Experiencing high traffic volume, but low conversion rates? It’s probably because of your website. Your website is the face of your business, your online storefront, your brand identity. You want it to be a good representation of your business. When it’s not, you’ll experience very low conversion rates.
There are several important variables that go with how well a website operates and also its ability to produce quality leads. If your website isn’t constantly being updated with the best conversion practices, it will fall behind and your competitors will surge ahead of you. Below are some reasons why your website might not be producing sales:
1. Your Content Isn’t Attracting the Right Visitors
When it comes to website marketing, you need to have a solid content strategy in order to attract visitors that can convert into leads. Researching keywords that focus on producing conversions rather than just high volume is the first step. Next, you want to integrate your target keywords into the content. This includes your blog posts, social media content and your optimized website copy. All three areas should be consistent with your keyword strategy.
2. Your Website Is Outdated
Car designs have dramatically changed over the years, and still do each year. Why? So the manufacturers can eliminate any glitches in the motors and to keep up with the design trends. You can easily compare websites to cars because they both need the same things: updated designs, updated systems, on-going maintenance, etc.
Having an updated website includes elements such as: a clean, up-to-date URL structure that clearly lays out the path for users to navigate, a mobile-friendly design, a website content management system (CMS) that is search engine friendly, and much more. Just because you can easily build a website in a platform that is “drag and drop”, for example, doesn’t mean that it is search engine friendly. Sometimes using these very simple CMS systems isn’t the best plan for your long-term website strategy because they have limited capabilities for SEO.
Website designs also need to be updated every few years to stay up with today’s technology and design trends. Designs are changing for a reason, mainly because people are changing the way they use websites. If your website hasn’t been updated in a while, it’s probably outdated and not helping your business as much as it could be.
3. You Don’t Have the Budget for Website Marketing
This is something we come across a lot from smaller businesses that can’t always afford a fully managed solution. Your website marketing should be your primary focus if you expect to get more sales online. Are you investing in hiring more sales people? Why? Cold calling is an outdated sales technique. To stay up with today’s evolving marketing trends, you need to invest more into inbound marketing. It is one of the most cost-effective solutions and it always produces a strong return on investment when done correctly.
When someone is actively searching for a product or service, chances are they are a qualified buyer looking for a reputable company. If your business is lacking in online presence while they research, you’re going to lose out on sales. Think about yourself as a consumer. Would you want to have someone call you randomly with a sales pitch, or would you rather do the research yourself and contact the company with the best offer?
4. Your Website Isn’t Optimized for Conversion
The smallest things can make someone bounce off of your site. Example: it takes too long to load, your brand message isn’t clear and concise, the font is too hard to read, the background image overpowers the content, the contact information isn’t predominant, users can’t find what they searched for originally. These are all examples to consider when determining if your website is properly optimized.
Some ideas to help make your website more conversion-friendly include:
- Add a video explaining a huge piece of important content on your site. You need the content for search engines, but the users would rather watch a video than read a long article.
- Split test important landing pages with pay per click. It can be as simple as changing the wording in a header that encourages users to convert. Do some split testing with content changes to see which pages convert at a higher rate and make changes across the site as you find what works best for your specific audience.
- Add trust badges and testimonials. These give users a better sense of who you are and add to the credibility and trust of your business and brand.
- Make the phone number or contact button a primary focus in your header and multiple areas of each page of the site. This makes it easier for your potential customers to contact you without searching through the entire site.
These are just a few suggestions to keep in mind when looking at your website from a conversion perspective.
5. You Aren’t Nurturing Your Website Prospects and Leads
How many times have you filled out a form on a website and never heard back from anyone? When you don’t respond to each lead through your website with at least an email, you’re losing out on sales. If you have someone who is interested enough to fill out a contact form, that should be considered a warm lead. Those leads may not be in the buying stage yet, but they may be ready to buy in the future. Add them to an email drip campaign where your company can stay in front of them with quality content. It’s all about delighting users with content that is relevant to their interests that will keep them coming back to your site, and then nurturing them until they are ready to buy.
Closing Thoughts
If you aren’t investing a dedicated budget to your website management and marketing on a monthly basis, chances are you aren’t producing the amount of sales you need. Online marketing is a continual process of testing, researching, optimizing, and nurturing. When managed properly, your website will become profitable and your sales will continue to grow over time.
Need a strategy that is going to help your website produce sales? Learn more about our website creation services here.
Fantastic article and thank you so much for sharing this article.
Glad you found it helpful.