Is the contact form actually working?
Start here, because it takes five minutes and the fix is often simple.
- Fill in your own form on a phone and on a laptop, as a customer would.
- Check that the message arrives, where it arrives, and how long it takes. Look in spam folders too.
- Check who receives it. Forms often send to an old address or to someone who has left.
- If messages go missing, ask whoever runs your email to check the sending setup (SPF and DKIM records), which stops form emails being treated as spam.
- Click the phone number and the email link on a phone. Both should open the right app.
Repeat this test every month, and after any change to the website.
Are the visits from people who could buy?
High visit numbers can hide the wrong audience. In Search Console, look at the queries that bring clicks: are they buying searches, or someone looking for a free template, a job, or a business with a similar name? In your analytics, check the countries and the sources. Visits from places you do not serve, or sudden spikes from unknown sites, are often bots or irrelevant traffic. If most of your visits come from one popular article that has nothing to do with what you sell, your real enquiry rate is far better than it looks.
Does the landing page match what brought them?
If an ad says "garden rooms from 18,000" and the link opens a homepage about extensions, people leave. The same goes for a social post about one service that links to a generic page. Check the pages people land on most (your analytics shows them) and ask: does this page deliver the promise of the link that brought them here, straight away? If not, send those links to a page that does, or build one.
Is the next step obvious and easy?
- Is there a clear call to action on the first screen of each main page, on a phone?
- Does it say what happens next: "Get a fixed quote", not only "Submit"?
- Is the form short? Every extra required field loses some people.
- Can people choose how to reach you: form, phone, email or message?
- Is there a price, price range or price guidance, so people know whether to bother?
Our guide to writing a homepage that converts covers these in more depth.
Is the page slow or broken on phones?
Run your main pages through PageSpeed Insights and compare them with the Core Web Vitals targets: main content visible within 2.5 seconds, a response to taps within 200 milliseconds, and no layout jumping as it loads. Then use the site yourself on a mid-range phone on mobile data. Look for cookie banners covering the button, pop-ups you cannot close, menus that do not open and text too small to read.
Do visitors trust you enough to get in touch?
People enquire when they believe you are real, good and the right fit. Check that each main page shows real photos of your work and team, reviews or examples, your address or service area, and a named person. Missing prices, vague claims and stock photos all make people hesitate. See getting Google reviews the right way for building proof.
How do I find where people drop off?
Count four steps each week: page views, clicks on the enquiry button, forms started, and forms sent. The step with the biggest drop is where to work. Many clicks but few forms started means the form looks like hard work. Many started but few sent means something in the form stops people, such as a required field or an error. Our guide on tracking which marketing brings enquiries shows how to add the source to each one.
| What you see | Likely cause | First fix |
|---|---|---|
| Visits, zero enquiries, for weeks | Broken form or email | Send a test from a phone and trace where it goes |
| Visits from searches you do not sell to | Wrong audience | Refocus page titles and content on buying searches |
| Ad or post visitors leave at once | Page does not match the promise | Link to a page that delivers what the ad said |
| Button clicks but few forms sent | Form too long or broken | Cut fields, test every field on a phone |
| Long visits, no contact | Missing prices or proof | Add price guidance and real examples |
Checklist: visits but no enquiries
- Form tested monthly on a phone and a laptop, messages arriving
- Email sending set up so form messages avoid spam
- Visits checked for buying searches, real countries and bots
- Top landing pages match the links that bring people
- Clear call to action on the first screen of every main page
- Short form, price guidance, real proof
- Pages fast and usable on a mid-range phone
- Four funnel steps counted every week
Questions people also ask
What is a normal website conversion rate?
It varies too much by industry, price, offer and traffic source for a general benchmark to be useful. Compare your site with itself over time, and compare traffic sources with each other.
Should I add live chat to my website?
Only if someone can answer quickly during the hours it is shown. An unanswered chat box is worse than none. A clear form and a click-to-call number often do the same job.
Do pop-ups help get more enquiries?
Rarely for service businesses, and on phones they often block the content people came for. If you use one, keep it small, easy to close and shown only after someone has read for a while.
How long before changes to my website bring more enquiries?
Fixing a broken form works immediately. Changes to headlines, prices or proof usually need a few weeks of visits before you can tell whether they helped. Change one thing at a time so you know what worked.