Why your website isn't getting you leads, and the ten-minute test to find out
You have a website. Maybe you paid real money for it. People visit it; you can see that much. And the phone does not ring from it. Before you blame Google or buy ads, spend ten minutes doing what a customer does, and you will usually find the leak yourself.
- Open your own site on your phone, on cell data, not Wi-Fi. Count the seconds until you can read it.
- In the first screen, can a stranger tell what you do, where, and how to call you with one tap?
- Is there any proof you are real and good: license, insurance, real photos, real reviews with names?
- Does every page have an obvious next step, and does the form actually reach a human the same day?
- If any of those fail, that is where your leads are going.
Rather not read it all? Send your URL and Nick will tell you how much of this applies to your site. Free, 24–48 hours.
First: is it a traffic problem or a site problem?
These need different fixes. If almost nobody arrives, the problem is being found: your Google Business Profile, your service pages, your town pages. Start with why isn't my business showing up on Google.
If people arrive and leave without contacting you, the problem is the site, and that is what the rest of this article is about. If you have analytics, look at two numbers: how many people visit, and how many tap the phone number or send a form. If the second number is near zero while the first is not, keep reading.
The ten-minute test
Do this on your phone, on cell data, in a place with average signal: a Route 9 parking lot in Fishkill, the Poughkeepsie train platform, a customer's driveway in Warwick. Not on your office Wi-Fi, which hides every speed problem your customers see. Cell coverage across the valley is uneven enough that a site which feels fine in Beacon can be unusable in the hills outside New Paltz.
- Count to load. Type your address and count the seconds until the biggest element on the screen has painted and you can read the headline. Over three seconds on a phone and a meaningful share of visitors have already left.
- Read only the first screen. Without scrolling: what does this business do? Where? How do I call them right now? If any of the three takes scrolling or thinking, that is a lost customer.
- Tap the phone number. Does it dial? Many sites show the number as plain text. On a phone that is a dead end.
- Look for proof. License number, insurance, years in business, real photos of real work, reviews with real names and dates. Stock photos and “satisfied customers” with no names are anti-proof; visitors can tell.
- Find the service you would want. Is there a page about it, or a bullet in a list? A bullet does not convince anyone to spend two thousand dollars.
- Send the form. Fill it out as a customer. Time how long until a human replies. If the answer is “nobody knows where forms go,” that is where the leads went.
- Check the last update. Old prices, a holiday banner from last year, a “coming soon” page. Every one tells the visitor nobody is home.
What each failure means
It loads slowly
Usually a page builder with a dozen plugins, uncompressed photos, and fonts loading from three places. Fixable to a point with a speed pass; not fixable if the platform itself is the weight. A custom-coded site paints in about a second because there is nothing to strip out.
The first screen is vague
Headlines like “Quality You Can Trust” or “Welcome to Our Website” say nothing a customer would say on the phone. Replace it with the plain sentence: what you do, for whom, where. “Licensed electrician serving Dutchess and Putnam. Same-week panel upgrades.” That is a headline.
The number doesn't dial
A one-line fix any developer can do in a minute. That it has not been done tells you how the site was built.
There's no proof
Put the license and insurance beside the headline. Put three real reviews, with names, on the homepage. Replace stock photos with your own, even phone photos, properly treated. Proof in the first screen is the single biggest conversion change most sites can make.
Services are a list, not pages
Write a real page for each of your top three services. It is more work and it is the work that converts, because it answers the question the visitor arrived with.
The form goes nowhere
Route forms to your phone and your inbox. Reply the same business day, every time. A slower competitor with a faster reply gets the job.
What a site that gets leads looks like
The first screen answers what, where, and how to call. Proof sits beside the headline, not in the footer. Every core service has its own page with photos and real questions answered. It loads in about a second on a phone. Every page ends with the same obvious next step. It looks like the specific business it is, not like a template with the logo swapped.
For a concrete picture, the two case studies on this site are the standard: NYSIDI Holdings in Warwick and Mainline Trailer Rentals in Poughquag, both custom-coded, both with the measurements published rather than promised.
That is the standard every Sileon build is measured against, and it is what the free audit checks on yours: fifteen findings, by hand, prioritized by what is costing you customers.
Not sure where yours is leaking?
Send the URL. You'll get the fifteen-point audit in 24 to 48 hours, written in plain English, with the fixes in order of impact. No pitch attached.
Frequently asked
My site gets traffic but no calls. What's wrong?
Almost always one of three things: the phone number is not tap-to-call above the fold, the page does not say what you do and where in the first screen, or the form is broken or too long. Run the ten-minute test in this article on your own phone.
Is it my design or my SEO?
If nobody is arriving, it is findability. If people arrive and leave without contacting you, it is the site. Analytics tells you which; the free audit tells you both.
Should I add a chatbot or a popup?
Not before the basics work. A popup on a slow site on a phone is a second reason to leave. Fix speed, clarity, and tap-to-call first.
How fast does the site need to be?
Fast enough that the biggest thing on the screen paints in under 2.5 seconds on a phone on a cell connection. That is Google's own threshold. Most template sites miss it; the two builds with published measurements on this site paint in 0.53 and 1.3 seconds.
Can you fix my current site or do I need a new one?
Sometimes a speed pass and a rewritten first screen is enough; see our speed optimization page. If the site is on a page builder that cannot be made fast or readable, a rebuild is the honest answer, and we will tell you which.
Nick Sileo
Nick designs and custom-codes every Sileon site himself and writes every audit by hand. He runs the studio from the Fishkill area and works with businesses across Dutchess, Orange, Ulster, Putnam, and Westchester counties. More about the studio · (845) 492-9707
Recent builds
Real client sites, custom-coded, with measured performance. No templates anywhere in the studio.
Not sure where yours is leaking?
Send the URL. You'll get the fifteen-point audit in 24 to 48 hours, in plain English, with the fixes in order of impact. No pitch attached.
Nick answers the phone.
- Send your URL. One form, four fields, no account.
- Nick audits it by hand. Fifteen checks against your live site, not a scanner.
- Report in 24–48 hours. Plain English, fixes in order of impact. No pitch attached.