to explain what you do. If they can't, rewrite it. A plain line like "Emergency plumbers covering Cavan and Monaghan, with a fixed call-out fee" will do more than anything clever.
3. There's no clear next step
The top of each important page, the part visible without scrolling, should tell visitors what to do next. On many sites there's no button there at all, or it says "Learn more" and leads nowhere in particular.
The fix
Put one obvious button near the top of every key page, with words that describe what happens when you press it, such as "Get a quote" or "Book a call". Repeat it further down the page, and make sure every web design or service page has its own relevant next step rather than a generic contact link.
4. Too many menu options
A main menu with fifteen items spreads the visitor's attention across every page you've ever made. The more choices people face, the longer they take to decide, and the more likely they are to leave without choosing anything.
The fix
Keep the main menu to five to seven items and put everything else in dropdowns or the footer. Ask which three or four pages most visitors need, and make those easy to reach.
5. The contact form asks too much
Every extra field is another reason to give up before pressing send. A form asking for company size, budget, timeline and job title before someone can ask a simple question loses people halfway through.
The fix
For most enquiry forms, you need a name, an email address and a message, with a phone number as optional. If you're worried about unsuitable enquiries, let the page do the filtering by saying clearly who you work with and how your process runs.
6. Nothing on the page proves you're good at what you do
People trust other customers more than they trust a business describing itself. If your key pages show no reviews, case studies or examples, you're asking visitors to take your word for it.
The fix
Put proof next to the decision: a review beside the contact button, examples on each service page and a link to fuller case studies. Specific reviews that describe what changed for the customer do far more than "Great service!". If you need more of them, our guide on how to get more Google reviews covers a simple system.
7. The basics that make a business look trustworthy are missing
Visitors look for signs that you're a real, reachable business before they hand over their details. A missing phone number, no address, a free email account or a browser warning that the site isn't secure are all reasons to leave.
The fix
Show your phone number and email address in the header, your address in the footer, and use an email address on your own domain. Make sure the site loads over HTTPS without warnings, and keep your privacy policy easy to find.
8. The site is slow
People are impatient, and a slow page loses them before they've read a word, however good the offer further down.
The fix
Run your key pages through Google PageSpeed Insights, which is free and lists what to fix. Google's guidance is that the main content of a page should appear within 2.5 seconds for most visits, measured separately on mobile and desktop. Large images, too many plugins and third-party scripts, and cheap hosting are the usual causes. Our website speed optimisation service deals with these, and our guide to how website speed affects conversions goes into more detail.
9. It's hard to use on a phone
Many of your visitors arrive on a phone, and your analytics will show you exactly how many. Yet plenty of sites are still designed on a desktop screen first, and what looks tidy on a laptop can be frustrating on a phone.
The fix
Open your website on your own phone and try to do what a customer would: find a service, check a price or a review, and send an enquiry. Look for buttons that are too small to tap, text you have to zoom to read, pop-ups that are hard to close and forms that fight the keyboard.
10. The words talk about you, not the customer's problem
"We are a full-service company with years of experience" could be written by anyone. Visitors want to know whether you understand their problem and how you'd solve it.
The fix
Rewrite your homepage and service pages from the customer's side. Start with their problem in the words they use, then explain how you solve it and show evidence. Your enquiry emails and phone calls are the best source of that language, and they're also the searches your SEO should be built around.
What website design that gets leads looks like in practice
Stratmore Entertainment's old website had a wrong phone number in its footer for six months, because nobody on the team could change it. We rebranded the business, rebuilt the site so the team can update it themselves, and wrote service pages around what people planning weddings and events were searching for. Enquiries went from two or three a week to 20 or 30, roughly tenfold, with no paid advertising at any point.
None of those changes were unusual. Together they gave Stratmore a website that generates enquiries, because it tells the right people what the business offers and makes it easy for them to ask. Most sites that struggle for enquiries need the same kind of fixes, and many of them can be made without starting again.
Key takeaways
- Set up conversion tracking first, so you can see which pages bring in enquiries and where visitors give up.
- Every key page needs a clear statement of what you do and who for, plus one obvious next step near the top.
- Keep menus short and forms shorter, and put reviews and examples next to the contact button.
- Check speed and the phone experience yourself, using PageSpeed Insights and your own phone.
- Write about the customer's problem in their words, not about your company.
- Conversion rate optimisation on the website you already have is often a better first step than paying for more traffic.
Need help working out why?
If you want to improve website enquiries and aren't sure where to start, book a free website audit, delivered on a free 20-minute call. We'll go through your site with you, tell you which of these problems we can see, and what we'd fix first.