7 things a small-business website needs in order to bring enquiries

When a website brings no enquiries, the design is rarely to blame. More often one of the seven things below is missing. None of them guarantees enquiries, but without them a visitor has more reasons to close the page.

1. A clear promise up top

Visitors decide quickly whether they’re in the right place. The top of the page has to show what you do, for whom and where. “Solutions with care for you” says nothing. “Air-conditioning repair in Sofia, within 24 hours” says enough.

2. One primary action

If five buttons on the screen all look the same, visitors often press none of them. Pick one main action, such as a call, an enquiry or a booking, make it the most visible thing on the page and keep the other buttons quieter.

3. Prices, or at least a range

We think a missing price is one of the most common reasons people leave. You don’t need an exact quote; a range or a starting price is enough: “from €25”, “packages from €450”. You spend less time on calls with people outside your budget, and the rest get in touch already knowing roughly what it will cost.

4. Proof, not adjectives

“Quality”, “professional” and “individual approach” are on everyone’s site, so nobody notices them. What works is specific: photos of your actual work, the number of finished projects, years in business, reviews with a name and a town, certificates.

5. A short form

Every unnecessary field is one more reason not to fill the form in. For a first enquiry three are enough: name, phone or email, and a few words about what they need. The rest you can ask when you speak to them.

Once a month, send yourself a test enquiry through your own form. Forms sometimes stop sending email without anyone noticing, and you only find out when a customer asks why you never replied. On our Care support plan, we do that check for you.

6. Speed on a phone

Open your site on your phone with Wi-Fi switched off. If the page loads slowly, some people won’t wait. The usual culprit, in our view, is huge photos uploaded straight from a camera or phone.

7. Enquiry tracking

Without measuring, you don’t know what works. The minimum is seeing how many people visit, where they come from and how many of them write or call. Otherwise every change to the site is a shot in the dark.

Go through your site with these seven points and you’ll probably find at least one thing to fix today. Start with the price and the form.