You have a website. You might have paid good money for it. So why is the phone not ringing? For a lot of trades businesses the honest answer is that the website looks fine but does none of the jobs a website is meant to do. It doesn't get found, it's a pain to use on a phone, and it gives a visitor no reason to pick you over the next roofer down the road.
Below are the five faults we see most often when we audit a trades website that isn't pulling its weight. Most sites have at least two of them. Each one comes with the fix. If you'd like to put a number on the problem before you start fixing it, our conversion rate guide shows you how to measure what percentage of your visitors actually enquire.
The Hard Truth About Most Trades Websites
Most trades businesses have a website. Most of those websites do nothing at all.
A site that nobody can find, won't load properly on a phone, or never tells a visitor what to do next isn't really a business asset. It's a business card you've hidden where no customer will look. The good news is that every fault below is fixable, and none of them needs a fortune spending on it.
Fault 1: No Clear Call to Action
This is the one that costs the most leads and the one that's cheapest to fix.
Visitors land on your site and have no idea what to do next. No phone number above the fold. No "Get a Free Quote" button. Nothing pointing them towards picking up the phone.
Put a click-to-call number and a quote button right in the header, and make them impossible to miss on a phone. Every page should end with an obvious next step.
If someone on your website right now can't see how to contact you within a couple of seconds, you're paying to send visitors away. Fix this first.
Fault 2: It Doesn't Work on a Phone
More than half of the people looking for a tradesperson are doing it on their phone, often standing in the problem room with water coming through the ceiling. If your site fights them, they're gone.
A site that loads slowly, or has text you have to zoom in to read, sends people straight back to Google to call your competitor instead. Google also pushes mobile-friendly sites higher up.
Your site should load in under three seconds on mobile. Text should be readable without pinching, and buttons should be big enough to tap with a thumb. Pull your own site up on your phone now and see.
Fault 3: Nothing That Builds Trust
Picture someone who has never heard of you landing on your homepage. In a few seconds they decide whether you're a real, reliable business or a risk. Most trades sites give them nothing to go on.
There's nothing on the page to reassure a stranger. No reviews, no photos of real jobs, no trade accreditations. With no reason to trust you, they leave.
Add real photos of your work and your team. Pull your Google reviews onto the page. Show your Gas Safe, NICEIC, or TrustMark badges. A real face and a real name reassure people fast.
Fault 4: Nobody Can Find You on Google
You can have the best-converting website in your town, but if it never shows up when someone searches for your trade, it brings you nothing. No traffic, no leads.
Your site is online, but search "roofer Nottingham" or "landscaper near me" and you're nowhere. If you're not on page one for your trade and your town, you may as well not exist.
Build a dedicated page for each service you offer and each area you cover. Put your trade and your town in the page title, the main heading, and the copy so Google knows where to rank you.
This fault is really about local SEO, which is a topic in its own right. If it sounds like your problem, start with What is Local SEO? for how the map pack and local rankings actually work.
Fault 5: A Dated Design That Quietly Puts People Off
A visitor forms an opinion of your website in a fraction of a second, long before they read a word. If the design looks old, that opinion is already working against you.
A site that looks like it was built in 2012 tells visitors you don't take your business seriously. They move on to a competitor whose site looks cleaner and more professional.
A clean layout, readable fonts, real photos, and a fast load. Modern design doesn't have to be expensive design. If your competitors look sharper than you, you're losing jobs to them.
Give Your Own Site a Quick Audit
Open your website on your phone and run through these five questions honestly. A "no" to any of them is leaking leads.
If you answered "no" more than once, you're not short of customers. You're short of a website that turns visitors into them.
Want Us to Find What's Costing You Leads?
Most of these faults are quick to fix once you know they're there, and fixing even one or two usually shows up in the number of calls you get.
If you'd like a second pair of eyes, get in touch with the WAT Websites team for a free look over your site. We'll tell you exactly which of these faults are costing you enquiries and what it would take to fix them, and we'll go through the details on a quick call. And if the honest verdict is that the site needs rebuilding rather than patching, that's what our web design service is for: sites built to convert from day one.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my website get traffic but no enquiries?
That's a conversion problem, not a traffic problem, which is good news because it's cheaper to fix. It's usually one of three things: no obvious way to contact you, nothing that makes a stranger trust you, or a page that's painful to use on a phone. Fix those before spending a penny on ads or SEO.
How many enquiries should a local business website actually get?
There's no universal number. It depends on your trade, your area, and how many people are searching. As a real-world benchmark, one of our clients, Coppermill Landscapes, took 52 enquiries in nine months once their site was set up properly. If your site gets decent traffic and you're seeing close to zero, the site is the problem.
Should I fix my current website or start again?
If the bones are good and it's just missing calls to action or trust signals, fix what you have. If it's slow, doesn't work on a phone, and sits on an old platform, a rebuild is usually cheaper than endless patching. Opening your own site on your phone and timing how long it takes to load will tell you which camp you're in.
Do tradespeople get more leads from phone calls or contact forms?
Have both, but make the phone number the star. Someone with a burst pipe or a collapsed fence wants to talk to a human now, not wait for an email reply. Forms catch the evening browsers and the people who hate calling, so a click-to-call button in the header plus a short form covers everyone.
How do I find out where visitors give up on my site?
Google Analytics is free and shows which pages people land on and leave from. Honestly though, the fastest audit costs nothing: hand your phone to a friend and ask them to find your number and request a quote. Wherever they hesitate is where your leads are leaking.
