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Why your site gets no phone calls (and how to check yours in five minutes)

Frankie Thomas, 1 November 2026

Your website's up. People can find it. But the phone doesn't ring off the back of it, and the quote form has gone quiet. On the trade sites I go through, it's rarely how the site looks. It's a few small snags that stop a customer right when they were about to get in touch. Here's how to find them on your own site, with your own phone, in about five minutes.

1. Check it on your phone, not your laptop

Picture your customer. They're stood in the kitchen looking at a leak, or a boiler that won't fire, with their phone in their hand. That's where your site has to work.

A laptop hides the problems. A site can look fine on a big screen and be a pain on a phone: text you have to pinch to read, buttons too small for a thumb, a menu that won't open.

So get your phone out, open the browser, type in your web address, and look at it like you've never heard of yourself.

2. Can you ring from the top of the page?

Without scrolling, can you see your phone number? Tap it. Does your phone offer to ring it?

If nothing happens, your customer has to remember eleven digits, switch to the phone and type them in. Some will. Some won't, and the next firm is one tap away.

The plumber in these pictures is made up. The fault isn't: I keep finding it on real trade sites.

If your site says "message us on WhatsApp", tap that too and check it opens a chat with you.

3. Does it say what work you take?

Read the big first line on your home page. Does it say what you do and where?

"Welcome to Smith & Sons" tells a customer nothing. "Roof repairs and new roofs in Leeds and West Yorkshire" tells them they're in the right place before they've scrolled.

Then check the jobs you want more of are on there. If you want boiler installs but the site mostly talks about dripping taps, dripping taps is what you'll get asked about.

4. Is there proof you're any good?

Someone letting you into their house wants to know you'll turn up on time, keep it tidy and charge a fair price. They look for proof: reviews, photos of jobs you've done, the towns you work in.

Got good Google reviews? Are they on your site, where people see them without hunting? If your photos are four tiny squares from years ago, a few fresh ones off your phone will do more than any new design.

While you're there, check your details: phone number, email, the areas you cover. An old number or an email address you've closed sends enquiries nowhere.

5. Is the quote form two questions or ten?

Find your quote form. Is there one? Plenty of sites have a "Get a quote" button that only leads to a page saying "call or email us".

Is it short? A name, a phone number, the job and the town is enough to ring someone back. Every extra box is another place to give up.

Then do the bit almost nobody does: fill it in yourself, on your phone, and see if it reaches you. Check your junk folder too. Forms stop working quietly. Something gets changed, an email address gets closed, and enquiries go nowhere for months without anyone knowing.

6. What to change first

Found more than one snag? Fix them in this order:

1. Anything broken. A form that doesn't arrive, a number you can't tap, old details. These cost you work today.
2. The top of the page. What you do, where, and a number you can tap.
3. The proof. Your reviews and a few good photos.
4. Everything else.

Most of these are small jobs. If you can log in to your site, you might sort some yourself in an evening.