Website not bringing enquiries? What to check before you pay for a redesign

Odd thing for a web agency to say, but you might not need a new website.

A site that doesn't bring in enquiries usually has one of three problems: not enough of the right people are finding it, the people who find it aren't convinced, or the enquiries are coming in but they're rubbish. A redesign fixes the second problem, sometimes the third and rarely the first. So let's find out which one you've got.

Step 1: Find out which problem you have

Open your analytics and look at the last three months. If you don't have analytics set up, that's job number one. GA4 and Google Search Console are both free.

Few visitors, poor enquiries: you've probably got a visibility problem. A beautiful redesign won't help if nobody sees it.

Plenty of visitors, few enquiries: you've probably got a conversion problem. People are arriving and leaving unconvinced. This is where website changes earn their money.

Lots of enquiries, few of them real: you've got a quality problem. It's common, and it's more fixable than you might think.

Also make sure you're tracking properly. Test that form submissions and phone clicks are actually being recorded. And submit your own form, just to see whether the message arrives. You'd be surprised how many enquiries have been going to the inbox of someone who left in 2021.

If nobody's finding you

• Search for your own services. Try the phrase a customer would use, with your location. Where do you appear?
• Check you're on Google at all. Search Console will tell you whether your pages are indexed.
• Claim and complete your Google Business Profile. For local businesses, this is one of the quickest wins there is.
• Give each service its own page. A single "Services" page listing everything struggles to appear for any of them.
• Look at what you're actually saying. If you use industry jargon that customers don't, you're invisible for the words they type.

If people visit but don't enquire

The five-second test. Show your homepage to someone who doesn't know your business for five seconds. Can they say what you do, who it's for and what to do next? If not, start there. This fix may only need new words.

Your phone. Open your site on your phone and try to enquire with one thumb. Is the phone number tappable? Can you read the text without zooming? Does the form work with the keyboard covering half the screen?

Your form. Each extra question gives people a reason to give up. Do you need their postcode on first contact? Ask for what you need to reply, and leave the rest for the conversation.

Your proof. Reviews, examples of your work, real photos of real people. Stock photos of grinning people in headsets convince nobody. And vague claims like "passionate about quality" could come from anybody.

Your price. You don't have to publish a full price list. But a "from" price or a typical range can reassure people that it's worth getting in touch, and it filters out those who could never afford you.

Your speed. Run your site through Google's free PageSpeed Insights. A slow site tests everyone's patience, particularly on mobile.

Your next step. Does each page tell people what to do next? And is it the same offer on every page, or are you asking them to do six different things?

If you're getting enquiries, but they're junk

Bots, spam and people wanting something you don't do are time-consuming, and they hide the genuine ones. General remedies include:

• spam protection on your forms that doesn't punish real people
• filtering out enquiries from countries you don't serve
• copy that's specific about where you work, so the right people recognise you're for them
• a clear description of who you do and don't work with
• one or two qualifying questions, such as what they need or their location
• better targeting if you're running ads, since ad campaigns can attract the wrong crowd
• a separate way to track genuine enquiries, so you're counting the right thing

This is also why we'd never judge a website by raw form submissions. You want the number that's actually worth something, and that's genuine enquiries.

A real example: White House Dental Surgery

Sometimes, of course, a redesign really is the right answer. White House Dental Surgery came to Just Creative People for a UX-led redesign and rebuild that focused on giving patients a far better experience.

The result was a 208% uplift in genuine enquiries in the first six months after the new site went live.

Two things beyond the design made a real difference:

• Filtering out bogus enquiries. Enquiries from countries with no real intent, such as the Far East and America, were filtered out. A local dental practice has little use for those.
• Location-specific copy. The words on the site focused more on the location, making it far more relevant to the local people the practice actually serves.

Both halves of that result matter. More enquiries are nice. More enquiries that are real, with fewer false ones wasting reception's time, is what actually changes things for a practice.

So when do you need a redesign?

Consider one if several of these are true:

• Your site can't be updated without a struggle, or you're locked out of it.
• It doesn't work properly on phones.
• It no longer reflects what you do, or looks out of step with your prices.
• The foundations are slow or insecure, and patching costs more than it's worth.
• You've made the fixes above and you're still stuck.
• Your structure is the problem: people can't find what they need, however well each page is written.

If only one or two are true, try targeted fixes first. They cost less, and you'll learn what actually moves your numbers. And if a redesign does come next, you'll go in with evidence about what your customers need, which makes for a far better website.

Your one-hour action plan

1. Submit your own form and call your own number (10 minutes).
2. Do the five-second test on someone who doesn't know the business (5 minutes).
3. Try to enquire on your phone (5 minutes).
4. Check whether your analytics record enquiries (15 minutes).
5. Search for your services as a customer would (10 minutes).
6. Read your homepage aloud and cut anything you'd never say to a customer (15 minutes).

You'll come out of that hour knowing far more about your website, and possibly several thousand pounds better off.