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.
The first thing on your list of to-dos to ensure that your website ranks as soon as possible is to implement a search engine optimization (SEO) campaign.
We’ll talk more about SEO in the next section.

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.

THE FIX:Hire a professional SEO agency to get a custom SEO package and strategy that drives your conversion rates up.

1. You aren’t utilizing SEO

Let’s first mention SEO and its important role in site rankings. 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 creation to target your most valuable keywords
• Content marketing to ensure your content is seen by your target audience
• Internal linking so Google can crawl and index your pages faster

Let’s say that you do have an SEO campaign implemented, though, and your site still isn’t converting.
It’s time to talk about a few more potential culprits.

THE FIX: Implement an SEO campaign pronto. Try working with the best SEO company in the world!

2. You don’t have any CTAs

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. 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.

THE FIX: Implement a number of CTAs on your site, but don’t provide so many that you overwhelm site visitors.

3. You don’t have an intuitive cart feature

If you do a great job with CTAs, and guiding users toward more shopping options (if you run an ecommerce store), you need to be sure that the purchasing process is easy.
Do you make it simple for users to add something to their cart and check out intuitively? If not, you may want to rethink the way that could be affecting your conversions.

THE FIX: Work with a web developer to create a shopping cart that’s intuitive to users.

In addition to frustrating users, page speed also affects your SEO. When search engines like Google rank sites in search results, they look at the bounce rate of relevant pages. Bounce rate describes the percentage of users that arrived on your page and left (or “bounced”) without interacting with it.
From a search engine’s perspective, this response means users didn’t find what they were looking for on your website. In response, your site’s ranking decreases, which impacts your traffic numbers and digital lead generation efforts.