Why does my website attract the wrong enquiries?

Your inbox is busy with work you don't want: tiny jobs, services you stopped offering or requests from places you cannot cover. Answering them takes time, and the website keeps sending more.

Before adding stricter form fields, check what the page led those people to expect. A polished website can still describe a different business from the one you want to run.

What makes an enquiry the wrong fit?

Define the mismatch before trying to filter it out.

A website attracts wrong-fit enquiries when its offer, examples or contact route suggest work the business doesn't sell. Traffic sources can create the same mismatch, even when the page itself is clear.

Review a small set of recent enquiries privately. Group them by the practical reason they don't fit: service, project size, location, timing or a misunderstanding about the deliverable. Keep personal details out of any public example.

"Bad leads" is too vague to fix. "People ask for an hourly assistant, but we sell complete projects" gives you something to inspect on the page.

Also separate an unsuitable enquiry from an early question. Someone asking what a project costs might be a good prospect who cannot yet tell which scope they need.

Which promise is bringing them in?

Find the page or message that started the conversation.

Ask new contacts how they found you when that information isn't already available. Review the relevant landing page, search result, directory listing, advert or referral message. Your homepage may be accurate while an old service page still promises the work you stopped doing.

Compare each recurring mismatch with the language that could explain it.

Repeated enquiry	Possible invitation on the site	Useful clarification
Requests for a service you don't offer	Broad service labels or old examples	Name the current service and its boundaries
Jobs much smaller than your engagement	Only small tasks shown in the work	Explain the scale and deliverable you take on
Calls from outside your coverage	Location or remote availability unclear	State where and how you work
Unrealistic deadlines	Words such as "instant" or "fast" without context	Explain how scope and scheduling are agreed

These are hypotheses to check, not diagnoses from the wording of one email. Correct the source that actually created the expectation.

Does the page describe the work you want to sell?

The examples and boundaries need to support the same offer.

Imagine a hypothetical architecture practice that wants complete residential projects. Its homepage leads with "Advice for every home", and its visible examples are small room consultations. A visitor asking for an hour of decorating advice is responding reasonably to that presentation.

The practice could name the service more precisely, explain the stages of a residential project and show representative work. It doesn't need to insult small projects or hide the contact details.

Check your own page for three things:

• A clear description of the engagement you want to sell.
• Examples that represent that engagement, with concept work labelled honestly.
• Boundaries a buyer needs to know before asking, such as coverage or the kind of project accepted.

Use the homepage understanding test to see whether someone describes the same offer back to you. If they understand it but still expect a different scope, focus on the deliverables and examples.

Should you show a price or minimum engagement?

A truthful price boundary can help a buyer judge fit.

Use a fixed price only for a defined service. A range needs a clear explanation of what changes it. If every engagement varies, describe a meaningful starting scope rather than inventing an attractive low figure.

For website work, a design file and a finished website are different purchases. Our website budget guide shows why the deliverable belongs beside the number.

Don't expect a minimum price to solve every mismatch. Someone could have the right budget and need a service you don't provide. The offer still has to do its job.

If the site keeps inviting the wrong kind of project, we can reshape the offer and the pages around the work you actually sell. We would agree the audience, deliverables and enquiry route before designing the screens, so the visuals and words point in the same direction. Start with a free intro call, or send the recurring mismatch to hi@aruno.studio, WhatsApp or Telegram @mihaipostelnicu.

How much qualification belongs in the form?

Ask for the information that changes whether the first conversation can be useful.

A short question about the service needed or the intended launch can help. Requiring a complete specification, exact budget, company history and several uploads may create work before you've established the fit.

Explain why you need an answer when it isn't obvious. Make optional questions visibly optional, and provide a route for someone who doesn't yet know the detail.

Then check the whole form on a phone. A useful question still fails if the field is awkward or the submission disappears. The website testing checklist helps separate qualification from a broken contact route.

How do you judge whether the change worked?

Measure the fit of the conversations, not only their number.

Keep the same mismatch groups after the revision. Look for whether suitable people now describe the correct service, understand the engagement and arrive with more realistic expectations.

A fall in total enquiries might be acceptable if fewer ask for work you don't do. It might also mean you've made the page harder to use. Compare the kinds of enquiry and test the contact route before claiming success.

Keep a note of other changes, such as a new campaign or a referral partner. The website isn't the only place expectations are set.

Frequently asked questions

Should I say who the service isn't for? When the boundary helps a buyer decide, yes. State it calmly and specifically. A sentence about project scope is more useful than a complaint about cheap clients.

Does showing premium design attract premium clients? It can support the way the offer is presented, but appearance alone doesn't establish fit. Your examples, scope, evidence and contact process need to support the same level of work.

What if most unsuitable requests come from referrals? Clarify the offer with the people referring you as well as on the site. Give them a short description of a suitable project they can pass on accurately.

How long before I know the changes worked? It depends on how many enquiries you get, not on a fixed number of days. Compare a similar number of enquiries before and after the change, in the same mismatch groups, so one quiet week doesn't decide it for you.

Should I hide older services completely? Remove or update offers you no longer provide. If a live page needs to move or disappear, plan what happens to its links rather than leaving visitors at an error.

Take the most common mismatch in your inbox and find the promise behind it. That's the sentence, example or route to fix first.