01Wrong people
The most common and the least noticed, because the number in analytics looks healthy.
- You rank for a term that sounds like your service but means something else to the person searching.
- Most of your traffic is from cities you do not serve.
- Social traffic that came for a photo and left, which is browsing, not buying.
- Bot traffic inflating the number. Check whether it is filtered.
02The unanswered question
Somebody arrives ready to buy and leaves because one thing they needed to know was not there.
- No price and no range, so they assume expensive and go elsewhere.
- No indication of how long it takes or when you are available.
- No proof the work is yours: stock photos where results should be.
- No answer to the objection everyone has. If three people a week ask it on the phone, it belongs on the page.
- Opening hours missing or wrong, which quietly ends the visit.
03Too much friction to contact you
Every extra step loses people, and most sites have more steps than the owner realises.
- The phone number is not a tap-to-call link on mobile.
- The form asks for nine fields when three would do.
- The only option is a form, and half your audience would rather use WhatsApp.
- The form sends to an inbox nobody checks, which looks identical to no enquiries at all. Test it monthly by sending one yourself.
- No confirmation after sending, so people submit twice or assume it failed.
Removing the friction, measured in taps
Before we built it, an order at Rotiseria meant a phone call during service, when the kitchen is busiest and least able to answer. The site replaced that with a menu, a cart, a card payment and a pickup slot chosen at checkout, and a confirmation email that goes out automatically. The enquiries were never missing. The path to make one was simply longer than people were willing to walk at dinner time.
See the build: Rotiseria Baba NovacQuestions, answered
What conversion rate should I expect?
It varies far too much by industry and traffic source for a number here to be honest. Measure your own, change one thing, and compare against yourself rather than against a statistic from someone else's business.
Should I add a chat widget?
Only if someone will answer it quickly. An unanswered chat is worse than no chat, because it promises a response and then does not deliver one.
How do I know the form even works?
Send yourself a test today, and again after any change to the site. Broken forms are common and completely silent, and they can run for months before anyone notices.
Where PROOF48 fits
When we rebuild a site we start from these three, which is why our builds put prices, proof and a one-tap contact in front of everything else. If your current site has traffic, send us the link and we will tell you which of the three is costing you.
Cosmin Tiu · Founder, PROOF48
Building software since 2018. PROOF48 ships business websites in 48 hours and invoices afterwards, which means every opinion here was paid for in builds rather than in theory.