How to Get Your Website Visitors to Take the Next Step

You finally worked up the courage to show up at a recent networking event and things seemed to go well. You chatted with potential clients, handed out some business cards, and went home patting yourself on the back for putting yourself out there.

But it’s been a couple of weeks and you haven’t seen any results. You can see that folks are visiting your site, but your inbox sits empty – no contact forms and no new bookings. What gives??

Let’s Talk About Conversions

Those actions that you want your visitors to take (like contacting you, booking a service, or joining your mailing list) are called website conversions.

A website conversion means that visitor went from just browsing to actually doing something (and that’s the goal!). And it’s normal for conversions to be low – the rates typically range from 1-10%.

5 Ways To Improve Website Conversions

Luckily, there are some simple changes you can make to encourage more folks to take action when they land on your site.

1. Give Visitors a Clear Next Step

The buttons that visitors click or tap to take action are your calls to action. Each call to action is encouraging them to do something (and we hope they do it!).

• Each section of your website should have one clear next step.
  Ideally, someone reads your content and then immediately knows what to do.
• Effective call to action text is clear and specific. Instead of a vague “Get Info,” something like “Book a 15-Minute Consultation” tells visitors exactly what happens when they click.

And that clarity reduces any hesitation to click the button, because now folks know exactly what will happen when they do.

2. People Take Action on Websites They Trust

You know how the sketchiest dudes on social media are the ones without profile pictures? Don’t let your website feel the same way. Adding trust signals like these helps your visitors feel confident in saying yes to what you offer:

• Photos or videos of you
• Client testimonials
• Professional credentials and experience
• Clear process details

Even if you’re just starting out, adding a real photo (not AI!) of yourself and a clear description of your process makes you look trustworthy and helps more people feel comfortable taking action.

3. Make It as Easy as Possible to Say Yes

Here’s the thing: most website visitors are kinda lazy. They want taking action to be quick and painless. And I get it: when I see a contact form that has like 20 fields, I want to flee in terror myself.

So your job is to reduce this friction and make it super easy for folks to take action:

• Contact forms should have the minimum number of fields possible. You can always ask them for more info or send a longer form as part of onboarding.
• Avoid making them create an account. If you use booking tools that require an account to use, choose ones that allow folks to log in with Google or a social media account they already have.
• Make sure phone numbers and email addresses are clickable. No one wants to copy and paste contact info into another app.

4. Don’t Forget Mobile

Most folks are browsing the web on their phones, and if your website looks like a hot mess on mobile, that will instantly stop visitors from taking action.

Pull up your website on your phone and make sure everything looks okay. The most common issues are:

• Sections getting cut off. Text or photos can get chopped awkwardly or sections can look smushed and wonky.
• Text that’s too small to read without zooming in.
• Buttons that are hard to tap because they’re too small or the tappable area isn’t big enough.

If your site doesn’t work on a phone, everything else falls apart, so pleasssse check this!

5. Not Everyone Is Ready to Book (And That’s Okay)

Even when your website is perfectly designed to convert, not everyone who visits is ready to take the next step. Booking a call or even contacting you directly may be beyond what they’re ready for at the moment.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not interested. You want to keep those folks around because the person who isn’t ready today could be delighted to book six months from now.

Offering lower-stakes options gives them a way to stay connected without the pressure of committing:

• Encourage them to join your mailing list
• Ask them to follow you on social media
• Offer free resources (like downloadable guides and blog posts)

This gives them something useful and keeps your name on their brain for when they’re ready to move forward.

Ready to Get More Visitors to Take Action?

Everything covered in this post is designed to make it easier for already-interested visitors to say yes. These aren’t huge overhauls, just small updates that make a real difference in converting visitors into clients.

If you’re not sure what’s holding your site back, I’d love to take a look. Request a Free Homepage Audit or let me do a more thorough checkup with a Website Review.