5 Common Reasons Why Your Website Isn't Converting

So, you’ve invested all this money and time into building a new website, but you’re not getting the results you were looking for. Maybe you were hoping for a flood of new ecommerce orders, new subscribers, or a wave of local service calls, but your website isn’t converting as many viewers as you might have hoped. Let’s take a closer look at five common reasons as to why your website isn’t converting.

1. Your Viewers Don’t Know Anything About You

If someone lands on your homepage or another page on your website, is there anything on the page that will catch their interest in your company? People browsing the internet are looking for information and content, whether it’s about the products and services you provide, a slick video or graphic, or information on how they can get in touch with you or your company.

Every webpage should have some basic web copy that introduces your company to the person that’s just landed on your website. It should have a nice sense of flow that leads the viewer to the bottom of the page where you can encourage them to engage with your website or business in one way or another. Knowledge is power. 60% of consumers feel more positive about a brand after consuming content from it.

Make sure your homepage or landing page offers the following information:

General and contact information about your company

This might include the name of your company, address, phone number, email address, contact form. You might also want to mention the areas that you serve and what the sign-up process looks like (i.e. initial consultation or a free quote).

Information about the products or services you’re looking to sell and why they matter

Give a general overview of the products or services you want to sell. This will give your viewers a better idea of what your company is all about. Include any features or benefits for the consumer to encourage them to make a purchase.

A clear call-to-action (CTA) that encourages the viewer to engage with your website

Make sure you have made it clear what you want your users to do next after they’ve sifted through all this content. Do you want them to leave their contact information, make a purchase, or sign up for a consultation? Your CTA should be in bold at the top or bottom of the page, so the viewer knows how to proceed if they want to learn more about your business. More than one CTA will confuse your viewers, so don’t make the mistake of asking too much of your customers.

You need to find a way to keep your users informed without overwhelming them with information. Too many long blocks of text will drive your users away. You only need to include information that’s relevant to the situation at hand. You can also break up the text with bullet points, quotes, customer testimonials, or a list of product benefits or features. Avoid the temptation to fill every page with rambling or repetitive sentences that will leave your viewers scrambling to click off your website.

2. Poor Navigation System

Once a user has all this information about your company, they might want to do some exploring before they commit to entering their personal information or making a purchase. The same features characterise almost every website. They have a header with the name of the website, a navigation menu, and usually a search bar. This helps your customers find what they’re looking for without exerting a lot of extra effort.

The navigation menu should feature a list of all the pages or categories on your website. This may include:

• Homepage
• Location or service pages with a map or directions
• Product/service pages or product categories
• Contact page with an input field
• FAQs section with helpful information
• Customer testimonials with product feedback

No one is going to stick around your website for more than a couple of minutes if they can’t move around your pages. Adding a search bar is another useful option because it gives your users the option to find exactly what they’re looking for without having to sort through a menu of options.

3. Slow Load or Response Time

As a rule of thumb, if your website takes more than three seconds to load, nearly half your visitors will likely click off your website. That should be a sobering reminder that your website needs to load as quickly as possible. While three seconds might not seem like a lot of time, it can really add up when your users are quickly hopping from one website to the next. The internet is built for speed, and having a slow load time can be a real killer when it comes to converting viewers into leads.

You should be using a performance metrics tool that lets you monitor the speed of your website. This allows you to see how long it takes your users to load your website from all over the world, as load times can vary based on the user’s geographic location. Try to keep your load time as low as possible. If it creeps above three seconds, you can try addressing the following issues:

• Resize your images to make them physically smaller
• Delete invalid links
• Reduce the file size of your graphics by optimising them
• Use a content delivery network
• Simplify or combine HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files

4. Too Many On-Page Distractions

Overwhelming your users with all kinds of fancy graphics, videos, and pop-up windows might be doing your website more harm than good. It’s usually best to stick to one visual component; otherwise, your viewers might forget what they’re doing on your website in the first place. Ads can also be overwhelming to some users, giving them a reason to click off your website. Your CTA should be the most prominent, important aspect of the web page, so don’t let one of your visual elements take away from the real message you want to convey to your users.

If you suspect your videos or graphics are causing problems, you can try the following:

• Move the CTA above the video or graphic.
• Repeat the CTA in the video or graphic.
• Use a floating or sticky CTA that moves with the user as they scroll down the page.
• Limit the number of ads on your website.

5. Your Website Isn’t Mobile Friendly

Having a mobile-friendly website is an absolute must in today’s internet jungle. Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if a site isn’t optimized for mobile. People are always on the go, and you can’t afford to alienate your users by not having a mobile-friendly website.

The website should automatically convert to a more compact version of your normal website when the user is on a mobile device. They shouldn’t need to zoom in or scroll horizontally to see all your website’s content.

Most common website building platforms like Squarespace, WordPress, and others offer built-in mobile conversion, but if you’re developing your site from scratch, you or one of your developers might have to make these changes.

If doing everything we just mentioned yourself makes you uneasy, you can always sign up for a free website review at Blue Beetle. Check out our offer below to get started!