Three months on a builder's website: what I changed to get enquiries

In February, a house builder from Sibiu County wrote to us. He was spending money on ads, getting visitors, and had a good-looking page. Enquiries, almost none.

I'm not writing a universal process here. I'm writing what we did in his case, in order, including the part where we were wrong.

First week: we touched nothing

The client was paying to increase enquiries, and the first thing I told him was that we wouldn't change anything for seven days. His reaction was exactly what you'd expect.

The reason: there was no reliable measurement in place. The form was tracked, but clicks on the phone number and WhatsApp weren't. For a construction company, where people call, this meant we weren't seeing most contacts.

We set up separate events for the form, phone, and WhatsApp. We wrote down the definition of conversion somewhere – what we count, what we don't – so that in two months we wouldn't be comparing different things. We started session recordings and click maps.

Then we watched. What we saw on the first day of recordings: people clicking on photos of past work, expecting them to open larger. They weren't links. Nothing happened.

What we found at the top, on the first screen

The title was "Complete solutions for your home." Below it, a "Find out more" button that led to the services page.

We changed the title to something that stated what he does and where: turnkey house construction, in Sibiu and surrounding areas. We added a single button, with a verb, that led directly to the form. We added the phone number visibly at the top of the page.

The city in the title is the change that was most quickly noticeable for clients who work regionally. I don't have an elegant explanation; people looking for a builder probably first want to know if you'll come to them. How much it helps depends on the niche and how broadly you work.

Social proof, moved

All testimonials were in a section at the bottom. From the click map, it was clear that a good portion of visitors weren't reaching them.

We moved two next to the main button and one next to the form. We removed two that were signed "Andrei M." without a company name, because they looked fabricated, even if they were real. We asked the client for permission to use the full name and locality – three out of five clients agreed.

For each project in the portfolio, we added a phrase of context: what was built, in what timeframe, what was difficult. The gallery alone says nothing about you.

The form, where we lost the most

Eleven fields. Mandatory budget, address, "how did you find us," mandatory message of at least 20 characters.

We reduced it to name, phone, and type of work. The rest optional. Pre-filled phone prefix. Errors written in the field itself, not in a red message at the top of the page. Confirmation after submission that states when someone will call.

The number of enquiries increased noticeably. And the quality dropped a little – enquiries appeared from people who wanted a balcony extension. This was a real discussion with the client: does he prefer five enquiries of which two are suitable, or two enquiries of which one is suitable? He chose the first option and solved the filtering over the phone, in three questions.

The part where we were wrong

We built a separate, very clean page, just for ad traffic. No menu, with the form at the top. The theory said it would perform better.

It performed worse than the normal page, for two weeks in a row. Our unconfirmed hypothesis: for a large purchase, people want to browse the site, see the team, the work, the company. A page with no exits made them suspicious.

We remade it with a menu and a link to the portfolio. That's when it started to produce results. I'm not generalising from one case – for small services and quick decisions, a focused page works well.

Speed, which wasn't the main problem, but mattered

The page loaded slowly on mobile, due to photos of past work uploaded directly from a phone. We resized and converted them. It wasn't the cause of the lack of enquiries, but in combination with paid ads on mobile data, it contributed to abandonment.

What we track now, monthly

Enquiries by channel – form, phone, WhatsApp – separated by ads and organic. How many enquiries become discussions and how many become quotes; the client keeps track of this part in his own table.

What we don't track: time spent on page and scroll depth. These are signals, not enquiries, and they make you feel good for no reason.

If you sell services and traffic isn't converting into calls, open your website with us for a 20-minute call. We'll tell you what we'd measure in the first week.

What we change first, when the budget is small

Not all interventions have the same effort-to-effect ratio. The order below is what we use when the client can only afford a few days' work.

The row with prices is the one that scares clients. Yes, total enquiries sometimes decrease. But those that lead to a contract increase, and time wasted on the phone decreases.

How we decide, when we can't test

With low traffic, serious testing isn't possible, and we say that instead of inventing percentages. What we do: we look at where people stop, listen to calls, read what they write in the form, then change one thing at a time and track enquiries for a few weeks.

The most useful source of ideas for conversion isn't a tool; it's the person who answers the phone at the company.

What we don't recommend

Pop-up windows immediately, fake timers, "limited offer" messages that reset with every visit. They are obvious, recognisable, and damage trust. If a client insists, we tell them what we think and they decide.

A measure that backfired

We added a chat for quick replies to a page. Form enquiries decreased, and no one was replying to the chat quickly enough. We removed it and stuck with the form and WhatsApp. Since then, we don't add a new channel without being sure who will cover it.

What we track as a result

Enquiries submitted, mobile calls, WhatsApp messages. Not time spent on the page and not scroll depth. They are interesting, not decisive.

If you have traffic and few enquiries, we'll look at your pages and send you a list in the order we'd work.