Sow The Seed Marketing

If your website isn’t generating enough leads, it’s very easy to start making changes without really knowing what you’re trying to fix.

Rewrite the homepage. Change the buttons. Add more content. Start SEO. Spend some money on Google Ads. Maybe the whole website needs replacing.

Some of those things might help, but I wouldn’t start with any of them.

I’d start by working out where the problem actually is.

Are enough potential customers finding your website? Are the right people finding it? And when they arrive, are you giving them enough reason to get in touch?

Answer those questions first and it becomes much easier to decide what needs your attention.

Step One: Are Enough Potential Customers Finding Your Website?

Before changing anything on the website itself, I’d check whether it has a realistic chance of generating the number of leads you want.

If hardly anyone is finding it, even a brilliant website is going to struggle.

Look at how much relevant traffic you’re getting and where it comes from. Google Search Console can show you the searches your website is appearing for in Google, which pages are being shown and whether people are clicking through.

If there’s clear demand for what you offer but your business isn’t appearing when people search, you may genuinely have a visibility problem. That’s where something like SEO or Google Ads could be worth looking at.

But don’t assume low traffic is automatically the problem.

I’ve covered that separately in why more website traffic isn’t always the answer, because I’d much rather see a business attract 500 relevant visitors than 5,000 people who were never likely to become customers.

Step Two: Are the Right People Finding You?

Getting traffic and getting useful traffic aren’t the same thing.

You could have hundreds of people visiting your website every month without many of them having a genuine reason to enquire.

Look at what people are searching for before they find you and which pages they’re landing on.

If you run Google Ads, look at the actual search terms generating your clicks and enquiries. If you’re relying on organic search, Search Console can help you understand whether Google is showing your pages for searches that make sense for the business.

You might discover that you’re attracting people looking for information rather than a service. You could be appearing outside the area you serve, or for something that’s related to your business but isn’t actually what you sell.

If the wrong people are arriving, changing your contact form isn’t going to solve the problem.

You need to fix the targeting first.

Step Three: Can Someone Immediately Understand What You Do?

If the right people are reaching your website, this is the first thing I’d check on the page itself.

Don’t look at it as the business owner. You’ve probably seen the website hundreds of times and already know what every sentence means.

Look at it as someone arriving for the first time.

Can they quickly understand what you do, who it’s for and whether you can help them?

For a local business, can they tell where you work? If you provide several services, is it obvious which one they need? If there’s something important that makes your business different, can they actually see it?

You don’t need a clever headline. You need clarity.

A visitor shouldn’t have to work through several paragraphs of copy before they understand what you’re offering.

Step Four: Does the Page Answer Enough Questions?

Once someone knows they’re in the right place, they need enough information to decide whether it’s worth getting in touch.

This is where I’d look at your service pages.

Do they actually explain the service, or are they mostly a few generic paragraphs followed by a contact button?

Think about the questions customers normally ask before they buy.

They might want to know how the process works, whether you cover their area, what happens after they enquire, how long something takes or roughly what they should expect to pay.

You don’t necessarily need to publish every detail or put exact prices on the website. But if you’re deliberately withholding most of the information because you want people to contact you, it can have the opposite effect.

People can always go back to Google and find another business that answers their questions.

Step Five: Have You Given People a Reason to Trust You?

You’re asking somebody to contact a business they may never have dealt with before, so give them something that makes that decision easier.

Testimonials and reviews are an obvious place to start, but trust isn’t just about putting five stars on a page.

Show people who they’re dealing with. Explain how you work. Use photographs that actually belong to the business. Include relevant experience, qualifications, accreditations or examples of your work where they’re useful.

For local businesses, your Google Business Profile can also play an important part in that. Make sure the information is accurate and the profile reflects the business properly. I’ve put together a guide to optimising your Google Business Profile if yours hasn’t had much attention recently.

The aim isn’t to tell people you’re trustworthy. It’s to give them enough evidence to decide that for themselves.

Step Six: Is It Actually Easy to Enquire?

This sounds obvious, but it’s worth checking.

Try using your website as a customer would, particularly on your phone.

Can you find the contact details easily? Is the phone number clickable? Does the contact form work? Are you asking for far more information than you really need? Does someone know what will happen after they submit it?

I’d also check your calls to action.

They don’t need to appear every three sentences, but someone who has decided they’re interested shouldn’t have to hunt around for the next step.

And don’t assume the only useful call to action is “Contact Us”.

Depending on the business, it could be requesting a quote, booking an appointment, checking availability, calling for advice or arranging an initial conversation.

Make the next step fit the way your customers actually buy.

Don’t Jump Straight to a Website Redesign

A new website can absolutely be the right decision, particularly if the existing one is difficult to use, technically poor or no longer represents the business.

But I wouldn’t recommend one simply because leads are low.

If the real problem is that nobody can find the website, a prettier version won’t necessarily change that.

If you’re attracting the wrong audience, a redesign won’t fix the targeting.

And if the website isn’t clearly explaining why someone should choose you, putting the same message into a new design just gives you a nicer-looking version of the same problem.

Work out what’s broken before deciding how much you need to change.

What If You’re Getting Leads but They Aren’t Becoming Customers?

That’s a different problem.

This article is about websites that aren’t generating enough enquiries in the first place.

If you’re already getting good leads but very few are becoming customers, I’d start looking further down the journey. Are they the right enquiries? How quickly are they answered? What happens after you send a quote? Do you know why people decide not to go ahead?

I’ve covered that separately in why your marketing isn’t converting and the three things I’d check first.

Keeping those two problems separate matters because the answer to poor lead generation isn’t necessarily the answer to poor lead conversion.

So, What Should You Fix First?

If your website isn’t generating enough leads, I’d work through it in this order:

1. Visibility: Are enough potential customers finding you?
2. Relevance: Are they the right potential customers?
3. Clarity: Can they quickly understand what you do?
4. Information: Are you answering enough of their questions?
5. Trust: Have you given them a reason to feel confident contacting you?
6. Action: Is it easy and obvious to take the next step?

You may find the problem quite early in that list.

And if you do, that’s where I’d start rather than changing ten other things at the same time.

This is also why I approach marketing strategy by looking at what the business actually needs before recommending SEO, Google Ads, content or anything else. There’s not much value in spending money on a channel until you understand the problem you’re asking it to solve.

Not Sure Where the Problem Is?

If you’ve looked at your website so many times that you can’t tell what’s working anymore, you can book a free Seed Session.

We’ll spend 30 minutes looking at where you are now, what you’re trying to achieve and where I’d focus first. There’s no pitch and no assumption that you need to buy marketing support afterwards. If I think the bigger problem sits somewhere else, I’ll tell you that too.