Why Your Website is Leaking Money (And How to Plug the Holes)
I want you to imagine something for a second. Imagine you own a retail shop in the middle of Chermside or on a busy street in Fortitude Valley. You’re paying top dollar for rent, you’ve spent a fortune on the fit-out, and you’ve got the best products in Brisbane.
You stand at the back of the shop and watch a customer walk in. They head straight for a shelf, look confused, try to pull a door that clearly says 'push', wander around for thirty seconds, and then walk out without buying a thing.
Then it happens again. And again.
If you were physically standing there, you’d walk over and help them, right? You’d fix the sign on the door. You’d move the product they couldn't find to the front window. You’d make it easy for them to give you money.
But with your website, most small business owners are flying blind. You see that you had 500 visitors last month, but only 2 people called you. You have no idea what those other 498 people did. Did they get stuck? Did they try to click a picture that wasn't a button? Did they get bored because your site took too long to load on their phone?
Most people think 'website data' is a bunch of boring charts and graphs that don't mean anything to a real business. I’m here to tell you that’s rubbish. There is a way to literally watch how people use your site—like a security camera for your business—so you can stop guessing and start making more sales.
The Myth: "If I Build a Nice Website, They Will Buy"
This is the biggest lie in marketing. I’ve seen Brisbane business owners spend $10,000 on a 'pretty' website that looks like a piece of art, only to find out it’s a total lemon when it comes to getting phone calls.
Just because a website looks good to you (or your spouse, or your designer) doesn't mean it works for a customer who is stressed out, sitting in traffic, trying to find a plumber or a lawyer on their iPhone.
We recently worked with a landscaping crowd over in Carindale. They had a beautiful website with high-res photos of every backyard they'd ever done. It was stunning. But they weren't getting any enquiries. When we actually looked at how people were using the site, we found something hilarious (and painful): people were trying to click on the photos to see the price, but the photos weren't links. Meanwhile, the 'Contact Us' button was hidden at the very bottom of the page where nobody ever scrolled.
They were losing thousands of dollars every week because they assumed people would 'just figure it out'. Customers won't figure it out. They’ll just go to your competitor who makes it easier.
What are Heatmaps and Recordings (In Plain English)?
Forget the technical names. Think of these tools as two things:
1. The 'Footprint' Map (Heatmaps): This shows you where people are clicking and how far they are scrolling. Areas that get lots of action show up as 'hot' (red), and ignored areas are 'cold' (blue). It tells you instantly if people are ignoring your most important information. 2. The 'Security Camera' (Session Recordings): This is a video replay of a real person using your site. You see their mouse move, you see them scroll, and you see exactly where they get frustrated and quit.
When you combine these, you stop arguing about what colour the 'Book Now' button should be and start making decisions based on what actually makes you money.
Why most 'Experts' get this wrong
You’ll hear people talk about 'optimising' and 'user experience'. That’s just fancy talk for 'making it easy for people to buy from you'. Most agencies will give you a 40-page report full of jargon. You don't need that. You need to know: "Why didn't the bloke from Indooroopilly call me after looking at my prices?"
Real Story: The Plumber and the 'Broken' Button
A mate of mine runs a plumbing business. He was spending a fair bit on Google ads but his phone wasn't ringing as much as it should. He thought his prices were too high. He was about to drop his rates and lose his profit margin just to get more work.
We put a 'security camera' (recording tool) on his site for one week. We watched about 20 videos of people arriving on his site from an ad. Do you know what we saw?
On a mobile phone, his 'Call Now' button was being covered up by a 'Cookie Privacy' pop-up that wouldn't go away. People were literally tapping their screens, trying to call him, getting frustrated because they couldn't click the button, and leaving.
He wasn't too expensive. His website was just broken on phones. We fixed that one thing—it took ten minutes—and his phone calls doubled overnight. That’s the power of actually seeing what’s happening.
The Three Big Lies About Website Data
Lie #1: "I need thousands of visitors for this to work"
Rubbish. If you only get 10 visitors a day, but they are all potential customers, watching those 10 people use your site is more valuable than any graph. If 5 of them get stuck on the same spot, you’ve found a way to double your business.Lie #2: "It’s too expensive"
Most of the tools we use have a free version that is plenty for a small business. Even the paid versions are usually less than the cost of a decent lunch in the CBD. If it saves you one lost customer, it’s paid for itself ten times over.Lie #3: "I don't have time to watch videos"
You don't need to watch every single one. You just need to watch 10 or 20 to see the patterns. It’s like checking the oil in your ute—it takes a few minutes but saves you a massive headache later. To make sure you aren't wasting your time, you need to track which website clicks are actually leading to people who have money to spend.How to Spot the 'Money Leaks' on Your Site
When we look at recordings for Brisbane businesses, we look for three things that kill sales:
1. The "Rage Click"
This is when a user clicks a button or a link over and over again really fast. It means they think something should happen, but it isn't. Usually, it's a link that's broken or a picture they think is a button. Every rage click is a customer who is about to leave and never come back.2. The "Dead End"
This is when someone scrolls to the bottom of your page, stays there for a second, and then leaves. It means they were interested enough to read, but you didn't tell them what to do next. You didn't give them a 'Call Now' or 'Get a Quote' button at the bottom. You led them into a dead-end alley.3. The "Mobile Mess"
Most business owners look at their own website on their big office computer. But 70% of your customers are looking at you on a cracked iPhone screen while waiting for their coffee. If your site looks great on a desktop but is a jumbled mess on a phone, you are throwing money away. Recordings will show you exactly how messy it looks to them.Using Data to Beat Your Competitors
Your competitors are likely just guessing. They change their website because they saw someone else do something 'cool'. If you use actual evidence of what your customers want, you have a massive advantage.
For example, if you see people constantly clicking on a specific service in your menu, but that service is buried halfway down the page, move it to the top! It’s common sense, but you can't have common sense without the facts. You need to track exactly which clicks are turning into real profit so you can do more of what works.
Step-by-Step: How to Start This Week
You don't need a degree in IT to do this. Here is exactly what I would do if I were running your business:
1. Install a tool: Use something like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity. They are easy to set up. You (or your web person) just copy-paste one bit of code. 2. Wait 7 days: Let it collect some data from real Brisbane locals visiting your site. 3. Watch the 'Failures': Don't watch the people who bought from you. Watch the recordings of people who spent 2 minutes on the site and didn't call. Why did they leave? 4. Look at the 'Scroll Map': See where people stop reading. If your 'Special Offer' is at the bottom of the page but 80% of people stop scrolling halfway down, move the offer up! 5. Fix one thing: Don't try to redesign the whole site. Just fix the biggest roadblock you found. Maybe it's making a button bigger, or fixing a form that's too hard to fill out.
Common Frustrations: "I’ve tried this and it didn't work"
I hear this sometimes. Usually, it’s because the business owner got overwhelmed by the data. They saw thousands of clicks and didn't know what to do.
My advice? Focus on the money. Look at your 'Contact' page specifically. If 100 people go to that page but only 5 fill out the form, watch the recordings for that page. Are they getting an error message? Is the form too long? Do they get distracted by something else?
Fixing the 'bottom of the funnel' (the part where people actually give you their details) is the fastest way to see more cash in your bank account. It's much better than trying to predict what customers want based on a gut feeling.
Stop Guessing and Start Growing
At the end of the day, marketing isn't about being fancy or clever. It’s about being useful. If your website is a barrier between you and a customer, you’re losing.
I’ve seen dozens of Brisbane businesses—from tradies in Coorparoo to boutique shops in Paddington—transform their results just by paying attention to what their customers were trying to tell them through their actions.
If you're tired of wondering why your website isn't pulling its weight, stop looking at your traffic numbers and start looking at your customers' behavior. The answers are right there, you just have to look.
Want to know exactly where your website is losing you money?
At Local Marketing Group, we don't care about 'pretty' websites—we care about websites that work. We can help you set up these tools, find the roadblocks, and fix them so you get more phone calls and more sales.
Contact Local Marketing Group today and let’s turn your website into a 24/7 sales machine.