First, the 60-second test
Your website is your salesperson. It works while you're coaching, sleeping or on a call with someone else. Like any salesperson, it should answer three questions within a few seconds:
- Who do you help?
- What changes for them?
- What should they do next?
Open your homepage on your phone and look only at the first screen. If someone who has never heard of you can't answer all three, start there.
The 5 most common reasons
1. The headline is about you, not your client
“Certified coach with 10 years' experience” tells a visitor about you. “For managers stepping into their first leadership role” tells them they're in the right place. Lead with who you help and the result. Your credentials belong just below, as proof.
2. There are too many buttons
Book a call, download the guide, join the newsletter, follow on Instagram. When everything is a priority, visitors stop and choose, and a visitor who has to choose often chooses nothing. Pick the one action that matters most for a first-time visitor and make it the only button on the first screen. Put the others further down.
3. It's slow on a phone
Most people find you on their phone, often from a post or a podcast link. In early November 2026 I ran 8 coaching websites through Google's PageSpeed test, and on mobile 6 of the 8 took more than 6 seconds to show their main content. Most of them were good sites. The visitor just never waited long enough to see it.
Test yours at pagespeed.web.dev: paste your link, choose mobile and look at “Largest Contentful Paint”. Over 4 seconds is worth fixing. Over 10 is urgent. The usual culprits are oversized images, heavy sliders and video, and too many plugins.
4. There's no proof near the ask
Testimonials on a separate page don't help the person deciding right now. Put a short, specific testimonial (with a name and, ideally, a result) right next to your main button.
5. The next step is too big
“Book a 60-minute strategy call” is a lot to ask of a stranger. Offer a smaller first step as well: a short quiz, a free guide, a 15-minute intro call or a quick audit. Then follow up.
Two quieter problems worth checking
- Your form doesn't work. Fill it in yourself and check the message actually arrives. Broken forms and buttons are more common than you'd think.
- The page doesn't match where people came from. If your LinkedIn says leadership coaching and your site leads with something else, visitors assume they've got the wrong person.
What to fix first
Work in this order, because each fix makes the next one count:
- Rewrite the first screen so it answers the three questions.
- Cut to one main call to action.
- Fix mobile speed.
- Move proof next to the button.
- Add a smaller first step.
Before you spend money on ads, do all five. Ads don't fix a page that doesn't convert. They just make the leak more expensive.
