Your website is getting traffic — Google Analytics confirms it — but the enquiries are not coming in fast enough. This is one of the most common frustrations in small business marketing, and it is almost always fixable. The good news is that low conversion rates are usually caused by a handful of specific, identifiable problems. Here is a diagnostic guide to the most common ones, and what to do about each.
is the average conversion rate for websites without video, compared to 4.8% for sites that use video — a 65% improvement from a single content decision.
A visitor to your homepage should be able to answer three questions within five seconds: What do you do? Who do you do it for? Why should I care? If your homepage opens with a vague tagline ("Passionate about delivering excellence"), a rotating banner, or a wall of text, you have already lost most of your visitors.
The fix: lead with a clear, specific headline that names your service and your audience. Follow it immediately with a one-sentence explanation and a primary call to action. Everything else is secondary.
Video is the single most effective addition you can make to an underperforming website. Research from Unbounce shows that including video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%. According to G2, 96% of consumers find video helpful when making online purchase decisions.
An explainer video on your homepage does three things simultaneously: it explains what you do more clearly than text, it keeps visitors on the page longer (which improves your search ranking), and it builds trust in a way that copy alone cannot achieve. If your site does not have one, it should.
of consumers say they find video helpful when making purchase decisions — making it the most persuasive content format you can add to your website.
A call to action (CTA) tells the visitor what to do next. Most underperforming websites either have no clear CTA, have too many competing ones, or use weak language like "Find out more" or "Learn more" that gives no reason to act.
Your CTAs should be positioned prominently, in action-oriented language. 'Get a free quote' beats 'Contact us.' 'Start your project today' is better than 'Get in touch.'
More than 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices. A site that looks great on desktop but is difficult to navigate on a phone will lose the majority of its visitors before they reach a CTA. Common mobile problems include text that is too small to read, buttons that are too close together to tap accurately, forms that are difficult to complete, and images that break the layout.
Test your site on real devices to see how it responds, not just a browser simulator.
Add at least three to five specific, named testimonials to your homepage and key service pages. "Great service, would recommend" is less persuasive than "Spiritus Design delivered our explainer video in 12 days and it has already generated three new clients." Specific results beat generic praise every time.
Google research shows that 53% of mobile users abandon a site that takes more than three seconds to load. Slow loading is also a direct ranking factor — Google penalises slow sites in search results. The most common causes are unoptimised images, too many third-party scripts, and inadequate hosting.
The fix: run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights. It will identify specific issues and suggest fixes. Aim for a score above 75 on mobile and 90 on desktop.
Before commissioning a full redesign, work through this checklist:
If the answer to two or more of these is no, you have found your conversion problems — and fixing them is likely to be faster and cheaper than a full rebuild.
Need a video for your homepage, or a website redesign that actually converts? These are both things we do at Spiritus Design. Get in touch with a brief description of the problem and we'll suggest the most direct fix.
The most common reasons are: unclear messaging above the fold, no video to keep visitors engaged, weak or missing calls to action, poor mobile experience, slow page loading, and a lack of social proof such as testimonials or case studies.
The average website conversion rate across industries is around 2–3%. A well-optimised site for professional services can achieve 4–6%. If your site is converting below 1%, there are likely structural issues with messaging, design, or calls to action.
Yes — significantly. Research from Unbounce shows that including video on a landing page can increase conversion rates by up to 80%. According to G2, 96% of consumers find video helpful when making online purchase decisions.
Start with the basics: make sure your homepage communicates clearly what you do within the first few seconds. Add an explainer video if you don't have one. Simplify calls to action to one per page. Test on mobile. Add specific, named testimonials. These changes often deliver immediate improvements.
The average session duration varies by industry, but in general, more than two minutes suggests good engagement. Video significantly increases time on page — research shows that landing pages with video see visitors stay up to 80% longer, which also sends positive signals to search engines.
Tell us what you need and we'll come back with honest advice, clear timelines, and fixed pricing.
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