Why doesn't our website generate enquiries?

Why doesn't our website generate enquiries? This is probably the most common question we get asked by small and medium sized businesses. There seems to be a myth doing the rounds, stating that if you have a website and have set up the meta tags well, people will automatically find you and buy from you. If only it was that simple!

Now, the most likely answer to why your website doesn't generate enquiries is that it was never designed or built to do so in the first place. Though very few web designers would ever admit this, the more we speak to business owners, the more we believe it to be true.

Let's break this down a little.

Search engine rankings

The common thinking is that if you rank highly on search engines such as Google, particularly if you have listings on the first search engine results page (SERP), all kinds of new customers will start knocking at your door. This isn't always the case and your site could quickly fall to page two or further down due a variety of reasons. Here are some ways to keep your site on the first SERP:

• Dynamic content, such as blog posts, videos and downloadable resources.
• Other websites and blogs pointing their own visitors to your site.
• Stay on top of your industry’s terminology and change keywords and phrasing as required.
• Maximise your marketing strategy so that everything directs to your website, such as email campaigns, social media, PPC advertising, printed materials and PR coverage.
• Don’t be fooled by wild claims of “We can get you 100,000 hits overnight”, as guarantees like this always use fake accounts or automated programmes, rendering the whole endeavour worthless.

Website design

There are countless web design companies out there that are more than capable of designing great looking websites. Unfortunately, a striking design doesn't necessarily equate to easy navigation, valuable content or a high conversion rate of visits to sales. No matter what the size or nature of your business, your website should be expertly designed so that it uses comprehensive SEO to rank highly in searches, guides visitors to a clear call to action, works perfectly on all devices, and consistently delivers results. At Vividfish, we follow a strict five-step process (learn, plan, design, develop, evaluate), resulting in websites that look good, run smoothly and do their job well.

Trust

Think about how you use the Internet for a minute; do you always buy from the first website you come across that offers what you need? People shop around online even more than they do in physical stores due to it being a quick, efficient and convenient process. Potential customers will more than likely visit a range of sites several times before making a decision on who to buy from. With this in mind, think about what you'd expect to find on a website when planning on making a purchase and ensure that it applies to your own. Here are some examples:

• Good quality, unique and informative content.
• Customer reviews and testimonials.
• Several ways of contacting the company, such as email address and online form, phone numbers, social media links and postal address

• Clarity, transparency and starting conversations are methods of building trust, which will set you up as an expert in your field. 

Want to know more? Download our guide to 25 website must-haves for driving traffic, leads and sales.