Beginner’s Guide to Lead Generation on Websites
- 25 November, 2025
- 1:12 pm
Estimated reading time: 6 minutes
Table Of Contents
What Is a Lead?
A lead is simply someone who shows interest in your business and gives you a way to contact them usually through a form, phone call, or email. Your website’s main job is to encourage that moment of action.
1. Your Website’s Real Job: Turning Visitors Into Leads
If you’ve always thought of your website as something that simply shows what your business does, you’re not alone. Many small business owners see their website as an online brochure static, informational, and passive.
But a modern website can do much more. A well designed site can attract visitors, guide them toward taking action, and convert them into real inquiries or sales. Every element of your site from headlines, images, buttons, forms, to testimonials, should work together to encourage visitors to take the next step.
Without clear guidance, even interested visitors may leave your site unsure of what to do. That’s why strategically placed calls to action (CTAs) are essential.
Clear Calls-to-Action (CTAs)
CTAs are buttons, links, or forms that tell users exactly what step to take next. They act as signposts that guide visitors. Without them, people often leave your site without engaging because they aren’t sure what to do.
Examples of strong CTAs:
- “Book a Free Consultation”
- “Get a Quote”
- “Download the Free Guide”
- “Start Your Project”
Tips for effective CTAs:
- Make them obvious and visually prominent.
- Repeat them across relevant pages to reinforce the next step.
- Use simple, action-oriented language that clearly explains the benefit of clicking.
- Position them where visitors are ready to take action — at the end of sections, within service descriptions, or on a floating header/button.
2. Write Helpful Content
When visitors arrive on your website, they’re usually looking for answers to specific questions or solutions to their problems. Providing content that is clear, informative, and relevant not only helps them but also builds trust. Trust is the foundation of generating leads. The more useful your content is, the more likely people are to engage with your business and take the next step.
Here are the main types of high-performing content you should focus on:
Service Pages
Service pages explain what you do and why you’re the best choice. They should clearly cover:
- What you offer
- Who it’s for
- What problems it solves
- Why you’re the right choice
Add CTAs throughout so users can act when they’re ready.
Blog Posts
Blog content helps you attract visitors, answer questions, and build authority in your field. A strong blog:
- Draws traffic from Google and other search engines
- Answers common questions
- Build authority
- Guide people toward solutions you offer
For example, a post titled “How to Fix Slow Website Speeds” attracts people who are already thinking about improving their website — readers who are likely to become leads if you provide a clear next step.
Landing Pages
Unlike general service pages, landing pages are built for one conversion goal. They’re designed to be clean, simple, and purely for conversions.
3. Make It Easy to Contact You
If a website visitor requires help, it should feel effortless for them to contact your business.
Well-Designed Contact Forms
Asking for too much information can discourage users from completing your form. We recommend that you simplify forms and collect the essential information:
- Name
- Message or service interest
Multiple Contact Options
Every visitor has their own preferred way to communicate, for this reason it’s important consider offering multiple contact options:
- Phone number
- Email address
- Contact form
- Live chat or chatbot
- “Book a call” calendar system
4. Build Trust
People are more likely to fill out a form when they trust your business. Trust elements show visitors that you are real, reliable, and reputable. Key trust builders include:
- Testimonials & reviews
- Real photos of your team
- Clear pricing or “starting from” costs
- A strong About page
- Security features (SSL/HTTPS)
- Up-to-date content and recent case studies
We recently created a blog post discussing trust in depth, click here to read more.
5. Improve the User Experience
A confusing or slow website loses leads, even if everything else is perfect.
Fast Load Times
If your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, many visitors leave instantly and may never return.
Clear Navigation
Your menu should be simple, logical, and easy to follow. If people can’t find what they need, they won’t stay long.
Mobile-Friendly Design
More than half of visitors browse on their phones. If your site is difficult to use on mobile, leads disappear quickly.
6. Lead Magnets: Give Something, Get a Lead
A lead magnet is a valuable resource you offer for free in exchange for a visitor’s email address. It’s one of the fastest and most effective ways to build a list of warm prospects who are already interested in what you offer. By providing something genuinely useful, you not only collect emails but also start establishing trust and demonstrating your expertise.
Fresh content helps you:
- Checklists – For instance, “10 Website Mistakes That Cost You Sales” helps users spot problems and positions you as a helpful authority.
- Mini guides – Short, actionable guides provide value quickly and encourage users to learn more about your services.
- Templates – Ready-to-use templates save your audience time and effort, making your resource highly desirable.
- Free audits – Offering a quick website or business audit lets users see their pain points while showing how you can help.
- Discount codes – Giving a small incentive can turn casual visitors into engaged prospects.
- Short video tutorials – Bite-sized, informative videos provide immediate value and create a personal connection with your audience.
Lead magnets work because they exchange value upfront. Users get a practical resource, and you gain a qualified lead who is more likely to engage with your services, subscribe to newsletters, or make a purchase in the future.
7. Optimise Leads Using Analytics
Once the essential elements are in place, the next step is understanding how your website is actually performing and where it can improve. Here’s where simple analytics tools come in.
Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
This a free tool that can be used to find out:
- Which pages get the most traffic
- How long people stay before leaving
- Which buttons or forms they click
- Where visitors come from (Google, social media, email, etc.)
Google Search Console (GSC)
This a free tool that can be used to find out:
- What keywords people search before clicking your site
- How many impressions and clicks your pages get
- Any errors Google finds (which can hurt performance)
How these tools improve lead generation
Reviewing the data gathered by GA4 and GSC every month you can:
- Improve pages that get lots of visitors
- Fix pages that users abandon quickly
- Update content based on real search behaviour
- Spot opportunities for new landing pages or blog topics
Being able to measure how well your website is performing is very important, as you want to be confident that any updates that you make will maximise the quantity of leads that you can generate.
How We Can Help
Lead generation and measurement can be quite difficult. We can help to:
- Define your lead generation methods
- Identify your audience(s)
- Optimise your lead magnet(s)
- Align your website with your other marketing
- Install lead tracking tools (GA4 and Google Search Console
- Improve CTA & optimise your content
- Provide monthly insights
- Ongoing improvements to increase enquiries over time
Free Website Audit
Submit your website using the form below. Receive a personalised website audit in your email inbox, that contains practical advice and tips.