To get more calls from your website, make the phone number impossible to miss and effortless to use on a phone: put it in the first screen, make it dial when tapped, say when you answer, keep it on screen as the visitor scrolls, name the towns you serve beside it, and remove whatever sits above it. Those six changes cost almost nothing and they move more calls than a redesign that does not make them.
This is the fourth reason in why your website isn't generating leads, turned into a list of fixes.
1. The number in the first screen
Load your homepage on your phone and do not scroll. If you cannot see the phone number, most of your visitors cannot either. Put it in the header, and put it again as a button directly under the headline. On a desktop the header is enough; on a phone the button is what gets pressed.
2. Make it dial
A phone number written as plain text has to be copied, switched to the phone app and pasted. Many people will not bother. Every phone number on the site should be a tap-to-call link. Test it: tap it on your own phone and see whether the dialer opens with the number filled in.
3. Say when you answer
"Call us" is weaker than "Call us — we answer 7am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday". People hesitate to call a number when they do not know whether anyone will pick up. If you answer after hours, say so plainly; if you do not, say when a message will be returned, and make sure that is true.
4. Keep it on screen
On a phone, a slim bar fixed to the bottom of the screen with "Call" and "Message" on it means the number is one tap away from every part of every page. It is the single most effective change for a trade where people call in a hurry, like a plumber or an HVAC company.
5. Name the towns beside it
Someone in a neighbouring town who cannot see their town named will often assume you do not come out to them and call someone else. "Serving Columbus, Seymour and Franklin" next to the number answers that question before it is asked. Use the same towns as your Google listing.
6. Remove what sits above it
Sliders, welcome messages, announcement bars, large logos and "scroll down" arrows all push the number further from the top of the screen. Every one of them costs some calls. If something above the headline is not doing a job, take it out. The homepage checklist lists what belongs in that first screen and in what order.
Then check the other end
More calls only help if they are answered. Look at how many calls go to voicemail, how quickly messages are returned, and whether the number on the site is the one that actually rings the person who answers. A site can be perfect and the business still lose the job to slow pick-up.
Check yours
The free website audit tests whether your homepage has a tap-to-call number, an email link or a working form, and whether the page works on a phone. Then read the first screen yourself as a stranger would: does it say what you do, where, and how to call? If you are an electrician, the same six apply with one addition: your licence number belongs near the phone number, because it is the first thing your callers check.