I hear the same thing from small business owners all the time. “People are finding the website but hardly anyone gets in touch.”
If it sounds familiar, you’re not alone, and it’s usually fixable. The name for fixing it is conversion rate optimisation, or CRO. It sounds technical, but the idea is simple.
What CRO means
A “conversion” is what you want a visitor to do. Call you, fill out your contact form, book an appointment, buy something, or sign up for your newsletter.
Your “conversion rate” is how many visitors do that thing. If 100 people visit your site and 2 get in touch, that’s 2%. CRO is about figuring out why the other 98 left and making changes so more of them stay and take the next step. That’s it!
Think of it like a shop
Say you run a shop on the high street. Plenty of people walk in. But the door sticks, the till is hidden at the back, and nothing is labelled. People browse for a minute, get a bit confused, and leave.
You wouldn’t fix that by putting up a bigger sign to get more people through the door. You’d fix the door, move the till and add some clear labels.
Most small businesses try to fix low enquiries by getting more traffic through SEO or ads. That has its place, if traffic is really the problem. But if the website itself is putting people off, more visitors just means more people leaving.
It also means more money spent on ads that don’t pay back, and SEO effort that doesn’t turn into enquiries. A website that converts well is what makes both of those good value.
Some simple things you can check today
CRO can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Big organisations have whole departments dedicated to testing and experimenting. But if you’re a small business, you don’t necessarily need any special tools. There are things you can look at and things you can measure, and the trick is to take your own instincts out of it. Start by opening your website on your phone and looking at it as if you’d never seen it before.
- Can you tell what you do in five seconds? The top of your homepage should clearly say what you offer, who it’s for, and where you are. “Welcome to our website” doesn’t count.
- Is it obvious what to do next? Every page should have one clear next step, like “Book a free call” or “Get a quote”. If you can’t spot it quickly, neither can your visitors.
- Is your contact form short? Every extra box you ask people to fill in is a reason to give up. Ask only for what you genuinely need to reply.
- Does it work properly on a phone? Many, if not most, visitors will be on their phones. Can they tap on buttons easily? On phone numbers to call? Is the text easy to read?
- Do you show people they can trust you? Reviews, testimonials, photos of real people and examples of your work all help a stranger feel comfortable getting in touch.
You’ll probably spot at least one thing on that list. Even the most beautiful of sites can benefit from a conversion-focused review. Small changes like these can make a real difference.
Are you getting in your own way?
Here’s the thing nobody likes to hear. Very often, the biggest thing stopping a website from working is us. We mean well, but we add layers that make it harder for people to see what we do. I have been guilty of this myself, and the key is being willing to adapt and change something you might really like! And to give new changes time to assess whether they are really working.
Some of the most common ways small businesses get in their own way:
- Fluffy, vague wording. Phrases like “bespoke solutions”, “passionate about excellence” or “taking your business to the next level” sound nice but say nothing. A visitor can’t tell what you actually do or whether you can help them.
- Being clever instead of clear. A witty headline or a pun might make you smile, but if someone has to work out what it means, most won’t bother.
- Talking about yourself, not your customer. “We are”, “we offer”, “we have” all the way down the page. Visitors care far more about their problem than your history. Lead with how you help them.
- Saying too much. It’s tempting to mention every service, every award and every detail. But when everything is important, nothing stands out. Long blocks of text get skimmed or skipped. Now this can seem counterintuitive when SEO tells you to add more copy, but ultimately you’ve got to get the balance.
- Jargon. Industry terms you use every day can be completely baffling to a customer. If a friend outside your industry wouldn’t understand it, rewrite it.
- Too many choices. Five buttons, three phone numbers, a newsletter pop-up and a chat box all competing for attention. Give people one clear next step and let everything else take a back seat.
- Hiding the important bits. Where you are, what’s included, how to book. If people have to dig for it, many will leave and find someone who makes it easy. You don’t always need to publish prices, but it helps to set expectations, even if that’s just explaining how you quote.
None of this is about dumbing down. It’s about respecting your visitors’ time. Clear and simple almost always beats clever and complicated.
You might hear this side of things called customer experience, or CX. Strictly speaking, it’s a different discipline from CRO, but for a small business the two overlap a lot. A good website isn’t just about pushing people towards a sale. It’s about making dealing with you feel easy and pleasant, and that’s usually what makes people want to get in touch anyway.
A good test is to read a page out loud. If it sounds like something you’d never say to a customer face to face, it probably needs simplifying.
Why it helps to have fresh eyes
The tricky part is that it’s hard to see your own website clearly. You know your business inside out, so everything makes sense to you. Your visitors don’t have that background, and might need a little more guidance to see what you can do for them.
That’s where my Conversion Clarity review comes in. It looks at your site through your customers’ eyes, using real visitor data to see where people get stuck and where they leave. You get a clear, prioritised list of changes, written in plain English, so you know exactly what to fix first. You can see what this looks like in practice in my review for Spectacle of Light.