Your website is the core of getting inquiries, bookings and orders from customers.
Yet most people whose websites don't perform as expected simply aren't attracting visitors to their site in the first place.

That's right—the reason a website doesn't produce results is often not that 'the site's content is poor' but that 'the site isn't attracting visitors'... in fact, that's almost always the case.
Unfortunately, a great many site owners never realize this.
In words, the difference is tiny, but these are in fact completely different problems. The solutions are entirely different too.
No matter how attractive and good-looking your website is, it means nothing if users don't come to it.

And on top of that, there's an 'inconvenient truth' that most website production companies won't tell you. And that is...

Sales reps at website production companies will only ever say 'your website's content is poor'.
More precisely, they switch the argument to: 'the reason your site doesn't attract visitors is that the content is poor'.

That's because saying so lets them steer you toward having their company redesign your site.

Wow, your company's website is really well made!
It's well made, sure... but it's not bringing in many customers, is it?
I mean, your search rankings aren't great. If you don't raise your rankings, you won't get any traffic!
But don't worry!
Build your site with us and your search ranking will shoot right up. So a sales boost is guaranteed!!

...Have you ever gotten a sales call with that kind of vibe? To be honest, we get them at our company all the time (^^;) They see our PC school's website and give us a sales call.

Let me be blunt.

Doing that is a 'waste'.
It's important, so I'll say it again: 'a redesign is a wasted investment'.

A website redesign is not the solution to attracting customers

The sales pitch described above is 'mostly a lie'.
The 'mostly' bothers you a little, doesn't it? That's because, depending on the website, it can occasionally be true.

Search rankings are the key to attracting visitors to your website.
Search rankings are determined by all sorts of factors, and 'the content of your website' is one of them.
So improving your content may raise your ranking.

Honestly, though, in most cases you can make improvements without a full redesign, and even if that does raise your ranking for a particular search phrase, the effect in terms of increasing traffic isn't much to speak of.

So if your website isn't performing the way you'd like, the first thing you should consider is whether the problem lies with 'content' or with 'attracting visitors'.
And if you feel the issue is 'attracting visitors', think about the following before you consider a redesign.

There are plenty of ways to attract visitors to your website

There are a huge number of techniques for bringing users to your website.
For example, here are some ways visitors arrive other than through searches on Google, Yahoo! and the like...

* Visits from ads on Google, Yahoo!, etc.
* Visits from external blogs such as Ameblo and Hamazo
* Visits from portal sites (Tabelog, Ekiten and other industry-specific sites)
* Visits from YouTube videos
* Visits from social media such as Facebook, Twitter and LINE
* Visits from Q&A sites such as Yahoo! Chiebukuro
* Visits from e-mail newsletters

That's just off the top of our heads.
Apart from advertising, almost all of these are methods of placing a link to draw visitors to your website.
Specifically:

* Add a link saying "More details here" in a blog post
* List your shop information on Tabelog or Ekiten and add a link to your website
* Upload some kind of YouTube video and add a link to your website
* Post on social media and add a link to your website
* When you find a question on Yahoo! Chiebukuro related to your field of expertise, answer it and include a relevant link
* Send an e-mail newsletter to your existing customers and include a link

And so on... Depending on your ideas, you can attract quite a lot of visitors. What's more, almost all of these can be done for free.

Start by trying out these ways of attracting visitors.
In fact, as you start drawing in visitors, your search rankings will rise as well.
Google naturally knows how much traffic a website is getting, and it evaluates popular sites and raises their rankings.
Popularity is an indicator you can't easily change just by redesigning your site, isn't it?

First attract visitors; only if you still don't get results after doing so should you consider a redesign. Don't forget this order of priorities.