Why Your Business Website Isn't Getting Leads (And How to Fix It)

You built a website. Maybe you even paid good money for it. But months later, the leads aren't coming in. Your contact form collects dust. Visitors come and go without doing anything.

This is one of the most common problems I see with small business websites, and the good news is: the fixes are usually straightforward once you know what to look for.

Here are the 7 most common reasons your website isn't converting — and exactly how to fix each one.

1. Your Site Is Too Slow

This is the silent killer. If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, over half your visitors are leaving before they see anything. They don't complain — they just hit the back button and go to your competitor.

How to check: Go to PageSpeed Insights and enter your URL. If your mobile score is below 70, you have a problem.

Common culprits:

• Unoptimized images (the #1 offender — a single uncompressed photo can be 5MB)
• Too many plugins or scripts
• Cheap hosting that's slow to respond
• Heavy animations and video backgrounds

The fix: Compress your images, remove unnecessary plugins, and consider upgrading your hosting. If your site was built on a bloated platform, it might be worth rebuilding with performance in mind — a fast site on modern tools like Next.js can load in under 1 second.

2. No Clear Call-to-Action

I visit hundreds of small business websites, and the most common mistake is this: I land on the homepage, I see what the business does... and then I have no idea what I'm supposed to do next.

Your website needs to tell visitors exactly what action to take, on every single page.

The fix:

• Add a prominent "Get a Quote", "Book a Call", or "Contact Us" button above the fold (visible without scrolling)
• Repeat the CTA at the bottom of every page
• Make phone numbers and email addresses clickable
• Use action-oriented language: "Get Started" beats "Learn More"

3. It Doesn't Work on Mobile

Over 60% of web traffic is mobile. If your site is hard to use on a phone — tiny text, buttons too small to tap, content that overflows the screen — you're losing the majority of your potential customers.

How to check: Open your website on your phone. Try to complete the main action (fill out the contact form, find your phone number, read your services page). If anything is frustrating, your customers feel the same way.

The fix: A proper responsive design isn't optional anymore. Every element — navigation, forms, images, text — needs to work seamlessly on screens of all sizes. If your current site wasn't built mobile-first, it probably needs a rebuild rather than patches.

4. Your Content Talks About You Instead of Them

Here's a test: go to your homepage and count how many times you say "we" or "I" versus "you" or "your." If you're talking about yourself more than your visitor, you have a messaging problem.

Visitors don't care about your company history or your mission statement. They care about one thing: can you solve their problem?

The fix:

• Before: "We are a full-service digital agency with 10 years of experience..."
• After: "Your business needs a website that actually brings in customers. Here's how we make that happen."

Lead with the problem your visitor has. Then show how you solve it. Then prove it with results and testimonials.

5. No Social Proof

People trust other people more than they trust businesses. If your website doesn't show evidence that real humans have worked with you and been happy about it, visitors are going to be skeptical.

The fix:

• Add client testimonials with real names and photos (not stock photos)
• Show logos of companies you've worked with
• Include case studies with specific results: "We increased their online sales by 40%"
• Display review scores from Google, Trustpilot, or industry-specific platforms

Even 2-3 genuine testimonials are better than none. If you don't have any, start asking your best clients today.

6. Google Can't Find You

Having a website and being findable on Google are two different things. If your site doesn't show up when people search for your services in your area, it's essentially invisible.

Common SEO problems:

• No page titles or descriptions (or generic ones like "Home | My Company")
• No Google Business Profile
• No content that matches what people actually search for
• Poor site structure (no headings, no internal links)
• Not indexed by Google at all

The fix: Start with the basics. Set up Google Business Profile. Write unique titles and descriptions for every page that include what you do and where you do it. Create a page for each main service. Add a blog and write about topics your customers actually search for. Submit your sitemap to Google Search Console.

7. Your Contact Form Is Broken (or Buried)

You'd be surprised how often this is the problem. The contact form doesn't actually send emails. Or it's hidden on a page that's 4 clicks deep. Or it asks for 15 fields when all you need is a name, email, and message.

The fix:

• Test your contact form right now. Fill it out and see if you actually receive the submission.
• Reduce form fields to the bare minimum. Every extra field reduces completion rates by roughly 10%.
• Put your contact form (or a link to it) on every page, not just the contact page.
• Add your phone number and email in the footer of every page.
• Set up email notifications so you respond quickly — speed of response is a major factor in winning the lead.

The Compounding Effect

Here's the thing — these problems compound. A slow site that's also hard to use on mobile, has no clear CTA, and doesn't show up on Google isn't just 4x bad. It's exponentially bad. Each problem filters out more visitors, and by the end, almost nobody is converting.

But the reverse is also true. Fix your speed, and more people stay. Fix your messaging, and more people engage. Add a clear CTA, and more people take action. Add social proof, and more people trust you enough to reach out.

You don't need a perfect website. You need one where each of these fundamentals is working.

What to Do Next

Go through this list and honestly assess your current website. If more than 2-3 of these apply, you probably need more than small tweaks — you need a site that was built with conversions in mind from the ground up.

The investment pays for itself quickly when your website starts doing what it should have been doing all along: turning visitors into customers.