Off Page Issues That Keep Your Phone from Ringing
You can fix your on page SEO. You can clean up your call to action buttons, update your forms, and make sure your phone number is clickable on every page. You can do everything right on your actual website. And still the phone sits silent. In our last blog, we talked about many of those on site issues in detail and how they affect conversions.
It is easily one of the most frustrating situations for any business owner to be in. You see that there is clearly traffic coming to your site and you feel like finally starting to pull its weight. More exposure. More impressions. More visits. Everything should be working. But it is not.
The truth is simple. Not every problem that affects conversions lives on your website. Some of the biggest issues that stop people from contacting you happen off the site. These off-page features are what Google uses to learn who you are, what you offer, and whether you are a trusted local business. When those signals are not accurate or strong enough, your website can only do so much.
Let’s look at some of the most common off page issues that quietly hold businesses back.
Your Google Business Profile May Be Sending the Wrong Signals
When it comes to local search, your Google Business Profile is one of the most important tools you have. It tells Google your real world information. It helps customers decide if your business is worth calling. It also helps determine if you show up in the map results.
If your categories are wrong, Google might think you are something entirely different than what you actually do. For example, if you own a landscaping company and the main category is set to “Gardening Store” instead of “Landscaper,” you might attract people who want plants instead of people who want their yard taken care of.
Your Google Business Profile also needs to have accurate and true information that matches what can also be found on your website. Your name, address, and phone number need to be consistent. This is often called NAP consistency. If your Google listing shows one phone number and your website shows a different one, Google can lose trust in which one is correct. That can hurt your rankings and can also lead customers to call the wrong number.
Your “Call Now” button should work, too. It sounds obvious, but you would be surprised how often those buttons break or get linked incorrectly. Add in some recent photos, post updates occasionally, and collect reviews. These little things help show Google that your business is active and legitimate.
All of this matters because your Google Business Profile is the first impression for many customers. If this listing is off, confusing, or incomplete, it will not matter how polished and perfect your website is.
Your Keywords Might Not Match What You Are Actually Selling
Sometimes a business ranks well for keywords that get a lot of traffic but almost none of it is buyer focused. It is very common. A plumbing company might rank for a phrase like “how to unclog a drain.” That sounds great at first. Lots of people search that phrase. But almost none of those people want to hire a plumber. They are trying to fix the problem on their own. They are looking for information, not a service.
Those types of informational keywords can bring in traffic but they rarely bring in customers. If your goal is more phone calls, then your content and your SEO should focus on commercial or service intent keywords. Things like “plumber in Green Bay” or “emergency drain cleaning near me.”
This shift in keyword intent can make a huge difference. You want keywords that match what you actually sell and what your ideal customers are truly searching for when they are ready to buy. A user who is ready to hire will convert at a much higher rate than someone who is researching a school project or trying to fix something on their own.
Traffic is not the goal. The right traffic is the goal.
Use Behavior Tools to See What Is Really Happening
Even after your keywords are dialed in and your Google Business Profile is set up correctly, it is still important to understand how people interact with your website and content. This is where tools like heat maps and session recordings can be helpful.
A heat map shows where users click the most on your site. It will highlight the hot spots or most clicked spots on your page. You might even find that people are clicking on things that are not even clickable. That is a sign of confusion for your users. Sometimes you will see that the main call to action button gets ignored because it blends into the rest of the design.
Scroll tracking shows how far visitors make it down your page. If most users only make it halfway, they may never even see your contact information or your main selling points.
Microsoft Clarity offers session recordings that let you watch how real users move around your site. You can see rage clicks, hesitation, quick exits, and patterns that analytics alone cannot show. This gives you real data on where people are dropping off.
The more you know about the users behavior on your site, the better you can adjust your message and layout so that people stay on the page and feel confident connecting with you.
Do Not Overlook the Human Element
Even with great SEO, a solid Google Business Profile, and a perfect website, your messaging still needs to connect with real people. That is the human element. That human element is one that many businesses overlook.
If you target people who are only looking for the cheapest option, they might check out your site time and time again, but never reach out or make a purchase. If your value is not clearly communicated and explained, people will not feel as confident contacting you. If your pricing or service descriptions are too vague and confusing, people may leave without taking the next step to doing business with you.
Marketing is not about chasing clicks. It is about building trust. People contact businesses they trust. They buy from companies they feel understand them. Even a steady stream of traffic will not convert if your message does not connect with the right audience.
What Small Business Owners Can Learn From This
There are a few key lessons any small business owner can take away from situations like this.
More traffic does not fix a broken strategy. Your Google Business Profile is just as important as your website. Keyword intent matters more than keyword volume. Behavior tools reveal the things you cannot see on your own. Most importantly, your marketing needs to match your business strategy and your ideal customers.
When all of that comes together, the phone starts ringing.
Off Page SEO Plays a Bigger Role Than Most Business Owners Realize
When you look at your analytics and see a regular stream of traffic coming in, it can be easy to assume that everything is working great. The unfortunate reality of it is that off page SEO carries just as much weight as your website itself. Things like your Google Business Profile, keyword intent, reviews, consistency across the web, and even the way people interact with your pages all play a role in whether someone feels confident enough to contact you.
You can have a great website. You can have the perfect call to action. You can even rank well. But if the signals outside your site are confusing or incomplete, customers will hesitate. Off page SEO often acts as the deciding factor between a visitor and a lead. Understanding how these pieces work together helps you build a clearer path for people to reach out when they are ready to talk.
Need Help Strengthening Your Off Page SEO?
If you are getting solid traffic but still not seeing the calls or form submissions you expect, let Full Scope Creative take a look. We can review your Google Business Profile, keyword strategy, local signals, and the behavior patterns of users that affect how they might be interacting with your business online. We can then help to tighten the parts that are holding things back.
If you want a clearer picture of why your traffic is not converting and what you can do to fix it, get in touch with Full Scope Creative. We can help you build the kind of off page SEO foundation that supports real, measurable growth.