If the website gets visitors but no enquiries, you almost always have one of two problems: not enough of the right people are landing, or the ones who do land cannot quickly see what you do and how to contact you. Both are fixable. Most of the time it is the second, and it is cheaper to fix than another year of ads into a page that leaks.
I look at this from Hassocks. Count the visitors before you rewrite the headline. A quiet site and a busy site that converts nobody need different work.
Is the problem traffic, or is the problem conversion?
These are different faults.
If almost nobody visits, no amount of tidying the page will help. You have a visibility problem. The fix is being found: a Google Business Profile, matching details, a page that names the trade and the town. That work sits in local SEO for small businesses and, if you want it done as a one-off, SEO across Sussex from £99.
If people do visit and still do not get in touch, the page is letting you down. That is a conversion problem. Spending more on Google Ads (from £99, plus click spend) into a page that hides the number is how you buy more of the same silence.
Check the numbers. Analytics, or even hosting stats, will tell you roughly how many people arrive. “Plenty” and zero enquiries means read on. “Almost none” means fix discovery first. If you cannot tell which you have, the free website audit is the straight way to find out. A new site can be quiet for weeks while the Maps pack warms up. Do not declare the page dead on day ten. Do declare it leaky if people arrive and nobody rings.
Why does a hidden phone number kill enquiries?
This is the most common fault I see.
The number is in the footer. The only path is a contact form three clicks away. A ready customer on a phone, standing in a kitchen with a fault, will not hunt.
Put a tappable phone number at the top of every screen. Repeat a clear next step further down. Do not make someone who already wants you scroll past a novel.
Most local searches happen on a phone. If the number is not a tap, it is a chore. Use the number you answer.
Oilfire in Uckfield had a five-star Google rating and no proper page to land on. When we built one, the job was the offer and a number you can tap, not a brochure about heating in general. The enquiry dies when that last part is missing.
What if it is not clear what I do or where I work?
If a visitor cannot tell within five seconds what you offer and whether you cover their area, they leave. “Welcome to our website” wastes the most valuable space you have.
State the service and the area in the first line. “Plumber in Haywards Heath and across Mid Sussex” tells them they are in the right place. “Quality workmanship you can trust” tells them nothing they could not read on the next three results.
Name the towns you actually cover. Do not write “Sussex and beyond” and sit down. A Hassocks firm covering Hurstpierpoint and Burgess Hill should say so.
Sindall in Haywards Heath already had more than 200 Checkatrade reviews. The old single page hid the work. People who found them still had to guess what they built. That is a conversion leak dressed up as a design problem.
How do a slow phone site and a lack of proof lose the call?
Most visitors are on a phone, often on mobile data. If the page takes an age to load, or the buttons are fiddly, they are gone before they read a word. Test on a real phone, on the sofa, not only on your office Wi-Fi. Huge images are the usual culprit. Compress them. Stop auto-playing anything.
Trust is the other silent leak. People do not enquire with a firm they are not sure about. No reviews, no photos of real work, no sign a human is behind the page: hesitation wins. Add genuine reviews, photos of actual jobs, and any real accreditations. Specific and true. Never invented.
I will not invent enquiry counts. Oilfire’s five-star Google rating needed a page that showed OFTEC and the dual ticket. Sindall’s Checkatrade record needed to be where a cautious homeowner looks first. Stock photos of someone else’s kitchen do the opposite.
Copy that talks about you and not the job is in the same bucket. “We are passionate about quality” could sit on any competitor’s site. Rewrite around the problem they have. A one-pager does not need a manifesto.
Could the contact form simply be broken?
Yes, and it happens more than owners expect.
Send yourself a test enquiry. Confirm it lands in an inbox you check, not a spam folder, not an old address, not a plugin that stopped sending in March. If you never test it, you will not know you have been silent for months.
Ask for the minimum: name, contact, and a line about the job. Every extra field costs you enquiries.
If you use the form and the phone, say so. Give both. Then answer them. A form that goes to an unread inbox is the same as a broken form.
Check the pricing page only after you know the leak. A standard one-pager is £99 to set up and £29 a month, or £299 a year. Multi-page work is quoted. Do not buy a new site to fix a number that was in the footer the whole time.
What five-minute check should I run on my own phone?
Open the site on your phone and be rude about it.
- Within five seconds, is it clear what you do and where?
- Can you call in one tap without scrolling?
- Does the page load fast enough that you would stay?
- Is there real proof: reviews, photos, qualifications?
- Does the form actually send, and do you see the message?
Any “no” is very likely where enquiries are leaking. Fix those before you spend more on traffic. Ads from £99 will not save a page that fails this list.
Give a new site time if the problem was visibility. The Maps pack takes weeks to months. A conversion leak needs the number moved and the headline rewritten this week.
Frequently asked questions
I get lots of visitors but no calls. What is wrong?
That is a conversion problem, not a traffic one. Usually the contact details are hard to find, the page is slow on a phone, or nothing on it builds enough trust to act. Fix those before you buy more visitors.
How do I know if it is the website or the marketing?
Check visitor numbers. Very few visitors means a visibility or marketing problem. Plenty of visitors and no enquiries means the website is the bottleneck. If you have no numbers at all, install something that counts, then look again in a fortnight.
Could my contact form just be broken?
Yes. Send yourself a test and confirm it arrives. Check spam. Check the address. Check that the success message is not lying. A silent form is a common reason a “busy” site produces nothing.
Should I add a blog to get more enquiries?
Not as the first fix. A local trade one-pager does not need a blog to convert the people who already arrived. Clear offer, obvious contact, proof, speed: those come first. A blog can help later if customers research before they buy. It will not rescue a hidden phone number.
Do Google Ads fix a site that gets no enquiries?
Only if the problem was traffic. If people already visit and leave, ads buy more leavers. Get the page converting, then advertise. Google Ads with us starts from £99, plus what you spend on clicks.
What is a realistic enquiry rate for a small Sussex site?
There is no universal percentage I will invent. A local trade can do well on modest traffic if that traffic is the right town and the page makes contact easy. Judge the site by jobs you would not otherwise have had, not by a dashboard average copied from an ecommerce blog.