The site may look modern, rank for certain queries and even receive clicks, but not bring in any hits. In such a situation, it is easy to choose an expensive but wrong decision: completely redo the design, increase the advertising budget, or order dozens more articles.
First you need to determine in which area the potential client is lost. The problem may be before entering the site, on the landing page, in the form, or after submitting the application. Below is a diagnostic sequence that helps you distinguish a lack of traffic from low conversion and make reasonable changes.
First separate the traffic problem from the conversion problem
The phrase “the site does not bring in applications” describes the result, but not the reason. Start with two questions:
- Do potential clients come to the site in sufficient numbers?
- Do target visitors take the desired action?
If 20 people visited the service page in a month, the lack of applications does not yet prove that the page is bad. The sample is too small, and the reason may be low visibility or limited demand. If there are 2,000 visitors, but no one contacts, you need to check whether the traffic corresponds to the offer, trust, interface and operation of the form.
For the initial assessment, calculate the conversion:
Conversion = number of targeted requests / number of visits × 100%.
It is better to count not only for the entire site, but also separately for pages, sources and devices. The overall figure hides the differences: advertising for one service may work well, but informational articles may generate high volume of clicks without commercial intent.
Make sure every enquiry is tracked
Sometimes the site brings clients, but analytics does not see them. Or, conversely, the report shows many “conversions,” although some of them are clicks on a button without a completed conversion.
Check the whole path yourself:
- submit the test form from your computer and phone;
- make sure that the message about successful sending appears only after the server responds;
- check receipt of the application in the mail, CRM or Telegram;
- call the number from the ad and from the website;
- test links to messengers;
- Compare actual hits to analytics targets.
For a form, it is useful to separate at least two events: an attempted submission and a confirmed successful submission. Advertising should be optimized based on the second event. Otherwise, the system can be trained on visitors who clicked the button, received an error and did not become clients.
Check your spam protection separately. Captcha and technical filters should not block real people, but requests from bots should not be mixed with quality requests when evaluating the result.
Check traffic quality, not just volume
A large number of visits does not guarantee demand for the service. An article with instructions can attract people who want to solve the problem themselves. A broad advertising phrase for users looking for work, training, or a free tool. Such visits increase the traffic schedule, but have almost no effect on sales.
Analyze traffic based on the following characteristics:
- source and advertising campaign;
- actual search query;
- landing page;
- region;
- device;
- new or returning visitor;
- completed actions;
- quality of treatment according to the manager.
For organic search, use the report on queries and pages in Google Search Console and Google Search Console. Impressions do not mean conversions, and conversions do not mean applications. It is important to see what wording the search engine uses to select a page and whether the user's intent matches the offer.
In contextual advertising, regularly check real search phrases and sites. It makes sense to analyze search and the advertising network separately: they have different display mechanics, creatives, and audience behavior. This process is discussed in more detail in the article about setting up Google Ads for applications.
Match the promise to the landing page
The visitor comes not “to the site”, but for an answer to a specific question. If an ad promises a calculation of the cost of SEO, and the link opens a general agency page without prices and a calculation form, the person has to look for a continuation on his own.
Check the combination of three elements:
- Request or audience. What did the person want to find?
- Promise in a snippet or ad. What result was he offered?
- First screen of the page. Is it immediately obvious that it has come to the right address?
The page title should name the service in clear words. Next to it you need a brief explanation of the result and an obvious next step. You should not start the commercial page with the company's history, abstract mission or general phrases about quality.
If a company promotes several different services, one universal page is often not enough. Individual landing pages allow you to more accurately describe the problem, show relevant examples and measure demand. At the same time, the pages should not be copies with a couple of words replaced - each needs an independent useful answer.
Make the offer clear before submitting the form
The visitor compares not only the design. He needs to understand whether the service is suitable, what is included in the work, how much it might cost and what will happen after the request.
A commercial page must answer at least the following questions:
- what problem are you solving;
- for which companies the service is suitable;
- what is included in the result;
- how the stages of work are arranged;
- what the timing and cost depend on;
- what is required from the client;
- how the result will be measured;
- what action needs to be done now.
The “on request” price is acceptable for complex projects, but it should be supplemented with the calculation principle, minimum budget or configuration examples. Complete uncertainty increases the risk for the client and forces him to continue searching.
Don't promise something you can't back up. Formulations like “we’re guaranteed to get you to the top” may attract attention, but at the same time reduce trust among experienced audiences. The specific scope of work, limitations and reporting format are usually more convincing.
Add evidence to help make a decision
Logos, numbers and testimonials are only useful if the visitor understands their origin. An anonymous quote “I liked everything” says almost nothing about the contractor’s ability to solve a similar problem.
Work harder:
- cases with the initial situation, actions and measurement period;
- examples of completed work;
- description of the process and areas of responsibility;
- details and real contacts of the company;
- contract, payment terms and approval procedure;
- answers to complex questions and limitations;
- expert materials on the topic of services.
For a young company, the lack of dozens of cases is normal. Instead of fictitious results, it is better to show in detail the approach, team, demo solutions and operating rules. Trust is built not by the number of decorative blocks, but by reducing uncertainty.
Remove unnecessary friction from the form
The form must correspond to the next step of the transaction. For the first conversation, a name, phone number or messenger and a short description of the task are usually enough. Requesting legal details, budget, detailed terms of reference and ten required fields may be justified later, but reduces the number of submissions in the first step.
Check the form using the checklist:
- required fields are truly required;
- the phone mask does not interfere with inserting the number;
- errors explain what exactly needs to be corrected;
- data does not disappear after an error;
- the button is visible and contains a clear action;
- consent to data processing is nearby;
- after sending the user understands that the application has been accepted;
- the manager receives the source, page and UTM tags of the request.
On a mobile device, the form should not be blocked by the keyboard or modal window. Test it not only in a browser emulator, but also on a real phone with a slow connection.
Contact alternatives are also important. Some prefer the form, while others find it easier to call or write via messenger. But a large number of equally bright buttons creates the opposite effect: the user does not understand which action is most important.
Check technical obstacles
Even a convincing offer will not work if the page loads unstable or breaks on some devices. Pay special attention to pages that receive advertising and search traffic.
Check:
- page response code and redirect chain;
- first display speed on mobile network;
- block shifts during loading;
- operation of menus, buttons and forms;
- no overlapping banners;
- phone number and links are correct;
- HTTPS and no browser warnings;
- display in popular resolutions;
- page accessibility for search robots.
Not every warning requires urgent rework. First, fix what prevents a person from seeing an offer or sending a request. For system testing you can use step-by-step SEO optimization plan and separate technical SEO optimization of the site.
Use microconversions for diagnostic purposes only
Viewing contacts, going to the messenger, downloading a presentation and starting to fill out a form helps to understand the visitor’s behavior. But these actions do not equal an application.
Divide goals by value level:
- main ones: confirmed form, call, qualified appeal;
- intermediate: opening contacts, starting a form, going to the messenger;
- diagnostic: viewing depth, scrolling, time on page.
If an advertising strategy is optimized for too easy a target, it may find people who are willing to click buttons but not submit applications. Intermediate events are useful when the amount of data is small, but they should not be passed off as the final result.
Add feedback from the sales department to the report: is the request targeted, was it possible to contact, did the client reach the settlement and transaction. Without this, marketing will optimize the number of hits without distinguishing their quality.
Seven-day diagnostic plan
You don't have to start with a big redesign. In a week you can collect enough facts for a priority plan.
Day 1. Record visits, requests and conversions by main pages and sources.
Day 2. Run test requests from all devices and check data transfer to the manager.
Day 3. Analyze search queries, advertising phrases, regions and sites. Flag clearly untargeted traffic.
Day 4. Match queries with landing page headlines and content.
Day 5. Check the proposal: scope of work, cost, deadlines, evidence and responses to objections.
Day 6. Conduct mobile and technical testing of key scenarios.
Day 7. Make a list of hypotheses and rank them by expected impact, effort, and ability to measure the outcome.
Change one significant element at a time or record related changes as a single experiment. If you change the traffic source, headline, form, and price all at the same time, it will be difficult to determine the reason for the result.
What to fix first
The priority depends on the constraint found:
- few targeted impressions and conversions - develop structure, commercial pages and SEO promotion or test controlled advertising demand;
- a lot of untargeted traffic — clarify semantics, ads, targeting and landing pages;
- there are interested visitors, but no action - strengthen the offer, evidence and CTA;
- the form is started but not submitted - shorten fields and eliminate script errors;
- there are applications, but they are lost - fix integration, notifications and processing;
- the platform does not allow changes to be implemented - plan revisions or development of a new version of the site.
The main principle is to eliminate the bottleneck, not the most noticeable. A new design won't make up for untargeted traffic, more traffic won't fix a broken form, and ranking high on an information query won't guarantee sales calls.
If you need to determine where exactly the site is losing customers, you can discuss the task with SEOLIFT. We'll map traffic sources, pages, and analytics targets, and then provide a sequence of testable changes.