5 essential elements of a high-converting website
Simple menus, real answers, one clear next step, proof, and a site built for phones
Plenty of small business websites get visitors. Fewer turn those visitors into phone calls. When a business owner in Albany or Corvallis asks us why their site isn't bringing in work, these are the five things we look at first. Big national sites do each of them well, so we'll use a few as examples and then show what the small-business version looks like.
1. A menu nobody has to think about
Amazon has an enormous catalog, and you can still find a phone charger without slowing down. The search box is always at the top, departments live in one menu, and the cart sits in the same corner on every page.
Your site needs a lot less than that. Five or six menu items with plain labels (Services, Pricing, About, Contact) beat clever names every time. Your phone number should be visible on every page, and your main service should be one click from the home page. Add a search box if you sell dozens of products. If you're a plumber, skip it.
2. Answers to the questions people actually ask
HubSpot's blog built a huge audience by answering marketing questions for free. By the time a reader sees a sales pitch, they already trust HubSpot to know what it's talking about.
You don't need a content team to do the local version. Write down the questions customers ask you on the phone. How much does it cost? How soon can you come out? Do you serve Lebanon? Then answer them on your site in plain words. A service page that says what you do, where you do it, and what happens after someone reaches out will beat a page of adjectives. Use real photos of your work, your shop, and your crew. Stock photos of people shaking hands don't sell anything.
3. One clear next step on every page
Dropbox puts one "Sign up for free" button in front of you and makes it the most obvious thing on the screen. There's no question about what they want you to do.
Pick the one thing you want visitors to do. For most local service businesses, that's call or request a quote. Put that button near the top of the page and again after each major section, in a color that stands out. Label it with what actually happens: "Get a free estimate" or "Book an appointment" tells people far more than "Submit" or "Learn more." Keep the form short. Name, phone or email, and a box for what they need is usually enough, and every extra field is one more reason to give up. If you can, tell people when they'll hear back.
4. Proof that real people hired you
Salesforce covers its pages with customer logos and stories, because someone about to spend real money wants to know who else took the chance first.
For a local business the proof is simpler, and it works better: reviews from customers with real names, photos of finished jobs, and the names of businesses you've worked with. Put a review or two right next to your quote button, since that's where people hesitate. We do the same thing on our own site. Rather than telling you we're good, we let clients like 2 Towns Ciderhouse, X Factor General Contractors, and Jon's Hauling and Junk Removal say it. Security badges matter if you take payments online. For a service business, a handful of honest reviews does more.
5. Built for the phone first
A lot of the people looking for you are on a phone, maybe in a parking lot or on a lunch break. Airbnb is a good model: on a small screen you can search, compare, and book without pinching or zooming once.
On your site, tapping the phone number should dial it. Buttons should be big enough for a thumb, text should be readable without zooming, and images should be compressed so the page loads on a weak signal. Then try to request a quote from your own site on your phone. If it's annoying for you, it's annoying for your customers.
Where to start
Pull up your home page and pretend you've never heard of your business. Within a few seconds, can you tell what you do and where you do it? Is there an obvious way to call or ask for a quote? Is there proof anyone has hired you before? Fix whichever one fails first. If your site is fine but nobody keeps it updated, our website hosting and maintenance plans cover that.
