Good rankings, but no inquiries

Professor Chalk

Hello,
I'm wondering about this, if a website has good ranking on Google (page 1), but there are no calls or emails coming in, does that simply mean that the design of the website is worse than its competitors?

This would be in a market with a good number of google searches done per month for its targeted search terms.

Yet there are no calls or emails coming in.

Tips appreciated!

Prof Chalk:cool:

Liam Byrne

Professor Chalk wrote: »

Hello,
I'm wondering about this, if a website has good ranking on Google (page 1), but there are no calls or emails coming in, does that simply mean that the design of the website is worse than its competitors?

It may not be the "design" of the site; it may be its content ?

Is there pricing info on the site ? This can work both ways, as (a) if it's not there, someone might look elsewhere or (b) they might look at that site and then look at the next few to compare prices.

Also, have you had people look at it for you and say whether, having come across the site, they'd go "yes, this is someone / a company I'd like to book / buy from" ?

cormee

Where on page 1 does it rank?

Anywhere after #6 and it may as well not exist http://tyn.ie/Hc

but besides position there are many other factors that could be responsible for lack of response, post a link to your site and we could probably give you some feedback.

was.deevey

What keywords / phrases is it getting ranking on page 1 for is what i'd look at first ...

The words might be right, but the phrasing / combinations might not be...adding the likes of an "s" to the product service search my alter it in a way that make dramatic drop in ranks.

e.g. parcel vs parcels

A really good call to action / sign up / enquiry form on the front page might be the way forward if you are getting the hits but not enquiries.

p.s. and no Offence intended, it might just be a crap site :P

Lostinspace

Hi OP, just following on from the last posters comment re call to action..it might be no harm to look at this blog post:

http://boagworld.com/design/10-techniques-for-an-effective-call-to-action

Best of luck

danmanw8

Professor Chalk wrote: »

Hello,
I'm wondering about this, if a website has good ranking on Google (page 1), but there are no calls or emails coming in, does that simply mean that the design of the website is worse than its competitors?

Depends on what you are ranking on Google for.
Is it you product/service you rank for or your business name?

How much traffic are you getting to your website?

PaulPinnacle

As others have said, it really needs more detail here for anyone to give a meaningful comment.

If you're ranking for terms that just don't/won't convert (even if they're competitive terms), it might simply be wasted effort and you'd be better off focusing your efforts elsewhere. Getting traffic volume and getting converting traffic can go hand in hand, but don't always.

You mention good ranking (page 1), but not volume. If your page is ranked low on page one and has a poor title/description, it's possible that you're getting little or no volume from it. Ignore the ranking on page 1, that shows nothing other than you're doing better than those below you in terms of ranking for that term. The only thing you need to consider when looking at improving your conversions is how much traffic you're getting, where you're getting it from and how it's converting (or not).

If you're using google analytics, it'll give you a good base to start working from. How many unique visitors are you getting, how many return visitors, what pages are these visitors viewing, what pages have high bounce rates, where is the sales/conversion funnel breaking down, etc etc.

You say it's a competitive market, so are you standing out from the crowd? Are you providing your customers more than the competition is? Are you offering better value? What do you do that's better than the rest?

Just as important... are you making the benefits clear to the customer? Have you got your USP highlighted to them quickly and clearly?

Problems here could be due to design, layout or appearance of the site, but it could be due to a million other factors too. If you don't have a clear call to action, if you don't make it easy for a visitor to convert, if you don't provide them with good value, if you don't earn their trust, if you don't interact with them to build a relationship... each of these things could just as easily explain the problem.

p

It could be any number of factors. Do some usability testing to see if that's an issue. Check your stats to see if people are coming from the right country/location and how long they're staying on the site. it's possible that the keyword you're number 1 for isn't actually what people are searching for. Being number one for 'car mechanic dublin' would be very useful if that's what you did, but if the same site was coming up number one for 'replacing spark plugs' it wouldn't do much business from that result.

This might help somewhat:
http://thinkvitamin.com/design/turning-visitors-into-users/