You are attracting website visitors through social media marketing, email marketing, search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing. Your traffic is highly targeted; and let’s assume you are selling the exact product or service that your visitors want. You also have the lowest price online, yet you still aren’t converting sales.
So, what’s the problem?
Sometimes a simple website problem will drastically hinder your sales. Here are four reasons why your website might not be converting as well as you would like.
1. Your website provides a horrible mobile experience.
You have to have a mobile-friendly website — there is no way around it. It’s very easy to check to see if your website passes Google’s mobile-friendly test, but a passing grade doesn’t necessarily guarantee that your website is going to provide a pleasant experience for your users.
There are many things to consider when optimizing a landing page for mobile traffic. Using text that’s large and easy to read, having just a single call-to-action, avoiding large paragraphs of text and ensuring that a visitor can access every feature using just one finger are a few things to consider.
Invite feedback from actual users — friends, family and customers — and watch them run through every page of your website on a mobile device. Take notes based on their feedback in real time to determine what works and what still needs to be addressed, to give your visitors a hassle-free experience on their mobile devices.
2. Customers are required to create an account to complete the checkout process.
I won’t purchase from a website that requires me to create an account before checking out, and I promise I’m not the only one that shares this stance. Consumers demand speed, efficiency and convenience. Requiring someone to create an account not only adds time-consuming steps to the checkout process, but also acts as a repellant, pushing away consumers who are sensitive about putting personal information online.
You don’t need to completely eliminate the ability to create an account; some consumers, especially repeat visitors, like the convenience of stored information, such as a preferred payment method and shipping address. Just make sure you offer a “guest” checkout option, as well, allowing someone to quickly make a purchase and be done.
3. You don’t offer any visible discounts, special offers or free shipping.
We all like to feel that we are saving money or receiving a special perk. Make sure that all of your special offers, even standard ones, are highly visible.
Here’s an example of how a simple change can make a difference: An ecommerce website I consulted for was offering free shipping on all orders.
When the company implemented a two-step exit offer to let visitors leaving the site claim free shipping, its conversion rates went through the roof. We also strategically placed the offer throughout the website. Without adjusting anything else, the company’s revenue numbers grew much stronger.
The message? Work current special offers and discounts into your website design, and include them in areas that are clicked and viewed often (Tip: Use a heat-map tool like Crazy Egg to see where your visitors are scrolling and clicking.) Also, build exit offers that include these special offers, enticing the visitor to stick around and complete a purchase.
4. Your website speed and load time are painfully slow.
What happens when you land on a website and it doesn’t load immediately? You leave. I leave. Everyone leaves. Your website visitors aren’t any different.
If someone leaves your website because it loads slowly, I have news for you — not only did you just lose a possible sale, but you lost all future sales from that person, as well, since he or she will never return. There are several free tests you can run to audit your website speed and load time.
In addition to making the changes those tests suggest, you should use quality website hosting, utilize caching and consider signing up for a content delivery network (CDN) to improve your website performance.
