Why Your Business Website Isn't Getting Enquiries (And What to Actually Do About It)
You've got a website. You put real effort into it, or paid someone reasonable money to build it. And yet the phone isn't ringing from it.
This is probably the most common problem small businesses face online, and the frustrating thing is that it usually isn't one single issue. It's three or four things happening at the same time, each one undermining the others.
Let's work through what's actually going on.
Your Site Is Invisible in Search
The first and most common issue: people can't find you.
If your website isn't appearing in Google results for searches like "[your service] [your city]", then it doesn't matter how good the design is. Nobody sees it.
This is an SEO problem, and it's fixable. But fixing it properly takes more than adding a few keywords to your pages. It involves making sure Google can crawl and index your pages correctly, that your content actually answers the questions people are searching, and that your site has enough authority (from other sites linking to it) to rank competitively.
ProfileTree, the Belfast-based web design and digital marketing agency, has been working through exactly these problems with businesses across Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the UK since 2011. The team at profiletree.com has completed over 1,000 projects and the pattern they see consistently is that most websites fail at SEO before a single piece of content is even written — because the technical foundations aren't right.
The best SEO approach for a small business isn't to try and rank for every possible search term. It's to find the specific searches your ideal customers are making, optimise two or three key pages properly, and build from there.
Your Site Loads Too Slowly
Page speed is a ranking factor, but it's also a conversion factor. Research consistently shows that a visitor who waits more than three seconds for a page to load is likely to leave before they've seen anything.
Most business websites built on WordPress — the most widely used CMS for small businesses — have speed problems. Unoptimised images, too many plugins, cheap shared hosting, no caching layer. These are all fixable, but they don't fix themselves.
You can test your site right now at Google's PageSpeed Insights. If your mobile score is below 50, you have a real problem. If it's below 70, you have an opportunity. Most sites below 50 are leaving enquiries on the table every single day.
Your Site Works for Desktop But Not Mobile
If your site was built more than three years ago and hasn't been properly updated since, there's a reasonable chance it doesn't work well on mobile. Not broken-broken, but awkward. Buttons too small to tap, text that requires zooming, contact forms that are fiddly on a phone.
More than 60% of web searches now happen on mobile. If your mobile experience is worse than your competitors', you're losing those visitors.
ProfileTree's website design service always builds mobile-first, which means the phone experience is treated as the primary version of the site rather than an afterthought. This is still not the default approach at all agencies, which is worth checking before you commission any new build.
Your Content Doesn't Actually Help Anyone
Here's a less comfortable one. A lot of business websites have content that talks about the business rather than about what the customer is looking for.
"We are a family-run business with 20 years of experience committed to excellence and customer satisfaction."
This tells a visitor almost nothing useful. What do you do exactly? Who do you do it for? What does it cost, roughly? How do you work? How do I get started?
Content that answers these questions converts visitors into enquiries. Content that talks about how committed and passionate you are doesn't. This isn't cynicism — it's just how people make decisions. They're looking for enough information to decide whether to contact you, and most business websites don't give them that information.
The best web design for small businesses is built around customer questions, not company descriptions. Every page should have a clear purpose: what is someone looking for when they land here, and does the page give it to them?
You Have No Reason to Be Trusted Yet
If someone finds your site through a search, they know nothing about you. You're a stranger on the internet asking them to hand over their contact details or pick up the phone.
Trust signals matter. Google reviews, case studies, photos of real work, a face and a name behind the business, clear pricing information or at least a realistic ballpark. Any of these things help a visitor feel comfortable enough to make contact.
A 5-star Google rating from genuine customers is probably the most powerful trust signal a local service business can have. It takes time to build, but it's worth treating systematically — asking satisfied customers to leave a review is something most businesses do too rarely.
If you're not sure where to start, prioritise in this order:
Check your Google Search Console data to see which searches are showing your site and how many people are clicking. If impressions are high but clicks are low, your titles and meta descriptions need work. If impressions are low, your content and technical SEO need attention first.
Fix speed. Run PageSpeed Insights. If your mobile score is below 60, talk to your developer or hosting provider this week.
Audit your key pages. Homepage, main service page, contact page. Do they answer the questions a new visitor would have? Do they give any reason to trust you? Are they easy to use on a phone?
Get your business listed correctly on Google Business Profile if you haven't already. For local businesses in Northern Ireland and across the UK, this is free and produces results faster than almost anything else in organic marketing.
None of this is quick. But none of it is as complicated as it sounds when you take it one step at a time.
Author bio: Ciaran Connolly is the founder of ProfileTree, a Belfast-based web design and digital marketing agency. Since 2011, the team has completed over 1,000 web projects for businesses across Northern Ireland, Ireland, and the UK. Ciaran also delivers AI training for SMEs through Future Business Academy.
