How to Increase Website Conversions: 6 Proven Steps That Actually Drive Revenue

Your website is getting traffic, but visitors aren’t becoming customers. Sound familiar? You’re not alone—most local business websites convert at less than 3%, which means 97 out of every 100 visitors leave without taking action. That’s money walking out the door.

The good news? Increasing website conversions isn’t about redesigning your entire site or spending thousands on fancy tools. It’s about making strategic, targeted changes that remove friction and guide visitors toward action.

In this step-by-step guide, you’ll learn exactly how to audit your current conversion performance, identify what’s blocking visitors from converting, and implement proven fixes that turn browsers into buyers. Whether you’re a plumber trying to book more service calls, a contractor looking for qualified leads, or any local business owner tired of paying for traffic that doesn’t convert—these six steps will help you get more customers from the visitors you already have.

Step 1: Audit Your Current Conversion Performance

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Before you change anything on your website, you need to understand exactly how it’s performing right now.

Start by setting up Google Analytics 4 conversion tracking if you haven’t already. This isn’t optional—it’s the foundation of everything else you’ll do. Configure it to track the actions that matter to your business: form submissions, phone calls, chat initiations, and any other way customers contact you.

Once tracking is live, calculate your baseline conversion rate using this simple formula: (conversions ÷ total visitors) × 100. If you had 1,000 visitors last month and 20 of them became leads, your conversion rate is 2%. Write this number down—it’s your starting point. Understanding website conversion rates is essential before you can improve them.

Now dig deeper. Identify your top 5 landing pages by traffic volume and compare their individual conversion rates. You’ll often find that one or two pages are doing the heavy lifting while others are dead weight. A homepage might get 40% of your traffic but only convert at 1%, while a specific service page gets 10% of traffic but converts at 5%. These insights tell you where to focus your optimization efforts.

Head over to Google Search Console and analyze which keywords are driving traffic versus which are driving actual conversions. You might discover that you’re ranking well for terms that bring curious browsers but not buyers. This data helps you align your content with commercial intent.

The success indicator for this step: you have documented baseline metrics for the top pages you’ll optimize. Create a simple spreadsheet with page URLs, current traffic, current conversions, and current conversion rates. This becomes your scorecard for measuring improvement.

Don’t skip this foundation work. Many business owners jump straight to changing button colors or rewriting headlines without knowing what’s actually broken. You’re smarter than that. Learning how to track marketing ROI will help you measure the impact of every change you make.

Step 2: Analyze User Behavior to Find Conversion Killers

Numbers tell you what’s happening. Watching real user behavior tells you why.

Install a free heatmap tool like Microsoft Clarity on your website. This gives you visual data showing where visitors actually click, how far they scroll, and where they abandon your pages. The insights you get from heatmaps often contradict what you assumed about user behavior.

Here’s the most valuable exercise you can do: watch 10-15 session recordings of real visitors navigating your site. Yes, it takes time. Yes, it’s worth it. You’ll see patterns emerge—visitors who hover over your phone number but never click, people who scroll past your contact form three times, users who click on images thinking they’re buttons.

These recordings reveal friction points that analytics alone never could. You might notice visitors frantically scrolling to find your pricing, or repeatedly clicking a non-clickable element, or abandoning your form after the third required field. Each pattern is a conversion killer you can fix. If you’re seeing website traffic but no conversions, this diagnostic process will reveal exactly what’s going wrong.

Check your bounce rate by individual page. Pages with bounce rates over 70% need immediate attention—visitors are landing and leaving without engaging at all. This usually signals a disconnect between what they expected to find and what your page delivers.

Review mobile versus desktop performance separately. Mobile traffic often converts 50% lower than desktop, and it’s usually not because mobile users are less serious—it’s because your mobile experience is broken. Forms that work fine on desktop become torture on a phone. CTAs that are obvious on a 27-inch monitor disappear on a 6-inch screen.

Common conversion killers you’re looking for: slow load times that make visitors bounce before your page even renders, confusing navigation that hides your most important pages, forms buried below the fold where mobile users never see them, and missing trust signals that leave visitors wondering if you’re legitimate. Sometimes you need to fix website issues before any conversion optimization will work.

The success indicator here: you’ve identified 3-5 specific friction points to address. Write them down with screenshots or recording links as evidence. “Mobile users can’t find the contact form” is actionable. “The website needs improvement” is useless.

Step 3: Optimize Your Calls-to-Action for Clarity and Urgency

Your call-to-action is where conversion happens or dies. Most local business websites treat CTAs as an afterthought—a generic “Contact Us” button tucked at the bottom of the page. That’s leaving money on the table.

Place your primary CTA above the fold on every key landing page. Visitors shouldn’t have to scroll to find out how to work with you. Think of it like a retail store putting the checkout counter in the back corner behind the bathroom—technically it’s there, but you’re making customers work too hard to give you money.

Use action-specific button text that tells visitors exactly what happens next. “Get My Free Quote” beats “Submit” every single time because it’s specific, benefit-driven, and sets clear expectations. “Schedule This Week” beats “Contact” because it creates urgency and clarity simultaneously.

Speaking of urgency—add it without being sleazy. You don’t need fake countdown timers or “ONLY 2 SPOTS LEFT” nonsense. Simple, honest urgency works better: “Schedule This Week” acknowledges that your calendar fills up. “Limited Availability in Your Area” is true if you’re a service business that can only handle so many jobs.

Ensure your CTA buttons contrast sharply with your page design. They should be impossible to miss. If your website is blue and white, your CTA button shouldn’t be light blue—it should be orange, red, or green. The human eye is drawn to contrast. Use it. These website optimization tips can dramatically improve how visitors interact with your pages.

Include a CTA in your navigation bar for persistent visibility across all pages. Many visitors won’t read your entire homepage—they’ll click to your services page, your about page, or a blog post. If every page doesn’t have an obvious path to conversion, you’re losing people.

The success indicator: every landing page has one clear, compelling primary action. Not three competing CTAs. Not a wall of options. One obvious next step that aligns with what that specific visitor needs.

Step 4: Build Trust Signals That Eliminate Buyer Hesitation

Local customers are inviting strangers into their homes or trusting them with their business. That requires a level of trust that generic websites don’t build.

Add customer reviews and testimonials near your CTAs—not hidden on a separate testimonials page nobody visits. Social proof reduces anxiety at the exact moment visitors are deciding whether to contact you. A five-star review from someone in their city carries more weight than any marketing copy you could write.

Display trust badges prominently: Google Premier Partner status, BBB ratings, industry certifications, years in business, insurance verification. These aren’t just decorative—they’re shorthand for “we’re legitimate and accountable.” Place them near forms and CTAs where decision-making happens.

Include real photos of your team and your actual work. Stock photos kill credibility with local customers who can spot generic imagery instantly. A photo of your actual crew standing in front of your actual trucks tells visitors you’re a real business, not a lead-generation front or a fly-by-night operation.

Add a visible phone number in the header of every page. Many local customers—especially for emergency services or high-ticket purchases—prefer to call rather than fill out forms. If they have to hunt for your phone number, they’ll call your competitor instead.

Create a simple guarantee or risk-reversal statement. “Free estimates with no obligation” removes the fear of getting locked into a high-pressure sales pitch. “Same-day service or your first hour free” shows confidence in your operations. You don’t need elaborate guarantees—just something that says “we stand behind our work.” Building trust is also essential when you’re working to generate qualified leads online.

The success indicator for this step: visitors can verify your legitimacy within 5 seconds of landing on your site. They should immediately see signals that you’re established, credible, and accountable.

Step 5: Streamline Your Forms and Reduce Friction

Every form field you add is a barrier between visitors and conversion. Research consistently shows that every extra field reduces completion rates by 4-5%. Yet most local business websites ask for everything upfront—full name, email, phone, address, service needed, preferred date, budget range, how did you hear about us, and your firstborn child’s social security number.

Cut your form fields to the absolute minimum needed to start a conversation. For lead generation, name, phone number, and service needed is often enough. You can gather additional details during the actual conversation when trust is already established.

Think about it from the visitor’s perspective. They don’t know you yet. They’re not ready to hand over their life story. They just want to know if you can help them and what it might cost. Make it easy for them to raise their hand and say “I’m interested.” Understanding how to optimize landing pages for conversions will help you design forms that actually get completed.

Add inline validation so users see errors immediately as they fill out the form, not after they hit submit and lose everything they just typed. Nothing kills conversion faster than making someone re-enter information because your form didn’t tell them the phone number format was wrong until after they submitted.

If you absolutely must use a multi-step form, include a progress indicator. “Step 2 of 3” tells visitors how much more effort is required and reduces abandonment. People are more likely to complete something when they can see the finish line.

Offer multiple contact options beyond just a form. Include a click-to-call button for mobile users, add live chat if you can staff it during business hours, and make sure your physical address and email are visible for those who prefer other channels. Different customers have different preferences—accommodate them all.

The success indicator: your primary lead form has 5 or fewer fields and works flawlessly on mobile. Test it yourself on your phone. Fill it out while standing in line at the grocery store. If it’s frustrating for you, it’s frustrating for your customers.

Step 6: Test, Measure, and Iterate for Continuous Improvement

Here’s where most businesses fail at conversion optimization: they make changes once and never look back. Real improvement comes from ongoing testing and refinement.

Start with A/B testing on your highest-traffic page first. This gives you the fastest path to statistical significance. Test one element at a time—if you change the headline, CTA, and form length simultaneously, you won’t know which change drove the results.

Follow this testing priority order: headlines first (they determine if people engage at all), then CTAs (they determine if engaged visitors take action), then form length (it determines if interested visitors complete the process), then page layout, then trust signals. This sequence addresses the biggest conversion levers first. Learning how to create high converting landing pages gives you a framework for what to test.

Run each test for at least 2 weeks or 100 conversions before declaring a winner, whichever comes first. Calling tests too early leads to false conclusions. You might see a 20% lift in week one that disappears in week two. Statistical significance matters—most A/B testing tools will calculate this for you.

Document every test result in a simple spreadsheet, including the ones that fail. A test that showed no improvement still taught you something about your audience. Maybe they don’t respond to urgency language. Maybe they prefer specific pricing over ranges. Failed tests eliminate bad hypotheses and sharpen your understanding.

Set a monthly calendar reminder to review your conversion data and plan your next test. This isn’t a project you complete—it’s an ongoing process. Customer behavior changes. Competitors evolve. Your market shifts. Continuous testing keeps you ahead. Once you’ve improved conversions, you can focus on how to increase online sales even further.

The success indicator for this final step: you have an established testing process, not a one-time optimization. You know what you’re testing next month and why. You have a backlog of test ideas based on data, not guesses.

Your Action Plan Starts Now

Let’s break this down into immediate next steps you can take today:

Week 1: Audit your current conversion rate and identify your top 5 pages by traffic. Install Microsoft Clarity or another heatmap tool and let it collect data.

Week 2: Watch 10-15 session recordings and document specific friction points you observe. Check mobile versus desktop performance and note any major differences.

Week 3: Optimize every CTA for clarity, visibility, and action-oriented language. Move your primary CTA above the fold on key landing pages.

Week 4: Add trust signals—reviews, badges, real photos—near conversion points. Simplify your main lead form to the bare essentials.

Ongoing: Commit to A/B testing starting with your highest-traffic page. Test one element at a time and document results.

Increasing website conversions isn’t a one-time project—it’s an ongoing process of understanding your visitors and removing barriers between them and the action you want them to take. The businesses that win aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the fanciest websites. They’re the ones that relentlessly eliminate friction and make it easy for customers to say yes.

Start with Step 1 today. Install your tracking, document your baseline, and commit to the process. You’ll be surprised how quickly small, strategic changes compound into significant revenue gains.

Need help identifying what’s killing your conversions? The team at Clicks Geek specializes in conversion rate optimization for local businesses—we’ll audit your site and show you exactly where you’re leaving money on the table. If you want to see what this would look like for your business, we’ll walk you through how it works and break down what’s realistic in your market.