Seven conversion leaks that might be costing your business qualified prospects
You’re looking at great analytics. Your website is receiving tons of traffic. People are moving through your pages, reading your articles, learning about you, and clicking on your social media links.
But crickets.
Your visitors are not taking the next step.
They’re not scheduling a discovery call, subscribing to your newsletter, or filling out your contact page.
If your website traffic is not converting into clients, it’s frustrating.
So what do you do?
Usually, you think it’s your CTAs. So, you get in touch with your web person and ask them to start redesigning your CTA buttons. Maybe they’re not the right color. People don’t like green or blue. Or maybe the buttons are too big or too small, or too dull, or the wrong shape.
Sound familiar?
Or maybe you think your page needs a different headline, so you start tweaking your website copy.
You need more visitors to balance out the lookers vs. the serious prospects. So you start looking at keywords, backlinks, and other traffic-generating tactics.
Actually, all of these could make a difference, and I’m not going to suggest that your CTAs don’t matter. But conversion problems are rarely due to one CTA button or one sentence in your website copy.
A website works for you when the customer journey is clear and smooth.
If your visitor finds your business, that’s a great first step.
Now, they need to find alignment between what you offer and what they need.
Your website visitors need to understand the value of your services or products. And, most importantly, they need to trust you. They won’t take the next step if these parts of the journey are missing or foggy.
Here are seven common leaks that may be why your website traffic isn’t converting.
Your Website Is Attracting Readers, But Not Prospective Clients
Website traffic is something to be happy about. And today it’s especially laudable in light of AI search, which provides enough information to satisfy the searcher, resulting in fewer clicks to websites.
So, if you’re getting traffic, great. Yet, your website traffic is not converting.
Not every reader is a prospective customer.
For instance, you might have published a very informative blog article that addresses a topic that is ranking high in popularity. People find it, click on the link, come to your website, read the article, and then leave.
Useful content does increase awareness, and if you’re only at the awareness stage, then attracting readers to your website might be okay. You might not receive a serious inquiry, but you are building your exposure and reputation.
However, if most of your traffic is coming from people who enjoy your content but have no connection to the service or products you provide, you have a problem.
Look at the intent behind your traffic.
Are your visitors:
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- Collecting general ideas or doing research?
- Looking for DIY ideas?
- Comparing brands?
- Looking for solutions to a persistent challenge?
- Deciding if they want to retain professional services or specific products?
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A reader who is coming to your website looking for a substantive solution to a recurring challenge is more likely to start a serious conversation with you.
What should you do?
Align your informational content to specific challenges your target audience faces.
Writing about trending topics is good; however, rather than writing a broad, interesting informational post, work the text so that your article speaks directly to the questions and challenges your audience has related to this topic.
Create bridges between your useful, informative blog articles and the services or products you provide.
Your Website Content Doesn’t Quickly Tell Your Visitors If Your Business Is For Them
People are very busy today and suffering from digital fatigue. They want to arrive on your website and find everything they need to know about your business before they scroll down. If they can’t see a connection between what you offer and what they need, they’ll hop off and continue searching.
What should you do?
Ensure that visitors can immediately understand:
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- Who you help
- What problems you solve
- The outcomes you help create
- How your approach or products differ from others
- Whether this offer fits what they need at this moment.
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All of this information should be what we call “above the fold.” In other words, before they scroll down.
If you use a heatmap, you’ll notice that visitors rarely move down your home page past the first scroll, or perhaps the second scroll. No matter how great the copy is, visitors never see what you put in subsequent scrolls.
If your visitor has to search for answers to the questions above, they’ll get tired, frustrated, and probably leave your website. Fatigue and uncertainty rarely lead to a conversion.
Broad messaging might attract a lot of attention, but if you try to market to everyone, you’ll end up talking to no one.
Be specific.
Don’t be afraid of narrowing the pool. Your goal is qualified prospects that move through the journey and become customers or clients.
Clear positioning helps your visitors qualify themselves.
Strong positioning not only persuades prospects to work with you but also helps visitors decide right away whether the service or product is right for them. You don’t waste your time, and they don’t waste theirs.
Your goal is not to persuade every visitor. Your goal is to convert qualified prospects who are ready to engage your services or buy your products.
Your Messaging Describes Your Offerings But Not Their Value
Most websites provide an exhaustive list of their offerings. If you offer multiple services or products, you’ll want to include them all on your website. You’ll also want to include the details for each offer. However, most offerings lists don’t fully explain why they matter.
What should you do?
Translate every deliverable into meaningful progress.
Every offer should link directly to a particular challenge your target audience faces.
Prospective clients are rarely looking for a service or product just because it exists. They want a specific service or product because they want to change something, fill a gap in something they need for their business, or haven’t been able to find a product that helps them grow.
Here are two descriptions of an offering from a marketing brand.
“Receive a customized marketing plan and monthly coaching sessions.”
Or:
“Build a focused marketing plan, decide which opportunities deserve your limited time, and receive ongoing guidance as you put your strategy in motion.”
The first description is generic, and it could be what a visitor is looking for.
The second description aligns specifically with a challenge and the outcome desired.
When writing about results, be specific; avoid vagueness.
Be specific about the exact progress you help create. It makes the offer understandable, relatable, and credible.
Your Website Traffic Is Not Converting Because Your Content And Services Exist In Separate Silos
Your service pages can be excellent. Your blog articles are very interesting, engaging, and informative. And yet, you still don’t receive inquiries.
Why?
Because there’s no connection between your website content and your services.
Your blog articles cover one set of subjects. You might have even created content pillars — all very good. And your service pages discuss something else entirely. There’s no clear pathway to help your website visitors understand how the insights you provide in your article relate to what you offer.
The result is that your visitors enjoy the articles but don’t move forward to learn more about your expertise in the subject matter you discuss.
What should you do?
Every article should serve a strategic function. For example, an article might:
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- Help readers recognize a problem that they had not yet clearly defined
- Demonstrate your expertise
- Explain your approach
- Challenge assumptions
- Attract people searching for a specific problem
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A single article doesn’t need to do all of these things. But when you’re planning your content, think also about how you will create a pathway between the article and your services or products.
Your Website Hasn’t Earned Their Trust Yet
Your website visitor may be impressed by your content, understand your positioning, and see the value of what you offer.
However, they’re stuck on one last thing: can you actually deliver? This is where your potential clients/customers hesitate, possibly drop off, and reconsider. They might return, or they might not. The challenge is that they don’t know you. They’ve never worked with you, and they have no proof that you actually deliver on your promises.
What should you do?
Prospects trust your customers way more than they do the claims you make about yourself. To help them move past this hurdle, you want your website copy to include social proof. Testimonials, case studies, before-and-after stories, client logos — all of these help a prospect feel comfortable about making that leap to engage your service or buy your product.
Be sure that your testimonials are specific and not generic. For instance, a testimonial that says “she’s great to work with” is okay, but a stronger testimonial will talk about the problem that brought them to your business and how you helped them.
The Next Step Is Premature
Your website might attract a visitor who is ready now to commit to a service or purchase a product. But that’s rare. So, if every page leads to a “Buy Now,” “Book a discovery call,” “get in early,” “price reduction if you act now,” or something similar, your visitor might abandon the page and even your website. They’re just not ready yet.
Of course, you might have the opposite problem. Some websites provide information without offering a meaningful next step at all.
What should you do?
Be strategic about the next step offered. It should match a visitor’s level of understanding and trust.
Match the call to action to the page.
Different pages require different calls to action.
For example, a visitor at an early discovery stage might be invited to:
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- Read a related article
- Download a checklist
- Join an email list
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Some CTAs might need explaining.
For instance, “book a discovery call” might be intimidating. The visitor will probably think, “Oh, they’re going to try and sell me something, and I’m not ready.”
So, explain what happens in the discovery call. This calms a nervous potential customer and helps them decide whether they want to take this step right now.
A strong call to action is not meant to create pressure. It should reduce uncertainty.
You’re Measuring Traffic Instead of Movement
We’ve been programmed to view website traffic as a primary indicator of our site’s performance. While traffic is an important metric, it doesn’t really tell you if your business is growing. A high-traffic article might boost visitor metrics and improve dwell time, but it could result in few inquiries. On the other hand, a service page with few clicks could bring in several highly qualified prospects.
When looking at your metrics, discover what visitors are doing on your site — how they are moving from page to page or article to page, if they are. For instance, the actions you want to see might include:
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- Moving from the article to a service page
- Reading one article and then clicking on related articles
- Visiting your About page
- Downloading a resource
- Joining your email list
- Returning to your website
- Clicking to your contact page after reading a service page
- And on the flip side: starting to complete your contact page, but exiting without finishing.
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ReCap
Website traffic is good, but a smooth customer journey is currency. If your website traffic is not converting, take a look at the following:
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- Assess the journey your current visitors are taking on your website.
- Are you attracting people with a problem you can solve?
- Can your visitors quickly determine if your business aligns with their needs?
- Is the value of your offering clear?
- Does your content gently and smoothly guide your visitors toward the next step?
- Have you provided enough proof of expertise, experience, and trustworthiness?
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A conversion problem is rarely a website-design problem.
If your website gets healthy traffic but not enough qualified inquiries, growth marketing coaching can help you find the leaks.
Working together, we can evaluate your positioning, messaging, content, offers, and conversion path. We can identify the gaps that matter the most and create a focused growth plan that fits your business goals and capacity.
Ready to find out what’s holding back conversions?
Let’s talk.
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