Let’s Stop Pretending the New Year Magically Fixes Anything
Every January, the same advice shows up everywhere you look. Fresh start. New beginning. New year, new you. And every year, by the time February rolls around, most people are right back where they started. Same website. Same message. Same frustration about why things still aren’t converting the way they hoped.
I don’t think the issue is motivation or effort. Most business owners I talk to are working hard. The real issue is clarity. Or more accurately, the lack of it.
So instead of talking about starting over, I think a better question is this: what is your website actually saying right now?
Not what you meant for it to say. Not what you think it says because you’ve lived with it for years. What does a complete stranger understand within the first few seconds of landing on your site? Because that’s the only perspective that really matters.
Your website is always communicating, even when you’re not actively doing anything with it. A lot of people assume their site isn’t working because they need more traffic or more visibility. But traffic doesn’t fix a message problem. It just exposes it faster. If someone lands on your site and can’t quickly tell who you help, what problem you solve, and why it matters to them, they don’t sit there trying to figure it out. They leave.
That doesn’t mean your offer is bad. It doesn’t mean they weren’t the right type of client. It usually means your message made them work too hard, and online, people don’t do that.
Most websites talk a lot but say very little. They’re filled with information, service lists, credentials, background, and explanations. All of that might be accurate, but none of it answers the real question going through a visitor’s mind: what’s in this for me? People don’t buy services, and they don’t buy information. They buy outcomes. They buy relief, confidence, momentum, and clarity. If your site focuses more on what you do than on what changes for the client, it’s going to struggle no matter how good it looks.
This is what I mean when I say you’re selling transformation, not information. If that transformation isn’t clear, people hesitate. Or worse, they disappear.
Here’s a simple reality check. If someone spent ten seconds on your homepage, could they easily answer who your business is for, what problem you help solve, what happens if they work with you, and what they should do next? If those answers are fuzzy, buried, or spread across multiple pages, that’s not a small issue. That’s the core problem. And no amount of tweaking headlines or posting more on social media is going to fix it.
One of the biggest traps I see is confusing being busy with being clear. People are posting content, updating pages, adding tools, and trying new ideas, but they never step back and look at the big picture of what their brand message is actually communicating. They stay busy polishing something that isn’t clear yet. That’s why leads ask the wrong questions, pricing conversations feel awkward, and prospects hesitate or ghost. It’s rarely a traffic problem. It’s a clarity problem.
This also isn’t about starting over or scrapping everything you’ve built. In most cases, the pieces are already there. You already know your audience. You already know the problem you solve. You already know the outcome you help people achieve. What’s missing is alignment. Those pieces aren’t being presented in a way that makes immediate sense to someone seeing your business for the first time.
That’s exactly why I offer website review and clarity sessions. Not to nitpick fonts or argue over colors, but to look at what your site and messaging are really saying, where people are getting lost, and how to simplify the message so the right people stay, engage, and take the next step. You’re too close to your own business to see it clearly, and that’s normal. Everyone is.
Sometimes one honest outside conversation saves you months of guessing.
If you want to take a clear, practical look at what your website and brand message are doing right now, you can learn more about my Website Review & Clarity Session here:
https://frankdeardurff.com/website-coaching-frank-deardurff/
This year doesn’t need a “new you.” It needs a clearer message.
