Why a site does not sell: seven causes you can spot in a minute

When someone tells us "the site does not work", in eight cases out of ten the problem is not the design. This is the order we look in — cheapest check first.

1. The form does not submit

Mundane and the most common. Check it yourself, from a phone, on another network: fill it in and send. Then check the mail arrived and did not land in spam. Half of all "dead" sites come back to life at this step.

2. The first screen does not say what you do

A visitor has a few seconds. If they do not learn what you do and for whom, they leave. Simple test: show the first screen to an outsider for five seconds and ask what is being sold.

3. No price, not even a range

"Price on request" filters out everyone unwilling to start a conversation for a number. If you cannot name a price, name a floor: projects from this much. That filters mismatches, not clients.

4. No proof

• Work with no outcome: pretty, but what changed?
• Testimonials with no name and no company read as invented
• Not a single concrete number anywhere

Proof is a checkable statement. "We increase sales" is not proof.

5. The phone

Open the site on a real phone, not in a device emulator. The same things break: the menu covers the content, a button slides under the edge, the form will not scroll with the keyboard open.

6. Speed

A first screen that takes longer than three seconds loses people before they see it. Usually it is images: multi-megabyte originals displayed the size of a palm.

7. The enquiry arrives nowhere

The form works, the mail is sent, and nobody reads it: the mailbox belongs to a former employee, notifications are off, the message lands in a folder. Not a website problem — but for the business there is no difference.

Where to start

In order: send an enquiry yourself, show the first screen to an outsider, open the site on a phone. Three actions, half an hour, and in most cases the cause is found without an audit.