Sam has been writing for WebFX since 2016 and focuses on UX, crafting amazing website experiences, and digital marketing In her free time, she likes to spend time on the beach, play with her cats, and go fishing with her husband.
If you have an online business or storefront, increasing conversions is one of the main goals of your website. But what if you find yourself Googling, “my website doesn’t convert”? This is a legitimate question for business owners, and the answer can make or break your online storefront.
If you’re looking for an answer as to why your website isn’t converting, or if you want to increase your website conversions, you’ve come to the right place.
On this page, we’ll talk about four of the most common reasons for low conversions on your website and how you can increase website conversions to achieve (and maybe even beat) the industry’s average conversion rate.
Keep reading to learn more and get expert insights from one of WebFX’s own resident conversion rate optimization (CRO) specialists, Natalie!
Why isn’t my website converting?
Whether you’ve had a website for years or you’ve just had one built, a lack of conversions is frustrating in any situation — after all, conversions are the lifeblood of your business.
Let’s talk about why your website isn’t converting in two different situations:
I’ve just built my website, and it’s not converting
If you’re just starting out with a new website, you’ll be happy to know that new sites likely won’t convert at first, and there’s one big reason why.
In order for your site to convert, it has to rank highly in Google search results — and in order for your site to rank (at all) in Google search results, there are a few things your site has to possess. The list includes lots of great content, accurate keyword targeting, valuable backlinks, and most importantly, time.
Your site won’t rank right away, which means you likely won’t see an uptick in conversions right away — and there’s nothing you can really do to accelerate the process.
However, there is something you can do to ensure that your website is on its way to ranking in Google and converting.
Hire a professional SEO agency like WebFX to get a custom SEO package and strategy that drives your conversion rates up.
I’ve had my website for a while, and it’s not converting
If you’ve had your website for a while, and it’s not converting, it’s a little more complicated than if you’re just starting out with a new website.
If you’ve built a site over a year ago, and it’s still not driving conversions, there are a few potential reasons for the holdup.
Top 4 reasons why your website isn’t converting (+How our CRO experts fix it!)
Check out the top four reasons why websites don’t convert below! Plus, our CRO specialist, Natalie, gives her expert insights into the most common culprits behind a low website conversion rate and how our team fixes them!
1. You’re not optimizing for each stage of the conversion funnel
One possible culprit behind your low website conversion rate could be that you’re not optimizing your site for each stage of the conversion funnel.
Expert insights from
NatalieWebFX CRO expert
“Very often we find that many businesses have the conversion form nailed down and well-optimized, but they are not addressing the other levels on the conversion funnel. This unfortunately creates quite a disconnect between the initial arrival on the site and the actual conversion action. We need to address each level of the funnel and nudge our users from beginning to end.”
It’s important to remember that each user who visits your website is in a different stage in the buyer journey. For example, one user may be ready to purchase a product or request a quote, while another user may be looking for answers to a question about a topic related to your business.
You’ll need to appeal to users in each stage of the conversion funnel to effectively engage your users and encourage them to take the next step and convert.
The different stages of the conversion funnel include:
Awareness
Interest
Consideration
Decision
Action
Our fix
At WebFX, our CRO specialists focus on optimizing every element of your website for each and every stage in the conversion funnel. By doing so, we can help you engage with more users and show them relevant messaging at critical points in their journey.
We’ll focus on implementing personalized, dynamic messaging across your website to relate to various user interests. Our in-house content team will also assist with creating custom, optimized content for each stage of the funnel, including articles, guides, product descriptions, service pages, and more.
Plus, our designers will craft custom landing pages, calls to action, and forms to help nudge users to the next step depending on their stage in the funnel.
For example, we can include newsletter sign-up forms, ad landing pages, free-quote forms, and more!
“We see many websites that do not differentiate between different conversion channels, with CTAs that all look the same. It is so important to create a clear differentiation between the different channels and again, guide users to the channel they would prefer.”
Calls to action (CTAs), are elements on your site pages that encourage users to take the next step in the buyer’s journey. Depending on your industry, a CTA could be a contact form, an email sign-up, or a “buy now!” button.
No matter what style of CTA your industry requires, you should be sure to have an abundance of them on your website, and in different varieties to optimize for each stage of the buyer funnel. If not, users may not be able to find a clear path to convert, which is a real issue when conversions are just the thing you’re trying to drive.
Not only are CTAs important, but so is the purchasing process.
Our fix
When you invest in our CRO services, our CRO experts will conduct thorough user testing to understand which CTAs drive the most conversions for your site.
We’ll look at things like the messaging, placement on the page, color, and more to understand exactly what makes your visitors take action.
Once we’ve conducted our research, we’ll work on creating and optimizing the CTAs across your website to help you start driving high-value conversions.
Another possible reason why your site isn’t converting could be that you’re falling behind on the newest trends.
Expert insights from
NatalieWebFX CRO expert
“Are you and your website staying up to date on new trends, technology, and best practices? 2024 is focused on personalization, adoption of AI and trends such as dark mode has become more and more important for clients to follow and adopt.”
When it comes to user behavior and CRO, things are constantly changing. And it’s crucial to keep up. If you fall behind on the latest trends, your competitors will likely get ahead, and you’ll miss out on valuable conversions.
Our fix
At WebFX, our CRO and digital marketing experts spend their days researching the latest trends in user behavior and CRO, so you don’t have to.
Our team will help you continuously implement optimizations that allow you to adopt the newest trends, including artificial intelligence (AI), personalization, and more, so you can always stay one step ahead of the competition and engage your website visitors with content that encourages them to convert.
Another possible culprit behind your low website conversion rate could be that you don’t have an SEO strategy. In order to convert users, you need those users to visit your website in the first place! And to increase your site visitors, you need to show up in relevant search results on search engines like Google.
Enter SEO.
First and foremost, if you create a website and expect it to rank without implementing an SEO campaign, it’s unlikely that you’ll ever rank.
SEO is the process of improving your website so that it has the ability to rank among the best-of-the-best in search results, and without it, your website is nothing more than a point on a map with no instructions to get there.
SEO strategies typically include the following:
Keyword research to ensure your content targets the terms that your audience searches
Content marketing to ensure your content is seen by your target audience
Internal linking, so Google can crawl and index your pages faster
Our solution
At WebFX, we offer custom SEO services that help you implement an SEO strategy designed to help your website rank well in search results so you can attract more visitors actively looking for your products or services.
Our SEO experts will conduct a full audit on your website to analyze your current SEO performance and identify opportunities to improve your visibility on search engines. Then, we’ll work with you to implement an SEO strategy aligned with your business goals that helps you improve your rankings.
Sick of uttering the words “my website doesn’t convert”?
If you’re tired of the frustration that comes with a website that doesn’t convert, we’ve got you covered. WebFX is a full-service digital marketing agency that specializes in creating and maintaining websites that drive conversions.
Craft a tailored online marketing strategy! Utilize our free Internet marketing calculator for a custom plan based on your location, reach, timeframe, and budget.
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Sam has been writing for WebFX since 2016 and focuses on UX, crafting amazing website experiences, and digital marketing In her free time, she likes to spend time on the beach, play with her cats, and go fishing with her husband.
