Top 7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting

With all of the drag-and-drop builders and other tools available, creating a website has never been easier. However, simply putting…...
January 11, 2022

With all of the drag-and-drop builders and other tools available, creating a website has never been easier. However, simply putting up a site is the easy part. The real challenge comes after you launch your beautifully designed and developed website… now what? I feel that I’ve seen every reason why websites don’t convert under the sun (and then some). I’ll be breaking down the top 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting and how to solve them:

Top 7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting

1) Content needs to match user intent and SEO keywords

The first of the 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting is about your content. Your users come to your site with a specific intent – whether it’s showing interest in buying something, downloading an e-book, or filling out a form for customer feedback. What are they expecting to find on your site and what keywords do they use to search for it?

Keep the content of your site focused around the user intent and be sure to include keywords that are relevant for your business, industry, and niche.

For example, a common problem I often see on recording artists’ websites is that they are trying to do too many things at once. Like they’ll have a music player widget with a link to their SoundCloud, then an events section with a button that links to an external ticketing system, then social media links, then merchandise. The struggle is that there is too much going on and not enough emphasis on completing 1 single goal. Set only 1 goal for each page and do everything possible to get that 1 goal accomplished.

2) The user flow must be clear and logical

At each step, your user should know exactly what’s going on and where they are in the purchasing process. If a button says “Buy Now,” does that button take you directly to checkout or do you have to click another button first? By having a clear and logical user flow, you can help to minimize the chance of a bounce.

Your “bounce rate” is the percentage of visitors who land on your site and then leave without viewing any other pages. It’s a strong indicator to Google that people are not finding what they’re looking for, so high bounce rates can hurt your SEO rankings.

Have clear navigation that makes it easy for your users to know where to go to get what they need when they need it.

3) Make purchases simple and easy

Don’t make potential customers jump through hoops – keep redirects to a minimum and let them move around your site freely without having to log in or sign up for anything. If possible, set the flow to only 3 pages. Try to keep it to a simple landing page, checkout page, and confirmation page. By simplifying the flow, you’ll reduce drop-off and increase the chance of your visitor becoming a paying client/customer.

Avoid using payment methods that require redirects and signups for special accounts. This can scare people away before they even make a purchase, and you might lose out on sales as a result. This may sound like a silly reason out of the 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting but I have seen situations where visitors will refuse to checkout if the checkout process isn’t simple.

An example would be Viabill. Viabill offers the ability to have your visitors break down their transactions into payments, almost like credit. However, the process to use the service takes a bit too long for some people.

When checking out, your visitors would be redirected to Viabill’s website where a visitor has to create an account first, then add the payment method to Viabill. After they’ve set that up, then they’re redirected back to the site to complete the purchase. Often, this takes up a lot of extra time and effort and could potentially shy your visitors away from making a purchase.

Try to keep it simple with a credit/debit card checkout process that’s embedded directly on your website.

4) Have the right calls-to-action and focus on consistency and trust

What you say is often more important than how you say it. Make your CTA’s specific, direct, and offer a clear benefit to the user. Don’t try to cram too much information onto one button – split up your message across multiple CTAs if necessary.

The calls-to-action on your site should match what users are looking for. Do they want to download an eBook, schedule a demo, or buy your product? Use language that describes what users can do on your site, rather than what you sell. If your call-to-actions are clear and consistent, it’ll be one of the easier reasons of the 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting to eliminate from the list.

Don’t overload your pages with too many different call-to-action buttons that lead to different places. Set 1 goal per page and do everything in your power to make the visitor complete that 1 goal. By streamlining the focus and setting only 1 goal for each individual page, you’re more likely to get visitors to take the action you want them to.

5) Website speed is incredibly important

If it’s taking forever for your site to load, people are going to move on. If you have a lot of advertisements or other plugins running, try using a caching plugin so that your page loads faster.

Avoid using shared hosting plans as it can significantly slow down your site due to the many users on one server. A VPS hosting, cloud hosting, or dedicated hosting plan is a much better option for high-traffic sites. This will ensure that your website only uses the resources that it needs and that your site responds quickly.

If your website takes longer than 3 seconds to load, you’re losing visitors due to that fact. Test your website using tools like Pingdom or GTMetrix to find out how fast your website loads and the issues that may be causing your website to load slowly. It’s important to keep this in mind for user experience and SEO purposes.

Also, compress your images to save disk space and make loading images faster for your visitors. When you upload enormous photos (think 1MB or more), it will drastically slow the website down. Compress your images to the exact dimensions of their placeholder to ensure that the images are formatted properly and load quickly when your visitor launches your website.

6) Make sure the content matches the look and feel

Everything from illustrations to fonts should be consistent with one another. Do all links have alt text? Are all buttons large enough for easy clicking? Does each image have an appealing description underneath it? Does everything fit together well aesthetically? How about the copy – does it match the tone of voice used throughout the site?

Make sure that your content matches the look and feel of your website. This can be done by hiring a design expert or just getting feedback from other users. Keep your branding to 2 fonts and use the same color palette for links, buttons, and images across the entire site.

Top 7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn't Converting7) Your site needs to be mobile-friendly

The last of the 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting has to do with browser and device sizes. There’s a reason Google has been targeting sites with poor mobile usability – it’s important that your site is optimized for any device. This means responsive design and an easy-to-use interface.

Most website builders are already equipped to create responsive designs that automatically fit a variety of screen sizes. If you’re hand-coding your HTML, make sure that you use media queries and clean CSS to keep the layout intact on any device.

Always browse your website from multiple devices to make sure that everything looks good and works well across all browser sizes. You can even use a browser like Responsively App to view your website in multiple sizes.

Top 7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting Summary

You can’t control what people do on your website, but with these tips, you can make sure that they stay at your site and convert! These 7 reasons why your website isn’t converting can help you come up with ideas to increase conversions and hopefully, get that desired outcome. Don’t wait any longer – take action today!

If you are still having trouble figuring out why your website isn’t converting, drop a comment below, or let’s work together one-on-one to get your website in order.

*Please note that some links on this page may be affiliate links. I may receive a small commission when you purchase anything from these links.

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