Your website is not converting. Before you dramatically announce that you need an entirely new website, change your brand colors, rewrite every page and spend three hours deciding whether your button should be green or slightly darker green... No. We're going to be a little more strategic than that.

If people are landing on your website but aren't enquiring, booking, buying or joining your email list, don't start changing random things.

Instead, we're going to figure out where people are dropping off, fix the biggest problem first and see what happens.

Because website conversion improvement isn't: Change everything → cross fingers → stare aggressively at analytics.

It's: Look → identify → fix → test → learn.

Here's exactly how to do it.

Let’s Start With The Basics…

Read my previous blog posts first, where I break down what website conversion even is, what are the most common website conversion problems and why they happen. Then come back here and we'll fix the little menace.

What Is a Website Conversion? A Simple Guide for Small Business Owners →

How to Improve Website Conversion: 9 Changes That Make It Easier to Say Yes →

Step 1: Make Sure You Actually Have a Conversion Problem

First, check whether enough of the right people are visiting your website.

Because if 27 people visited last month and 14 of them were you checking whether your new homepage looked cute on mobile... We don't exactly have a statistically thrilling situation here.

Look at:

how many people are visiting
where they're coming from
which pages they're landing on
whether those visitors match the people you actually want to work with
what percentage are taking your desired action

If you don't have enough relevant traffic yet, your first problem may be traffic, not conversion.

If you are getting relevant traffic and people aren't taking action? Excellent. (Well, not excellent for your website. Excellent for our investigation.)

Step 2: Decide What ONE Conversion Actually Matters

Before you improve your website, answer this: What do you actually want someone to do?

Not seventeen things. One primary thing.

For a psychotherapist, that might be: Book an initial consultation.

For an interior designer: Submit a project inquiry.

For a virtual assistant: View available packages and inquire.

For a nutritionist: Book a discovery call.

Now look at your website through that lens. Does the entire journey naturally move someone toward that action?

Or are you asking them to: Read my blog! Follow me! Download this! Look at my services! Join my newsletter! Check Instagram! Book a call! Look, a squirrel!

Your website needs direction before it needs optimization.

Step 3: Do The 5-Second Homepage Test

Open your homepage. Look at the first section only.

Now ask: Can someone understand what I do, who it's for and why they should care within a few seconds?

If not, fix this before worrying about button colors, animations or whether your About page needs another photo of you holding coffee.

For example: Holistic nutrition solutions designed to support optimal wellness.

Okay. But...what do you actually help me with?

Compare that with: Nutrition support for busy women who want more energy and better eating habits without breaking up with pasta.

Much easier to understand.

Your homepage doesn't need to explain everything immediately, but it does need to give someone's brain enough information to think: “Oh. This is for me.”

The 5-second homepage test to improve website conversion rate

Step 4: Go Through Every Important Page And Ask “So What?”

This is one of my favorite DIY copy checks because it's almost offensively simple.

Read every major claim or feature on your website and ask: So what?

You provide a customized interior design plan. So what?

I can finally have a home that looks pulled together without spending six consecutive Saturdays wondering whether cream and ivory are secretly the same color.

You offer inbox management. So what?

I can stop opening my inbox like it's a haunted house.

You create personalized nutrition plans. So what?

I know what to eat without turning every trip to the supermarket into an existential crisis.

Keep asking so what? until you reach the thing your client actually cares about. Then make sure that is in your copy.

This alone can be a surprisingly powerful website conversion improvement because you're translating your expertise into value your reader can immediately understand.

The "So What?" exercise to improve website conversion

Step 5: Follow Your Own Website Journey Like a Stranger

This one requires pretending you have never seen your own website before. Difficult, but stay with me.

Choose your main conversion and actually go through the entire process yourself.

Homepage → Services → Offer → Inquiry.

Or: Blog → Freebie → Signup.

Or: Homepage → Booking page → Appointment.

At every step ask:

Do I know what to do next?
Do I have the information I need to do it?
Is anything unnecessarily annoying?

Look for:

confusing navigation
buried buttons
too many competing CTAs
long forms
unclear pricing
missing information
broken links
poor mobile experience
vague button copy
unnecessary steps

You'd be amazed how often the problem isn't that your whole website needs rebuilding. Sometimes it's much smaller.

Maybe your inquiry button is buried. Maybe your form is too long. Maybe someone has to click through three different pages before they can actually contact you.

Annoying? Yes. Fixable? Also yes.

Step 6: Add Trust Where The Hesitation Happens

Don't just create a giant testimonial section and assume your work here is done. Think about where someone might hesitate.

Talking about your process? Add proof from someone who specifically loved the process.

Introducing your package? Add a testimonial from someone who bought that package.

Asking someone to inquire? Give them information about what happens after they submit the form.

Mentioning a benefit? If you have appropriate evidence supporting it, put that evidence nearby.

Trust works best when it answers the question someone is having at the moment they're having it. Not six scrolls later.

Step 7: Make Your CTA Embarrassingly Obvious

Go through your main pages and find every CTA. Ask: Would someone immediately know what happens when they click this?

Learn more. About...?

Discover. Discover WHAT, Susan?

Try:

View the packages
Book your consultation
See how it works
Start your project
Enquire about working together

You can absolutely give CTAs personality. Just don't sacrifice understanding for cleverness.

If your website is not converting, removing uncertainty around the next step is one of the simplest things you can test.

Step 8: Pick ONE Thing To Change

And now comes the part where I lovingly confiscate your metaphorical sledgehammer.

Do not change everything at once.

If your homepage isn't clear, start there.

If people reach your services page but don't inquire, investigate that page.

If people click the inquiry button but don't complete the form, inspect the form.

If people read your sales page but aren't buying, look at the decision-making information around the offer.

Find the biggest likely gap.

Then, change one thing. Test it. Learn from it.

Because if you rewrite your entire website, change your navigation, add twelve testimonials, shorten your form and redesign your buttons at once...

...and conversions improve...

You have no idea why.

A Simple Website Conversion Improvement Plan

So if your website is not converting, don't immediately redesign the whole thing.

Start with:

1. Traffic: Are enough of the right people actually visiting?

2. Goal: What ONE action do you want them to take?

3. Clarity: Can they quickly understand what you do, who it's for and why they should care?

4. Value: Does your copy explain why your offer matters to them?

5. Journey: Can they easily get from interested → taking action?

6. Trust: Have you answered the doubts that could stop them?

7. CTA: Is the next step obvious?

Then find the weakest point and start there.

If your website is not converting, you probably don’t need to dramatically delete the whole thing and start again at 11:47 PM.

You need to figure out where people are getting stuck.

Check the traffic. Get clear on the action you want people to take. Walk through the journey yourself. Look for confusion, missing trust, unnecessary friction and CTAs that are apparently playing hide-and-seek.

Then choose the biggest problem and start there.

One change. One test. See what happens.

Action plan if your website is not converting

And If You Need Some Help Figuring Out What Needs Fixing...

Maybe you've read this entire post and thought: “Okay, I know my website needs help. I would simply prefer someone else to deal with it”…

Excellent. I support this decision.

If you want someone to write your website for you:

I offer website copywriting services for service providers who want clear, strategic, personality-packed copy that helps the right people understand what they do, why they should care and what to do next.

Explore my website copywriting services →

If you're more of a “lemme poke around myself first” person:

Grab one of my free Website That Sells Checklist and give your site a little check-up. It’ll help you spot the tiny gaps, confusing bits and wait...is this obvious to anyone except me? moments that could be getting between your visitors and the next step.

Give your website a little check-up →

Either way, you don't have to guess your way through it.

Your website has a job. Let's make it considerably easier for the poor thing to do it.

Website Not Converting? Here’s Exactly What to Do Next