10 things on your small business website that are costing you sales

You don’t need more visitors. You need more of the visitors you already have to do something: call, book, buy. Most small business websites lose people at the same handful of moments. Here’s what they are, ranked by how cheaply you can fix each one.

1. Your call-to-action button blends in

The classic case study: Performable changed their button from green to red and conversions jumped 21%. Not because red is magical, but because the green blended into their site and the red didn’t. Look at your “Get a Quote” or “Book Now” button. Does it disappear into the background? Change the colour. Run it for a fortnight. Check Google Analytics.

2. The most important info is below the fold

Visitors decide whether to stay or leave in well under eight seconds. Your phone number, your value proposition, and what you actually do should all be visible without scrolling on a phone. If the visitor has to scroll to find out whether you serve their town, most of them won’t.

3. Your forms ask for too much

Every field on your contact form costs you a percentage of submissions. If you don’t need their company name, don’t ask for it. Most quote forms can be three fields: name, contact (phone or email), and “tell us what you need”. Add the rest later, after they reply.

4. No trust signals anywhere on the page

People don’t trust new businesses by default. Help them. Add: a real photo of you (not stock), the year you started, your physical address if you have one, a testimonial with the customer’s first name and town, and any certifications (Master Plumber, NZTA, etc.). One of each is enough on the homepage.

5. The site doesn’t work on a phone

In New Zealand, Stats NZ household ICT data confirms what you’d expect: most small business web traffic now comes from phones. If your menu is broken, your buttons are too small to tap, or your hero image cuts off, you’re losing the majority of your visitors before they read a word. Open your site on your own phone right now. If you have to pinch to zoom, it’s broken.

6. You have a slideshow on your homepage

People do not click slideshow arrows. The second and third slides are wasted space at best, distracting at worst. Pick the strongest message and let it sit there.

7. Your headline talks about you, not them

“Welcome to Smith & Co Plumbing, established 1989” is about you. “Same-day plumbing repairs across South Auckland” is about them. Swap.

8. No clear pricing or starting price

Hiding all pricing makes visitors assume the worst (and email your competitor who shows theirs). You don’t have to publish a full price list, but “from $X” or “most jobs $200 to $800” gives the visitor a yardstick. Our pricing page does this. Every package has a fixed dollar number.

9. The contact page is one phone number and nothing else

Different people prefer different contact methods. A working form, a clickable phone number, an email link, and your service area on a map. Four things, one page. Most small business contact pages have one of the four.

10. There’s no reason to act today

Without urgency, “I’ll come back to this later” wins. A free quote, a current-month offer, a limited-availability note (“booking 3 weeks out”): pick one and put it near your main button. Be honest. Don’t fake scarcity; your customers can tell.

What to do tomorrow morning

Open your homepage on your own phone. Set a 10-minute timer. Fix what’s obvious in the first eight seconds: the headline, the button colour, the hero photo. If you can’t do it in your CMS without breaking things, send us the URL and we’ll quote a one-page refresh ($250 for a Quick Fix).

The point isn’t to do all 10 in a week. It’s to do one, measure for a fortnight, then do the next.

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Further reading: 10 Tips for Web Design That Drives Sales (Entrepreneur). The original list this draws from.