7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting View Into Sales

#1 Website Traffic Mismatch

Website visitors from UK can’t buy products shipped to US only. Your foodie followers from Pinterest don’t care about content marketing. No matter how good your website is, you won’t convince a vegetarian to order a steak.

To have a chance to convert your views into sales, you need to make sure those views come from potential customers who are actually interested in your offer.

How to identify and fix website traffic mismatch

Website traffic mismatch comes in 3 main forms:

• No/very few visitors
• Visitors from the wrong sources
• Visitors to the wrong web pages

Here’s how to find out which of these problems you have and how to fix them.

Problem #1: No/very few visitors

Well, I guess the mystery of no conversions is solved then.

This is an expected situation if your website is new, and/or you don’t rank in search, post on social or run paid marketing campaigns.

The solution? Get more targeted traffic, which is a topic of its own worth dozens of books and a gazillion blog posts.

In a nutshell, here’s how you can attract more prospects to your website with digital marketing.

Getting more traffic from organic search

Figure out what phrases your target audience is using to search for the information around their needs and problems. Write (a lot of) articles targeting those phrases. Optimize your sales for search engines as well.

If you have some free cash, hiring an SEO specialist who’ll conduct keyword research and create a content strategy, and a writer to write your content will do the trick faster.

If you have time on your hands and are brave enough to do it yourself, this SEO Beginner’s Guide from MOZ is a great place to start.

Get more traffic from social networks

Figure out what social networks your prospects hang out on and post there regularly demonstrating your expertise.

To make it worthwhile, select only 1-3 social networks to post on, but take your presence their seriously. Post regularly, craft custom and engaging content and engage with the content of others.

Get traffic from paid advertisement

Create pay-per-click campaigns on Google AdWords, Facebook and Co.

Even if you’re planning to hire an agency to run your ad campaigns, make sure you’re familiar with how it works so that you can double-check their work.

Problem #2: Website visitors from wrong sources

Seeing a spike in traffic and already anticipating sales? Hold your horses. Maybe somebody has shared your article on Zest – a place where marketers are looking for content to share, not for things to buy.

To check where those website visitors are coming from, open a report Acquisition -> All traffic -> Source/Medium in Google Analytics.

If you want to see the traffic sources for a specific page, open a Google Analytics report Behavior -> Site Content -> Landing Pages, click on a page you’re interested in in the table, and set Secondary Dimension to be “Source/medium”:

How to get more website visitors from the right sources

Great question! Also knows as the Holy Grail of online business. The answer depends on:

• who your target audience is
• where they hang out online
• how much time/money you have on your hands

…and is often a combination of SEO, social media posting and occasional paid marketing campaigns.

Problem #3: Website visitors to the wrong pages

That’s a typical case of a web page that ranks well in search but has nothing to sell or is top of the funnel content.

Check your Behavior -> Site Content -> All pages. Is it possible that the pages that get many views are purely informative and present neither your offer nor a lead magnet to at least to help you grow your email list?

Would you like to guess how to get visitors to the right pages? Yep, the good old combo of SEO, social media and PPC.

#2 Wrong Audience Targeting

Who’s your target audience? (Gosh, I hope not “everyone” 🙄)

What are their problems and needs? Are you sure you got all of that right?

The thing is, only a proverbial salesman can sell snow to the Eskimos.

In real life? You can’t create a desire if there’s none.

An ultimate proof of this is an “Unsubscribe” page. Whatever words you use or whatever color your “Resubscribe” button is, 99.9999% of the unsubscribers aren’t going to click.

Why? Because they have no desire for your offer (which is, to subscribe).

This happens on your sales pages, too.

Not only when you define your audience wrong but when you misinterpret their stage of awareness.

For example, if you target established businesses with your marketing training, they’ll have no desire to read 10 paragraphs long description of their problems they’re already aware of.

So, you may be better off shortening it down to one paragraph and concentrating on describing the solution you offer – how it helps and why.

Bottom line: Defining your target audience doesn’t end with age, gender or occupation (although it should certainly start there). For every page, think about:

• What do your prospects already know about their situation and your offer?
• What’s missing for them to convert?

Defining your target audience doesn't end with age, gender or occupation. Make sure you get their stage of awareness right.Click To Tweet

#3 Slow website speed

After 4 seconds of waiting, 25% of visitors jump ship. Maybe your visitors don’t make it to your website because it’s so bloody slow.

Website speed optimization myth #1: You need a tech guy to make your website load faster.

The truth is, you can do 75% of the things yourself and speed up your website considerably within an hour of effort.

This table gives you an overview of what you can do yourself:

Want your website to convert better?

Follow the instructions in this guide “How to Make Your WordPress Site Load Faster (Without Breaking It or Going Crazy)”, and you’ll be surprised how easy it to make your website load faster.

#4 Visual Clutter

Do your website visitors have to close two popups and a cookie notification before they can see your content full of ads and shiny visuals? If you put your needs before theirs, they’ll run faster than you can blink.

Visual clutter increases cognitive load (the amount of mental power your visitors need to process the information), which adds friction and makes the user experience worse.

Don’t forget to check how your pages look on mobile devices to make sure they are mobile friendly. Often, web pages that look fine on desktop devices appear cluttered on mobile, because… same amount of content, much less space.

How to avoid visual clutter on your website

• Remove everything that doesn’t contribute to the of that particular web page: irrelevant links, meaningless images, meaningless text highlights, etc.
• Avoid too many visual highlights at once
• Avoid conflicting colors and patterns
• Keep your fonts consistent. My recommendation for playing it safe is to use:
  • 2 fonts (headings/body text)
  • 4 font sizes (heading/subheading/body text/CTA)
  • 3 colors (headings/body text/CTA)

… while keeping everything readable (i.e. readable fonts, font sizes and colors). You can use a third font – a readable script font for (very!) short phrases.

A side note: Your web designer may think otherwise and will try to tell you that using 6 fonts and 10 colors on your website is what “modern web design is about”. In this case, ask them a simple question: “How will using additional font/color/element make my message stronger?” If the only answer they can give you is “It doesn’t, but it looks pretty.” you can disregard their advice.

A real-life example: How removing visual clutter brought a 340% increase in conversions

I got a comment on one of my LinkedIn posts from Michael sharing his “Thank you” page. He embedded a one-question survey on it hoping for responses.

Although it wasn’t the topic of the post, I couldn’t (yet again) keep myself from giving unsolicited advice.

I told Michael that:

• his page has too many visual highlights, calls to action (Download guide, fill out survey, share on social media, etc.)
• …and that whatever he wants his new subscribers to do, they’ll be more likely to do it if it’s the only call to action on the page.

Michael got straight to work.

And what do you know?

Already within 11 days, the updated page got him as many survey responses as his old page did within 4.5 MONTHS! Later, he wrote to me again saying his conversion rate jumped from 6.3% to 27.9% (887 conversions).

Bottom line: Want to increase your conversion rate? Remove the visual noise around important elements on the page (especially your call-to-action buttons).

Real-life example: How removing visual noise raised conversions from 6 to 31%.Click To Tweet

#5 Unclear Message

How do you think your potential customers will buy from you if they can’t even understand what you offer is and how it helps?

Here’s a oh-so-typical example:

After trafic mismatch, such word salad instead of a clear message is the main cause of high bounce rates.

Talk to your prospects like you would talk to them in person. Use plain words and sentences that sound natural to make sure your visitors understand you.

Have you been staring at your website for far too long to judge if your copy is clear? Use these 6 tests to spot and eliminate BS from your copy, in particular:

• The BS Test and the Google Translate Test that find vague, unnatural or too clever copy
• The Forehead Slap Test that finds fake benefits no one gives a damn about
• The “So what?” Test that converts fake benefits into real ones your prospects actually care about
• The 5 Seconds Test that shows you if your prospects can grasp your message quickly
• The Ctrl + F Ego Test that finds spots in your copy where you’re talking too much about yourself

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to use specificity to make your prospects imagine things you’re talking about better. Because if they can’t imagine it, they won’t buy it.

“But how would I know what my potential cusomters think of my message?”

Don’t have the budget to pay people from your target audience to give you in-depth feebdack? Heat maps and session replays are the second best option to learn what your visitors think about your website.

My go-to tool for this is HotJar. I’ve been using it for years to analyze my own website and websites of my clients.

You can use any another tool that lets you record how your visitors interact with your web pages. Just don’t brush it off as “too much work” (because it’s not). Without analyzing real user session recordings, it will be pretty hard to create a high converting website.

#6 No Social Proof

Do you also get an uneasy feeling entering an empty restaurant during lunch time? There must be something wrong with them if their place is so empty, right?

A website without social proof looks as suspicious as an empty restaurant during rush hour.

Use these types of social proof on your website:

• client logos
• trust seals – certifications, awards, “featured in” logos, etc. (but only those your prospects recognize and care about)
• client testimonials
• customer reviews
• case studies

What make a testimonial or review effective?

Not all testimonials/reviews are created equal.

For a testmionial to work their magic and raise your credibility in the eyes of your prospects, it has to be trustworthy. In particular, it should be:

• Short and direct
• Believable:
  • Use full names and, if possible, headshots of the clients
  • Specific enough to sound authentic
• Back up your claims:
  • Reinforce your unique value proposition, and/or
  • Use data behind the value service/product delivers, and/or
  • Address initial fears of your customers and explain how they were eliminated

Little known fact #1: If you have a testimonial carousel, you don’t have testimonials

Do you make your testimonials rotate? Congratulations! You just threw your social proof out of the window.

If you don’t believe me, go try reading them yourself as if you see them for the first time. What, that paragraph disappeared before you could read till the end? Exactly my point.

Not to mention that sliders are generally irritating and ineffective.

Your testimonials are your keys to new clients. So, treat them like royalty and put them prominently on display giving your prospects as much time as they need to read them.

Little known fact #2: Testimonial page weakens your social proof

You don’t have any testimonials on your service pages but have a bunch of them on your Testimonials page?

I see. So, you expect your visitors to take the initiative and check out your Testimonials page to comb through a dozen testimonials to find one that’s relevant to a service they’re interested it.

This explains why you’re still reading this article trying to figure out why your website isn’t converting.

Testimonials are most powerful in context, right next to the claims you make – on your homepage, About, services or landing pages – and this is where they belong.

Did you know? Testimonial page weakens your social proof, and testimonial carousels make your prospects skip your testimonials altogether.Click To Tweet

#7 You Lose to Competition

People shop by comparison. Here’s how to make sure this comparison is in your favor.

A word of caution: Before you draw any conclusions from the info belw, make sure you aren’t comparing cows and tractors. You should only compare your website to the websites of your competitors that:

• are in the same niche
• have similar target audience and business model
• offer products/services that solve similar problems than whatever you sell.

Make sure your website is prototypical

Your website won’t be the first ever website your prospects see in their lives. Moreover, it won’t be the first website they see in your niche.

So, when they think “copywriter”, for example, they already have a mental image of what a copywriter’s website should look like.

This is called “prototypicality” – a mental image your brain creates to categorize stuff. If something is prototypical (i.e. matches the mental image people have for this category), it’s easier to understand and use.

Which means, if your website has the similar look and structure as other websites in your niche, your visitors will have less trouble using it. Plus, prototypical feels familiar, and familiarity evokes trust.

For example, this is a prototypical banner and navigation of a copywriter’s website:

It checks all the boxes: The name of the copywriter, her photo, her specialization, relevant navigation labels, etc. If someone has been looking through many copywriter websites, they’ll easily find their way around this one and, insead of thinking about where to find what, will use all their brain power to attentively read the copy.

And this is a non-prototypical copywriter’s website (in fact, it’s a non-prototypical website in general):

In this case, the website was so unusual that it generated a lot of publicity. Whether it also generated leads remains unknown.

One thing for sure: Having a non-prototypical website is risky, and unless you know the rules you’re breaking, you’re better off with a website that’s prototypical for your niche.

To make sure your website is prototypical for your niche, check out your competitors’ websites and note:

• How many colors / what color palettes they use
• How many / what pages are in the navigation
• How’s the homepage structured
• Do they use real photos, etc.

Maybe, your website isn’t converting because your visitors expect things from your website it’s not providing. Or, if it looks too different, they don’t feel like they can trust you.

Communicate your unique selling point clearly

What is your unique value proposition? Why should someone hire you and not your competitor?

It’s not always easy to find your USP, especially if what you’re selling is not unique. Luckily for you, people will compare you to your competitors, and your unique selling point could be a comparative one – something your competitors don’t have or don’t do, or something you do better.

ConversionXL suggest looking for your USP among the answers to the following questions:

• Is your website easier to use?
• Can your product be better tailored to the market?
• Do you have a kick ass customer service team?
• Is your return policy or customer guarantee superior?
• Are your prices lower?
• Do you have faster shipping options?

Anticipate and address objections and reservations

Your prospects need enough information to make an informed decision. If your competitors provide more relevant details on their offers, you lose.

Oh, you have a detailed FAQs page? Burn it with fire!

Why? Because if your prospects have a question while reading your sales page or a product page, they:

• may not get the idea to check on the FAQs
• may not bother looking for their question among a long list of FAQs
• may not find their answer

Like client testimonials, the answers to your prospects’ questions are most powerful in context – on the page and on the spot where your prospects need them.

So, instead of stuffing all possible questions into one FAQs page, add this information to the pages where this info is relevant.

And some of FAQs may even deserve a separate page, for example the ones that describe your process (page “How it works”) or questions about your fees (page “Fees”).

Final words of wisdom

There you have it. 7 possible reasons why your website isn’t converting.

I hope you were able to identify the problems with your website so that now you can stop pulling your hair out wondering why this damn thing doesn’t bring you any money, roll up your sleeves and get to work.

And if you need any help, you can always ask me to review your website.