6 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting
Your website should be your business's ultimate sales tool; if you can’t remember the last time it got you a lead, it’s time to make some changes.
If you’re finding yourself feeling frustrated at the lack of action on your website, you might be making one (or multiple) of these common mistakes:
The Top 6 Reasons Why Your Website Isn’t Converting
You’re not being clear on what you do and whom you help.
Have you ever been stuck digging through a business’s website trying to find the information you’re looking for about what they do or where they’re located? It’s frustrating, right?
As business owners, we’re so dialed into our businesses that we sometimes forget that people don’t automatically know exactly what we do and who we serve.
You should answer these questions immediately when someone lands on your website:
Who are you?
What do you do?
Whom do you help?
How do you make your customers’ lives better?
Where are you located? (if applicable to the nature of your business and who you serve)
How does your customer buy or take the next step to buy from you?
When we design new websites, we make sure these questions are answered in the header section or “above the fold” on the homepage (aka the top area of the homepage before you start scrolling).
One of the ways we accomplish this is with clear, concise headline copywriting. Take our website, for example. Our header copy reads: “Create Disruption to Serve Customers Better — We are a boutique consulting firm helping small businesses with finance + marketing + operations.”
In a brief, clear headline, we answer these key questions, and just following the text, we have a clear call-to-action (CTA) button that prompts website viewers to do what we want them to: schedule a call with us. Because we’re an online-based business and can work with businesses worldwide, it’s not applicable to us to include our location. Here are a few examples of websites we’ve done where the copy includes information about the location: Brent The Broker, Conicella, and Legacy Hill Farm.
You don’t want to make people dig for what you do. Make their life easier. Quit making them use too many calories, looking for what they need to know. That’s a quick way to make them click away from your website and not return.
2. Google doesn’t love your website.
What good is a website if it’s not showing up on Google?
If you have to send customers a direct link to your website to purchase from you and get little to no leads from organic Google searches, it’s time to prioritize your SEO.
The good news is that you can make a few simple updates to your website to give it a boost in the search results:
Find your SEO keywords and work them into your website.
Add SEO page titles and descriptions to each page on your website.
Optimize your image files for search.
Start blogging with relevant keywords to get more content on your website.
Head over to our Ultimate Guide to Squarespace SEO blog post for more details on how to get your website to show up on Google.
(PS: Need some help with SEO? Check out our ongoing SEO packages here!)
3. Your website copy is not customer-centric.
What if your customers just aren’t picking up what you’re putting down?
It’s possible that you’re talking to your customers but not really listening to them, and it shows.
It’s also possible you’ve stepped into the far too common problem that you’re talking all about yourself – making yourself the hero (instead of your customer).
The way you talk to your customers on your website is crucial. Are you showing them that you know and understand their problems, or are you just coming off as sales-y and unclear?
If you know us, you probably know that we use and love the StoryBrand framework for brand messaging, website copywriting, and marketing strategy. One of the main principles of StoryBrand is that your business is not the hero of the story – the customer is. You want to shift the focus from your business to your customer in your website copy and position yourself instead as the guide to help solve your customer’s problem.
What are they struggling with? How does it make them feel? How would your offering solve their problems? What might their lives look like after working with you?
For more on how to write great copy, check out our blog posts on 3 steps to better copywriting and how to write a customer-focused about page.
4. Your website screams “DIY”.
We know what it’s like to be a small business owner just starting out. The budget for a professional website often just isn’t there in the beginning, but as your business grows, so should your online presence.
Your website should reflect the quality of what you’re offering. A DIY website can lead visitors to think you’re inexperienced and don’t take your work seriously.
Consider making the investment and hiring a professional copywriter and designer to work their magic on your website.
If that’s just not in the cards for you right now, invest some time on making your website look more professional and polished by working through our 10 Step Website Pre-Launch Checklist, implementing a few of these standout design tips and ensuring your homepage has these essential elements.
5. You’re overwhelming people with too many options.
Ever heard of analysis paralysis?
It’s when you’re looking for hot sauce in the grocery aisle and have 27 different choices. So you end up spending way too much time staring at the shelves. Do you want garlic, honey, or regular? Do you want to go with the organic brand or the generic brand?
This is how people feel when they land on your website, and you’ve got twelve items in your navigation menu and too many options for packages and services.
Simplicity is always best. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to find what they’re looking for and move forward with making a purchase.
Try paring down your navigation menu bar to five items or fewer. See if there are any opportunities to condense the number of different services and packages you offer to make it simpler for customers to choose.
6. You aren’t providing any social proof on your website.
People need to trust you in order to buy from you.
They’re looking for elements of authority. They want to know that you’re a legit business with legit customers.
Here are a few ways you can showcase your authority and build credibility on your website:
Customer testimonials – bonus if you can also get their headshot to showcase with their review
Logos of past or current trusted brands or clients you’ve worked with – “Trusted By”
Logos of publications where you’ve been featured – “As Featured In”
Compelling statistics – like if you’ve been in business a notable amount of time, if you’ve served/worked with an exceptionally large number of customers, etc.
Logos of education or certifications (if applicable)
Are you making any of these six common website mistakes that could be getting in the way of conversions?We hope implementing a few of these tips will help you turn your website into your business’s best salesperson (as it should be).
Feeling inspired to learn more about website design and strategy? Dig into some of our other blogs about improving your website! 👇🏼
P.S. Do you feel like we totally just roasted your website, and you need to call in the pros to fix it? Schedule a Call with us to talk about how we can help you turn your website into a sales tool for your business 🔥
More soon,
Mara
WEB DESIGNER + SEO SPECIALIST
P.P.S.
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