What Your Website is Silently Saying About You (5 Fixes)

Jersey has a fun way of doing business.

Nine times out of ten, we don’t rely on ads, funnels, or aggressive sales tactics.

We hire people we trust. A recommendation, an ex-colleague, a friend-of-a-friend. 

But there’s one moment we often forget.

Before someone calls you, they Google you.

And in those first 10 seconds, your website is silently telling them a story.

We need to ask ourselves: Is it telling the right one?

Let’s break down what your website might be saying behind your back - and how to fix it fast.

Table of contents

1. Nice Jersey photo… but who are you?

2. No social proof? No credibility.

3. Have you answered my question?

4. Walls of text = you don't value my time.

5. Industry jargon = you're just like everybody else.

6. No faces? Who am I even hiring?

7. The 80/20.

1) Nice Jersey photo… but who are you?

Iconic lighthouse. Zero information.

First impressions matter. 

• Scruffy clothes = lazy

• Bad breath = careless

• Showing up late = unreliable

And a homepage full of Jersey stock photos? Cold. Distant. Non-commital. 

At best, it looks like the web designer’s placeholder was never swapped out. 

Or worse, it’s the business equivalent of that copy-paste tattoo your nephew got at a full moon party in Thailand. A wasted moment to show people who you are.

Here’s what your images should be instead:

• You and your team

• Your real work

• Your customers (if possible)

People trust what they can see - give them something real, and they’ll feel far more confident picking up the phone.

2) No social proof? No credibility.

Amazon, Shopify, Temu… what do they all obsess over?

Reviews.

Billions in data all point to the same thing:

more social proof = more people buying.

Your business isn’t any different. We trust what others trust - and we distrust what nobody seems to vouch for.

And no, an old “Testimonials” page isn’t enough. Social proof should work like salt - sprinkled evenly throughout the whole dish, not dumped in one corner.

Use things like:

• Testimonials

• Awards

• Logos

• Numbers served

Worried your proof isn’t “perfect”? Share it anyway. Most people skim. They won’t interrogate it.

Where to put it:

1. Right at the top of your homepage, next to the main button

2. Next to every service

3. On your About page (great spot for numbers)

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"Many websites treat testimonials like a storage problem - everything gets pushed onto a single page and left there. But users don’t read websites that way. They scan. They look for quick signals of trust. A single, well-placed testimonial can outsell an entire page full of them. Users scan for relevance, so pairing the right quote with the right service always beats a distant wall of reviews."

- Harry King, Harry King Studio

3) Have you answered my question?

Every visitor falls into one of two camps:

1. They already know they need you

2. They’re not sure yet

Both have questions.

If your site doesn’t answer them quickly, they drift.

Common questions people want answered

Qualified customers	Unqualified customers
What makes you different from others?	Do I really need this service?
Are we a good fit?	What is the cost of NOT doing it?
What can I expect if I reach out?	What can I expect if I reach out?

Answering these questions will make people feel comfortable. And, as a bonus, will get Google and AI systems talking about you.

4) Walls of text = you don’t value my time.

If someone lands on your site after an evening of scrolling Instagram, the last thing they’re reading is a chunky paragraph.

It may as well be written in Japanese.

They feel like you made their life harder.

Instead, break things up:

• Short lines

• List

• Images

• Quotes

• Data points

Aim for this: no screen on your site should be screenshot-able without some visual variety.

Luckily, this fix is instant - add spacing, add visuals, and your whole site feels friendlier.

5) Industry jargon = you're just like everybody else.

Scan your site.

If you spot three or more of these, it’s a red flag:

Cutting-edge	Best-in-class	Seamless	Trusted advisor
Client-focused	Future-proof	Dynamic	Proven solutions
Innovative	Market-leading	Integrated	Excellence / delivering excellence
Bespoke solutions	End-to-end	Strategic partner	Empower / empowering clients
Tailored approach	Holistic	Results-driven	Partner-led

These words have been used so often they’ve lost meaning. And every second someone spends on your site is precious - don’t waste it with white noise.

Ready to unlock a bespoke, client-centric, best-in-class marketing transformation? At Clarity Digital, we take a holistic, end-to-end, future-proof approach to delivering seamless, integrated solutions that empower your business and drive excellence across every strategic touchpoint. Book a call.

6) No faces? Who am I even hiring?

Cohen Family Law - a great example of local branding.

People don’t hire “a business”. They hire people.

If your site doesn’t show your face, your team, or your actual workspace, then visitors have to guess who they’d be talking to. The more you show, the less they guess - and the more human you feel.

Great places for photos:

1. A clean headshot on the homepage

2. A “meet your team” strip

3. Real workspaces

4. A relaxed photo on your About page

Faces turn a business from “a website” into “a real human I could actually work with”.

7) The 80/20.

At the end of the day, your website doesn’t need to be loud, clever, or complicated. It just needs to reflect who you are, answer people’s questions, and make it easy for them to trust you. Fix a few small things - the photos, the wording, the layout, the proof - and the whole experience suddenly feels more human.

And when your site feels human, people feel comfortable reaching out. Which is the whole point, right?

Curious about your site? Send us your homepage and I’ll record a 3-minute video showing exactly what I’d change.

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James Logue is a Jersey-based marketer with 10+ years’ international experience leading marketing for SMEs. He runs Clarity Digital, helping businesses become the brand AI mentions first. Updated: 2 December 2025.