Website not working? No leads?

Are people finding your website?

Search visibility, the pages you're targeting, the quality of the website and what happens when somebody actually lands on it all play a part. Finding where that process is breaking down is the first step towards fixing it.

Before worrying about design or conversion rates, you need to establish whether potential customers are actually reaching the website.

A business might have a great-looking site but very little visibility for the services and locations its customers are searching for. Equally, a website may rank well for certain phrases that generate traffic but very few genuine enquiries.

Google Search Console can provide a useful starting point. Look at which searches are generating impressions, which pages are appearing in the results and where those pages are currently ranking.

If the right pages aren't appearing for the right searches, the problem may be SEO rather than the website itself.

Are you targeting the right searches?

More traffic doesn't automatically mean more business.

For many local companies, appearing prominently for a specific service in the areas they actually cover is considerably more valuable than attracting large numbers of visitors from broader searches.

Your website should make it clear what you do, where you do it and which pages Google should associate with those searches.

That might mean strengthening existing service pages, developing properly structured location content or improving the internal links between related sections of the website.

Does the website still represent your business?

Websites date surprisingly quickly.

That doesn't mean every website needs replacing every couple of years, but an old design, confusing navigation or dated content can affect how somebody perceives the business behind it.

Potential customers are often comparing several companies at once. If one website immediately feels professional, current and easy to use while another feels neglected, that can influence which business receives the enquiry.

Sometimes relatively small improvements are enough. In other cases, the website has simply reached the point where redevelopment makes more sense.

Is the website easy to use?

A fully responsive website should work properly across desktop computers, tablets and mobile phones, but responsive design is only part of the equation.

Think about what somebody needs to do after arriving on a page.

Can they quickly understand the service being offered? Can they find supporting information? Is the telephone number easy to find? Is there an obvious way to make an enquiry?

A visitor shouldn't have to work out what to do next.

Is the content doing its job?

Website content has two audiences: the person reading it and the search engine trying to understand it.

Thin, repetitive or generic content can make it difficult to achieve either objective.

Each important page should have a clear purpose and provide enough useful information to answer the questions somebody is likely to have before making contact. Headings, page structure and internal links should then help both visitors and search engines understand how that page fits into the wider website.

Adding more words isn't necessarily the answer. Adding the right information usually is.

Look at the whole picture

When a website isn't generating leads, replacing it isn't automatically the answer. Neither is simply throwing more money at SEO.

The problem could be poor search visibility, the wrong search terms, weak content, an outdated website, a confusing customer journey or a combination of several things.

Understanding where the problem lies means you can concentrate your time and budget on fixing what actually needs attention.

At MALO, we design, build and optimise websites with search performance and enquiries in mind from the outset. If your website isn't producing the results you expected, we can take a look at what's happening and identify where improvements could be made.