Your website is getting visitors. Some of them need exactly what you sell. Almost none of them contact you.
That's not a traffic problem. It's a "where do they get stuck" problem, and there are only five places it happens.
I'm going to walk through all five using a made-up cleaning company, so you can see each fix instead of reading about it. Then I'll give you the one number worth watching afterward.
This assumes you already have some traffic. If nobody's visiting yet, the fixes still apply. The number at the end just won't tell you much until they do.
What a visitor is actually doing
People don't read a web page. They scan it.
Nielsen Norman Group found this back in the nineties, when most people in their tests skimmed a new page instead of reading it word by word, and plain, factual writing measured far better than promotional writing (How Users Read on the Web). Old study. Nothing has changed, except now it's happening on a phone with three other tabs open.
So the question isn't "does my site explain everything?"
It's "can someone scanning on their phone, in about ten seconds, figure out what I do, whether it's for them, and what to do next?"
Every check below comes from that one question.
The example: Evergreen Office Cleaning
Evergreen is a fictional two-person company that cleans small offices. It exists only so the examples are concrete. Its homepage, before any changes, opens with this:
Solutions built around you. Welcome to Evergreen. We are committed to excellence.
Read that as a facilities manager with a dirty office and a meeting in twenty minutes. It says nothing you can act on.
I'm not picking on Evergreen. Most service sites I look at open like this.
Check 1: the headline
Read the big line at the top of your page and the sentence under it. Do they say what you do, who you help, and what gets better for them?
Keep your office clean without doing it yourself.
We clean small offices in Minneapolis on a schedule that works for you.
The pattern underneath: We help [who] with [what], so they can [result].
Say it plainly first. Then make it sound like you. If you serve one area, name it.
A headline that could sit on any company's site isn't doing its job.
Check 2: the button
Most sites have one button, up near the top. Then the page goes on for three screens with no way to act. By the time somebody's convinced, the button is gone.
Put the same button in three places. Near the top. Right after you explain the service. At the bottom.
Same words every time. "Request a cleaning quote." "Book a walkthrough." "Call us."
Not "Learn more." Learn more promises nothing.
Check 3: what comes first
Most service sites open with the company's story. Your visitor came with their problem, not your history.
A working order: what you do and for whom, what it's costing them right now, what it includes, why someone should trust you, how to start. Your story can come after that. Truthfully, it's more interesting once the visitor already knows you're relevant to them.
The one most people skip is the second item. Right after the headline, spend two or three lines on the problem the visitor is living with. Evergreen's version:
You didn't start a business to chase a cleaning crew. But the office still gets dirty, the last company kept missing days, and now it's one more thing on your list.
That's it. No drama. Just proof that you understand the situation before you start selling the solution. Donald Miller calls this naming the stakes, and it's the part of a page that makes the proof further down land. If the visitor doesn't feel understood, they don't care that you're competent.
Scroll your own page on your phone and note what shows up on each screen. If the first two screens don't answer "is this for me?" and "do they get it?", move things.
Check 4: proof
The headline makes a promise. Something on the page has to make it believable. Nobody takes your word for it. I wouldn't either.
Three kinds of proof work for almost any service business:
- A photo of the work. Before and after, or you actually doing the thing. Real, not stock.
- A checklist of what's included. "Every visit includes..." Specifics are believable. "Quality service" is not.
- A real review, quoted exactly. First name and town. If you don't have one, ask a recent customer today.
Put the proof right under the section that explains the service. That's where the doubt happens. Not at the bottom.
Check 5: the contact path
Tap your own contact button on your phone. Fill in the form. Did it send? Did you get it? What did the visitor see afterward?
You'd be surprised how often the answer is no (speaking from experience).
A short form beats a long one. Name, email or phone, one question. Say what happens next, "We reply within one business day," but only if that's true. If you'd rather get calls, make the number tappable.
Two more things that lower the risk of that first click.
Show the plan. Three steps, right near the button. "Request a quote. We walk your office. You get a price and a start date." That's it. People hesitate when they can't picture what happens after they reach out. Three steps fixes that in one glance.
Give the not-ready visitor something to do. Most people who land on your page aren't ready to ask for a quote today. A second, quieter option next to the main button, like a short checklist or a price guide they can download, keeps them in the conversation. Miller calls it a transitional call to action. I call it the reason you're reading this article on my site instead of leaving.
The paragraph nobody reads
Lower on the page, below the proof and the plan, put a few plain paragraphs that explain what you do in full. Who it's for, what's included, how it works, what it costs if you can say.
Almost nobody reads it top to bottom. It still matters. The person who is close to deciding will scroll down looking for detail, and this is where they find it. Search engines read it too, and so do the AI tools people now ask instead of Google. A page with nothing but a headline and three buttons gives them nothing to work with.
Write it the way you'd explain your business to a friend at dinner. No headings needed. Just say it.
Make one change. Then watch one number.
Pick the check that failed hardest. Fix that one. Just that one.
Then write down today's date and one number you can look at in a month. Quote requests. Form submissions. Calls that mention the website.
Not traffic. Not likes. Something that turns into a customer.
Count it the same way every time. If it's form submissions, count real ones only, for the same length of time before and after. A month later, if the number moved, keep the change and make the next one. If it didn't, that's information too. Try different words, or a different spot for the button, and watch again.
None of this guarantees more customers. Who shows up, what you charge, and how you follow up still matter. What these five checks do is remove the reasons a relevant visitor leaves without contacting you.
That part is yours. Fix it or don't.
Where this comes from
The five checks are mine. The bones underneath them, the stakes, the guide, the plan, and the two kinds of button, come from Donald Miller's StoryBrand website framework, which I've used for years and still think is the clearest way to lay out a service page. If you want the full version, his Marketing Made Simple is the book.
The worksheet version
If you want the five checks as a printable worksheet, with before-and-after pages and room to write your own changes, the free guide below is the same material in that form.
A 14-page PDF: five fixes, before-and-after examples, and a one-page action sheet. Download it now, no lessons unless you ask.
Show Me the 5 Fixes →