Why Your Website Converts at 2% (And How to Hit 20%)

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In this episode of Marketing for Tradies, Shannon breaks down the real reason your website isn't bringing in work, and it's not the design. It's not the copy. It's that a website was never built to solve the problem you're trying to solve. She walks through what a lead system actually looks like, why sales funnels convert at up to 10x the rate of a standard website, and what you need to fix if you want consistent jobs booked every week.


This episode covers:
◼️ Why having a great-looking website still won't generate consistent leads
◼️ The difference between a website problem and a lead system problem
◼️ Why landing pages inside sales funnels convert at up to 20% vs a website's 1–2%
◼️ The three things that are broken if you're not getting enquiries right now
◼️ How a sales funnel attracts, engages, and converts your ideal clients automatically
00:00:00 Introduction: Website vs Lead System
00:00:55 Welcome to Marketing for Tradies (New Name, New Direction )
00:01:30 Why Shannon Evolved From Website Design to Sales Funnels
00:02:30 What a Lead System Actually Is
00:03:30 Why Your Website Can't Do What a Funnel Can
00:04:30 The Three Reasons You're Not Getting Leads Right Now
00:05:30 What Happens When Traffic Hits a Broken Website
00:06:30 Why Google Is the Best Traffic Source for Tradies
00:07:15 Landing Pages vs Websites: The Conversion Rate Comparison
00:08:00 What 20% Conversion Rate Means for Your Lead Volume
00:09:00 Solving the Traffic and Conversion Problem Together
00:10:00 What Your Website Is Actually For (And What It Isn't)
00:11:00 The Lead System That Gets You More Jobs, More Consistently
00:11:42 What to Do Next


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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Often people think that they have a website problem because they're not generating leads through their website, but more often than not they actually have a lead system problem. If you only have a website right now that all of the traffic is going to from Google or whatever other traffic sources that you have, it may be converting at like one or two percent. Some of our landing pages inside sales funnels convert up to 20%. So if you're not getting consistent, high-quality leads coming through your service-based or trades business right now and you only have a website, it's because the website itself is not the solution. Welcome to Websites That Convert, the podcast where your website stops being a liability and transforms into your greatest asset. I'm your host, Shannon, and I'm going to guide you through the strategies and insights you need to build a website that not only attracts but converts. Let's dive in. Hello and welcome to the first episode of 2026. This is the Marketing for Tradies podcast. You'll notice a whole new name, all new content coming your way this year. It's been almost two years since we started the podcast, so there was a natural evolution from websites that convert into marketing for tradies because the business has evolved, our offers evolved, the way that we do marketing has evolved. And really, this podcast is now designed to help tradies and service-based businesses learn the strategies needed to generate consistent online leads so they can book jobs, grow their business with less stress and less time needed. And so today's episode, we are covering one of the most common topics that we're seeing right now, which is why do I have a website and it's still not bringing in new leads and business? So the reason that we actually evolved our offer, evolved the business, evolved everything from being a website design agency into now creating funnels for tradies and service-based businesses, is because we saw a big shift in the market. Often people think that they have a website problem because they're not generating leads through their website, but more often than not, they actually have a lead system problem. What I mean by that is that what kind of website you have, whether it looks terrible, it looks good, it's created by someone who knows what they're doing, if you don't have a system around how you're actually getting traffic to that website, how it's converting people into leads, what happens after the leads come through your business, it's not gonna bring in an ROI. Everything that we do and everything that I want to teach you on this podcast is around creating a return on your ad spend and return on your marketing investment. That means that we want to give you strategies, systems, tactics that are actually gonna generate revenue and profit for your business. So you can either, you know, take that revenue or take that profit and invest it in your lifestyle to improve your lifestyle and you know, whatever you're doing outside of the business, or reinvest it back into your marketing so you can continue to scale up. And when a business creates a website thinking that they just need that website to generate leads, they're missing a whole slew of things that are actually the driving factors around what's gonna generate leads and get jobs booked for the business. So if right now you are one of those people that have a website, maybe you've invested heavily into creating this website, maybe it actually looks quite good, but it's not bringing in work. The truth is that you don't have a website problem, you have a lead system problem. So let me explain a little bit further what a lead system actually is. A lead system is a way that your business is going to firstly be found by someone who is in your target market and actively looking for what you offer. It is having a platform to send traffic to that's designed to convert and has the right strategies, frameworks, structure that makes people want to buy from you or work with you, and having a way to handle those leads systematically. So it doesn't matter how many you're generating, you can continue to scale that up in an automated way. And what's happening after those leads come through, so you can continue to scale up, get more volume of leads coming through, knowing that you have a process in place that is ideally automated to handle those leads and convert them into customers for you. So I call this having a lead system problem. You don't have a website problem, you have a lead system problem. If you're not generating inquiries consistently, you're not getting book jobs, you're relying on referrals and word of mouth, which are unreliable and unscalable, you don't have a way to generate leads and you don't have a way to handle those leads effectively. That's the problem that you're facing right now. The solution to this problem is creating a sales funnel. A sales funnel is a system that's designed to attract, engage, and convert people in your target market so you can generate leads and get those jobs booked and sales coming in consistently in a systematic way. The reason that your website cannot do this is because firstly, you're not getting enough traffic. No one can find you. When someone searches for your services on Google, you're not coming up. The second reason is that even if you are being found on Google right now or found in some way by people that are in your target market and actively searching for what you do, is that they're going to your website and they're getting confused. The design isn't structured the right way, it's not appealing for people, it doesn't position you as an expert, it doesn't help you stand out from your competitors, there's too much information, there's too many options, and it's really not clear. And more than likely, it's not clear what they need to do next. If you are getting the right traffic and you have a website that's set up to convert, but you're still not getting sales, or you're still not getting the revenue and you're still not getting the return on your ad spend, you're either not generating the right type of leads, you're not generating enough leads, or your sales process is broken, which is a part of this whole lead generation system. So you're either not getting enough traffic wherever that traffic is going is not being sent to the right place, and your website's completely broken, not designed to convert, confusing people, actually impacting your business more by even having it in the first place, or what happens after someone inquires isn't really streamlined, and you're not able to convert those leads into customers and get the return on your investment or get those sales and jobs booked in consistently because that process is broken. Now, what I just went through there is what a sales funnel literally solves for anyone. So, what a sales funnel is gonna look like, it's gonna look like having a way for people to find you. Google is the best place for you to market as a tradey or service-based business because these are people that are actively searching for what you offer and ready to take action. We know that those people are ready to take action because they're putting those keywords into Google saying, I need this service in this location. And if you can come up for those people, get them to click and send them to somewhere that is selling your services for you separate from your website, because your website's gonna confuse people, there's too much stuff on there, it's not gonna convert at the highest rate possible. A landing page that's created with the right frameworks that are gonna engage your traffic, engage your potential clients, engage your target market in a way that's gonna make them want to take action, can convert at a much, much higher rate than a website. So when we compare a website to a landing page inside of a sales funnel, the landing page can convert at three or four times higher than a website because of all of those reasons I listed out before. It doesn't matter what the website looks like, it's how it functions and it's how it converts. So a landing page creates a structured way for this traffic to engage with your business and engage with your offer and makes them actually want to take action without all these distractions or exit signs or different content, different pages to look at. It's just one single page that's designed to sell that specific service or the services of your whole business, depending on the nature of what you offer, and it's more direct response. What that means is it's actually actively speaking to a certain type of person that has a certain type of problem that your business and the services that you have is the solution for. To put into perspective exactly how this could impact your business, if you only have a website right now that all of the traffic is going to from Google or whatever other traffic sources that you have, it may be converting at like one or two percent, you know, which is pretty standard. Some of our landing pages inside sales funnels convert up to 20%. So if you were to change nothing else in your business but create a landing page that you're sending your traffic to that's designed to convert, and it was converting at 20% versus 2%, that's a 10x times lead volume instantly without changing anything else. Now, you may say to me, Well, I'm not getting any leads at all through my website. And I would say, well, that's probably because you're not getting enough traffic or you're not getting any traffic to the site. So that's an issue that needs to be solved too. But when you address the traffic and conversion problem, then those two things together can drive so much better results for your business by increasing lead volume, increasing lead quality, and increasing the amount of consistency that you're able to create and how you're able to scale your business because you have that, those consistent leads coming through. But you may say to me, Well, I'm not getting any leads through my website at all right now. So, you know, I can't even imagine what it would be like to double or triple because right now it's zero. And the reason that that is is because you're probably not getting enough traffic or the right type of traffic coming through to the website right now. But when you create a sales funnel, you're gonna be making sure that you're getting the right traffic, you're sending them to the right place and addressing that traffic and conversion issue or that conversion problem at the same time. But what I know for sure is that your website will never convert at the rate that a high converting landing page will that's created with the right frameworks, the right structure, the right messaging, and the right conversion actions. You'll always have a higher conversion rate when you're sending good quality traffic consistently to a landing page versus a website. Doesn't matter what it looks like, doesn't matter how many different services you're advertising on there, a landing page is going to convert at a higher rate. So if you're not getting consistent, high quality leads coming through your service-based or trades business right now, and you only have a website, it's because the website itself is not the solution. You got the website thinking it would solve a problem that it doesn't solve. The website is there to build authority, to give you brand credibility, to showcase what you're capable of as a service provider. A sales funnel is the solution because you have a lead system problem right now. You don't have a website problem, you have a lead system problem. And when you can solve your lead system problem by getting in front of the right people, driving traffic to a high converting landing page and having a way to handle those leads systematically and automatically, you're gonna get more customers, more sales, more jobs booked, and that's gonna get you a return on your marketing spend, a return on your ad spend, and return on whatever investment you're putting in to your marketing and advertising right now. So I hope this episode has been helpful in understanding why your website isn't generating consistent leads right now and what you can be doing instead. Thank you so much for being here and I will see you next time. Thank you for listening to Websites That Convert. If you found value in this episode, please give us a five star review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Follow us on all social media, and if you're a service based business owner that's looking to double their website conversions, book a call with my team using the link below. I'll see you in the next episode.