Free guide

5 Reasons Customers Leave Your Website and Hire Someone Else.

And how to fix it.

Your website isn’t broken. People just leave before they understand it. A visitor lands on your homepage with other things on their mind, and in a few seconds they need to be able to tell what you do, whether it’s for someone like them, and what to do next. When they can’t, they don’t email you to ask. They go back to their search and hire whoever made it obvious, even if that person is not as good as you.

This guide shows you the five places on a homepage where that happens. For each one, you get a one-minute check to run on your own page, a plain explanation of what’s going wrong and why, and the fix, shown before and after on a made-up business so you can see the difference before you touch your own site.

The five places visitors leave, with a one-minute check for each that you can run on your own homepage today.
Before-and-after pages for a made-up wedding photographer whose website looks beautiful and brings in nothing, so you can see each fix instead of just reading about it.
A real ad from a trucking company I work with. The only thing we changed was who the ad was about, and they went from hiring about two drivers a month to about five.
The eight sections of a homepage that works, in order, with the photographer’s version filled in and a blank column for yours.
A 25-page PDF you download and keep. It takes about twenty minutes to read. It is not an automated audit or a private review; it’s the version you run yourself.

Get the guide

Tell me your first name and where to send it, and the PDF opens right away.

Your guide is ready.

Open it now and start with the hallway on page 4. A copy is on its way to your inbox too.

Download the PDF Start with Door 1: your headline

Cover of the guide: 5 Reasons Customers Leave Your Website and Hire Someone Else.

What is inside

The five places visitors leave.

In the guide, I call these five doors. A visitor has to get through all of them before they’ll pick up the phone or fill out your form, and most people leave at the first door they can’t get past. Here is what each one looks like, and the question your visitor is silently asking at that point.

DOOR 01

Your headline doesn’t say what you do.

The first thing a visitor reads is your biggest headline, and they’re asking, “What is this, and is it for me?” Many headlines are a slogan or a welcome instead of an answer. The check: read your headline out loud and ask whether a stranger could tell what you do and who you do it for.

DOOR 02

Your button is hard to find.

When someone is interested, they need an obvious next step, and they’re asking, “Okay, now what do I do?” If the button that starts a conversation with you is buried in a menu or at the bottom of the page, most people never find it. The check: count how many taps it takes to reach it.

DOOR 03

Your pictures show the wrong thing.

People look at your pictures before they read a word, and they’re asking, “Can I picture myself here?” A logo, a building, or your equipment is a picture about you. A happy customer who got what they came for is a picture about them. The check: look at the first picture on your homepage and ask who it’s about.

DOOR 04

Visitors can’t tell what they’d be buying.

Before anyone reaches out, they want a rough idea of what they’d get and what it might cost, and they’re asking, “What would I actually be buying?” The guide shows you how to package what you do into a few clear options, and why a “starting at” price helps more than it hurts.

DOOR 05

There are too many words.

Every extra paragraph is work you’re asking a stranger to do, and they’re thinking, “This is taking too long.” The check: count the sentences on your homepage. Then the guide shows you which half to cut, and why the page gets stronger, not weaker, when you do.

See it on the page

Every fix is shown before and after, so you can see it.

Reading that a headline should “say what you do” is one thing. Seeing a weak headline next to a clear one, on a page that looks like a real website, is what makes it click. So every fix in the guide is shown that way. The examples use a made-up wedding photographer, and I’ll always tell you which examples are made up and which are real.

Interior page from the guide showing a before-and-after headline example for a made-up wedding photographer.

Page 9: the photographer’s headline, before and after. Her business is made up so you can focus on the pattern instead of the details, and then write your own version underneath.

The page-that-works sheet from the guide: eight sections in order with a column for your own lines.

Page 21: the eight sections of a homepage that works, in the order they should appear. The photographer’s version is filled in on the left, and there’s a blank column on the right for yours.

Who it is for

Written for owners whose business is better than their website.

I wrote this for the owner who is good at the work, has real customers, and knows the website should be bringing in more than it does. Here’s an honest look at who it helps and who it won’t.

Useful if:

You have customers, revenue, and a website that brings in fewer inquiries than it should. You’d like to know why.
You keep losing jobs to competitors you know you’re better than, and you suspect it’s because they explained themselves better, not because they do better work.
You want one clear change you can make this week, not a redesign project that takes three months.

Probably not the right fit if:

You don’t have a website yet, or a business yet. The guide assumes you have both and shows you how to fix what’s already there.
You’d rather have someone else read your homepage and tell you what to change. That exists, and it’s the Clarity Audit. This guide is the version you run yourself.
You want a guarantee. A clearer homepage makes it easier for the right people to say yes, but who visits, what you sell, and what you charge still matter. I won’t promise you sales, and you should be careful of anyone who does.

Questions

What to expect.

Is this a website redesign?

No. You keep your website. The guide shows you the five places visitors leave the homepage you already have, and how to close each one. Most of the fixes are changes to words, which you can make yourself in an afternoon. A couple, like moving a button or swapping a picture, may need whoever manages your site, and the guide tells you which ones those are.

Will it guarantee more customers?

No, and I want to be honest about that up front. The guide fixes one specific problem: people who visit your site and leave without reaching out. It makes it easier for the right person to say yes. Who visits in the first place, what you sell, your prices, and how you follow up all still matter, and no guide can fix those for you.

Do I need a particular website platform?

No. The five doors are about what a visitor sees and reads, not about the software behind the page, so they apply whether your site is on Squarespace, Wix, WordPress, or something a friend built for you years ago. The exact clicks to edit your site will depend on your setup, but every fix is described in plain words so you or your web person can make it.

What happens with my email address?

Two things. I send you the guide, and I add you to my marketing lessons, which are short emails about the same kind of fixes you’ll find in the guide. You’ll get a few over the first couple of weeks, then about one a week. Every email has an unsubscribe link at the bottom, and one click stops all of it. I never sell or share your address.