Author: Tom Cottrill | Date Posted: Mar 1, 2022
A website not converting is one of the most frustrating things for companies who are trying to well…actually grow their business with their marketing efforts. Finding that your clients consistently have a negative ROI from digital marketing is a sign that something is wrong and needs to be changed. Website conversion is a crucial function of almost all business websites unless a company decides that they just want to use their site as a portfolio of some sort.
The answer to this is a big “it depends.” It depends a lot on the industry for which the website is built and also the purpose of the website. For example, an ecommerce website selling small-ticket items will probably have a higher conversion rate than a website that is meant to get contacts from businesses looking for high-priced packages. So, a good range for a website conversion rate is typically 2-5%. This means that just 2-5% of website visitors should be converting in whatever way makes the most sense for your business (filling out a contact form for further information, making a purchase, etc.).
Although there are many reasons why a website may not be converting, there are really only two situations in which it may be happening:
Both of these situations are unique because a new website may not be converting for entirely different reasons than a website that has been live for a while. Understanding where your client’s site is at in its lifecycle can help you better diagnose—and subsequently fix—the conversion rate issues.
Taking into consideration the two situations discussed above, here are some reasons why your client’s site may not be converting as well as they—and you—may like.
A well-designed website focuses on plenty of features, but one of them absolutely needs to be site navigation. When a visitor hops onto your client’s site and gets confused about where to go to find what they’re looking for—or getting led astray because the pathways set up take them a million different directions—they will end up leaving your site and looking for one that answers their question or need more easily.
Make sure your client’s site is designed with an effective search bar that takes them exactly where they want to be and copy that is clear with the right anchor text to take them to internal links. If site visitors can easily find what they’re looking for and how to contact you or purchase something from your site without being sent a bunch of different directions, they are much more likely to convert.
One of the most important parts of marketing is properly identifying and targeting your audience. If your client sells B2B services and is getting mostly non-business owner visitors, they aren’t going to have the website conversion numbers you want to see from a website.
If your client has zero or few visitors or visitors from the wrong sources, this may be an issue they are experiencing. Properly optimizing the site for search engines is the first step. Once a site is optimized the right way, it will show up for the right keywords and target the right audience. Otherwise, anyone who can Google will end up on the site, and most of these people will not be the right ones.
You can also use social media to find the right people that fit your audience profile. Find where your ideal client is hanging out, and make sure you’re there with valuable and engaging content that can drive them to your website. You can also use social media to create ads that can target based on demographics, interests, industry, etc.
Make sure all traffic is being tracked in Google Analytics so you know exactly where all your client’s traffic is actually coming from—and can start moving toward other sources if these aren’t working.
25% of website visitors bounce after just 4 seconds of waiting. Yep, 4 seconds. Took you longer to read these sentences than it does for an impatient website visitor to leave your site if it’s loading slowly.
If your client’s site was designed well, speed won’t be an issue. But, it often is. Using a tool like Pingdom can tell you exactly how long it’s taking your client’s site to load. You can use that to calculate how often visitors are converting.
Image size, too many plugins, server response time, reduce number of redirects on your site, caching your webpages, etc. can speed up your site load speed so when visitors get there, they won’t have to wait around with the little loading bar before they decide to leave and go somewhere else. Optimizing the site for mobile can also help load speed since over 54% of people search on mobile. So, a website doesn’t need to just load quickly on the computer, but it absolutely has to be fast on a mobile device as well, otherwise you’re losing over 54% of your visitors just because of site speed right there.
When a visitor searches for whatever search terms leads them to your client’s website, and they click the link, they expect to be given some sort of value. That may be finding a place to purchase the candles they searched or a website that will answer the question they asked the search engine. Whatever it is, they want value that is relevant to the keywords they searched.
So many websites out there are clicked on and just talk at their visitors without really providing (or proving) any sort of real value. People end up confused, not really even knowing what it is that company can do or how it answers the question they were looking to have answered.
The first step is to determine exactly what your client’s value proposition even is. This is the exact center of what consumers need and what their business does best. When you find this sweet spot for your clients, you’ll know what their website needs to highlight—and then get to work on making sure it does just that!
A call to action is a huge part of what converts visitors. Without the right ones in the right places, visitors will not convert. Mostly because they don’t want to have to look around for a place to contact you or don’t even really realize what it is they can get from you. A CTA can be a link with the right anchor text, a contact form positioned on the right pages (and linked to from the others), an email sign-up, a button with “buy now,” contact us,” or “learn more.”
Different industries, types of websites, and target audiences will use different types of CTAs. Even different types of content. You probably won’t put a contact form on the bottom of a blog, but anchor text, subscription sign-ups, and links to your contact page should absolutely be within your blog to help visitors easily contact your client or make a purchase. Basically, it should help them easily convert.
The trick is to position CTAs in the places that your visitors will see them, they make sense in the context, they flow nicely through the journey through which you’re guiding them, and that there aren’t so many you will annoy them into leaving the site and never returning.
Your client’s website might be brand new and not converting because it hasn’t really had a chance to get quality visitors from quality places yet, or it might have existed for a long time without really getting the conversion numbers you’d like to see your clients get. Taking some steps to determine what the reasons for this may be can allow you to take the first steps toward fixing these problems and moving toward the conversion rates you want.
Since 2013, Ignitro Studios has been working to blend marketing and technology in support of agencies and other marketers. By understanding both sides of web development, we have a unique perspective and advantage within the industry. We provide design, development, project management, QA, and strategy, driving the bus so our clients don’t have to. We will work with our clients to get results while also empowering them to do their job better. Learn more about Ignitro Studios.
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