Website not delivering conversions? Here are 4 common reasons why

For many businesses, attracting traffic is the major hurdle to conquer.

It can be difficult to get your site and your content to stand out among the competition.

But after attracting visitors to your website, you want to make sure it entices them to stick around a bit, see what you have to offer, and hopefully make a conversion that involves either providing their contact information or purchasing your goods and services.

However, if you're attracting traffic that never converts into customers, you might want to consider the following four issues that might be impacting your conversion rates.

Fun fact: Mobile devices currently account for 1/3 of global web traffic.
How does your website look on a smartphone or tablet? 

1. Poor web design

From responsive web design to aesthetic appeal, your site's overall look can positively or negatively affect conversion rates. A non-responsive website won't render properly on mobile devices, for instance, and might negatively impact your page rank on search engines. While the latter doesn't have anything to do with conversion rates, the former does.

Experts predict that 4.77 billion people will use mobile technology by 2017. This is a huge subset of the population, which means your site's design needs to cater to mobile viewers.

Consumers’ web habits are already relying more on mobile use. In fact, mobile devices currently account for one-third of all global website traffic, and the number of mobile-only adult Internet users recently surpassed the number of desktop-only Internet users.

Furthermore, your website must be navigable and attractive. If it's not, users will click away before you can reel them in with your carefully crafted call-to-action and your riveting products or services. Check out a previous blog of ours, “The 4 pillars of great website design,” to learn how you can ensure your website is both appealing and unique to visitors.

2. You're not connecting with your audience

People buy products and services from companies that make a connection with them, whether it's emotional or intellectual. Your content must appeal to your prospect's brain or heart if you want to increase conversion rates.

In many cases, poor conversion rates stem from a poorly-defined audience. If you're targeting the wrong people through advertising and SEO (search engine optimization) your audience won't convert even if they find your content.

Integrating social media following and sharing capabilities will also help you to build rapport and connect with your visitors. Include buttons for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, and any other social media sites so that your visitors will be able to follow you and engage with your brand and your content easier.

If you aren’t sure about what content is resonating most with your audience, consider consulting an inbound marketing agency that can help you identify your target market and craft content that appeals to them. Otherwise, you'll continue to see traffic that never converts.

3. You're not providing an opportunity

Users can't convert if they don't know how to contact you, buy a product, or register for a service. Make sure every page of your website includes at least one opportunity to convert, whether it's a picture of a product with a link or a button containing a call-to-action.

Inbound marketing gives you the opportunity to create calls-to-action that reflect visitor behavior and can be tracked and analyzed in order to determine which placements, content offers, and design strategies are delivering the most conversions.

4. Your content annoys prospects

Visitors can't bear to stay on your website? Analyze your content to
determine if it is driving prospects away.  

Issues like auto-playing ads, multiple pop-ups, lengthy paragraphs, and flashing GIFs can increase your website's bounce rate. Users want to view your content -- and maybe even convert -- but they're too frustrated by the annoying elements on your site.

To fix this problem, streamline your content and its design. Remove elements that might irritate prospects so your visitors have a better chance of sticking around. You can even test different versions of the same landing pages and product pages to see which perform best. That might offer the easiest way to identify problem elements and components.

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