How to Stop Asking, 'Why Is My Website Not Converting?' When you give visitors exactly what they want on your website, you up the odds that they'll give you their information -- and loyalty -- in return.
By Kelsey Raymond •
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A company's website is one of the top marketing channels, second only to social media, according to a 2021 HubSpot report. But your website isn't just a place to humble-brag about your company's origin story or showcase your unique offerings: It's also a prime driver for sales conversions. And every time you increase your conversion rate, you boost your overall revenue.
Here's how the typical digital buyer's journey works: A visitor comes to your website after searching keywords or clicking on an advertisement. The new visitor is looking for answers. If you provide them, the visitor might willingly fill out a form, download a case study or request an appointment. Your job is to make the journey and conversion happen seamlessly.
Even if you operate in the B2B realm, you need to know how to convert traffic into leads online. Then, once you have those leads in hand, you can turn them into paying customers.
Related: Your Buyer's Journey Is Now Online. Is Your Customer Experience Digital-First Too?
Calculating your baseline conversion rate
It can seem like a challenge to move the needle for website traffic conversion. However, it all starts with knowing your baseline conversion rate.
Don't worry if math wasn't your strongest subject. Calculating your website conversion rate isn't hard: Just divide your current conversions by the number of people who visit your site. Then, multiply that number by 100.
For example, let's say 10,000 visitors stop by your site every month, and you average 100 sales calls from those visits. Your conversion rate would be 100 divided by 10,000, which is 0.01. Multiply 0.01 by 100 and you get 1%.
Let's take this further. If you know every sales call generates $5,000 in revenue, your 100 sales calls will total $500,000 monthly. This means a 1% website conversion rate is the same as grossing half a million dollars every 30 days.
Turning your website into a conversion machine
Your B2B sales cycle is like a funnel. The more people who enter the top, the more who will turn into clients at the bottom. Building a website that converts a higher number of visitors just makes sense and is well worth your efforts.
Instead of lamenting, "Why is my website not converting?" initiate some tweaks.
1. Populate your landing pages with valuable gated content
When we talk about adding valuable gated content to landing pages, the operative word here is "valuable." Gated content — or content that's accessible only after visitors fill out a form — can enhance your website traffic conversion rate. That's why 64% of marketing professionals heralded gated content as a top prospect-capturing tool, according to a 2020 FINITE report. But you can't just publish everyday blog-style content and expect people to jump at the chance to "pay" for a download with their personal information.
Your gated content needs to have real meaning and be of the highest quality. Otherwise, why would visitors trade their valuable information and give you permission to get in touch down the road? Content such as in-depth whitepapers, exclusive research studies and helpful checklists make excellent gated content options.
And remember: Your gated pieces shouldn't just be meaty and unique. They should also be snackable, authentic and easy to navigate. Pay careful attention to the design elements of your gated content so that it reflects your brand, showcases your organization in the best light and presents the information in a way that's easy for your audience to consume.
Related: How Good Website Content Helps You Earn Potential Customers
2. Test a variety of calls to action
Has your website flatlined or slumped in terms of conversations? Your CTAs might be the culprits. Nebulous, confusing CTAs leave readers feeling unsure of what to do, whereas personalized ones can improve your conversions by 202%, per HubSpot.
How can you individualize your CTAs? Review each one through a visitor's eyes: Does the CTA make sense based on the visitor's position in the buyer's journey? For example, a new visitor reading an introductory blog post might be interested in downloading an educational fact sheet but not yet ready to schedule a demo call. Knowing this, your CTA shouldn't mention demos yet.
It can be tough to nail the right CTA format for each page. That's where A/B testing comes in. Experiment with everything from text style and layout to colors and language. It shouldn't take long before you figure out which CTAs are keepers and which aren't.
3. Study each landing page's metrics
Checking the backend performance of landing pages is simpler than it's ever been, thanks to advanced software. Set aside time regularly to evaluate every landing page's bounce rate, leads generated, sales influenced and other important metrics. Consider investing in a tool that will allow you to follow your leads as they move through the buyer's journey.
We routinely track landing pages and gated content at our company. For example, we found that one whitepaper landing page on our site has generated 1,111 form submissions, 494 new contacts and two new customers. That's a download-to-lead conversion rate of about 0.18%. Our goal is to continue testing the landing page and making tweaks over time to raise the conversion rate.
Be aware that landing page effectiveness might change over time. Graphics, layout trends and verbiage can fall out of vogue. Your buyers won't trust you if your landing pages don't seem pertinent or fresh. Knowing when metrics have plateaued or plunged gives you the chance to make changes quickly and not lose out on leads.
Related: How to Decode Website Metrics to Pump Up Your Online Marketing
4. Create mobile-friendly pages
Statista estimates that about half of all internet traffic happens on mobile devices. So how does your site look and perform for mobile users? Do your buttons accommodate most people's fingers? Do page headers look normal on compact screens?
Never assume that just because your site is "responsive" it offers a stellar mobile experience. Test it. Mobile visitors will abandon your site if they can't navigate freely — if they even find it in the first place. After all, search engines take mobile site development into consideration for search rankings.
To get ahead of any issues, play around with your site on a mobile device before any landing page deployment. After deployment, keep tabs on your mobile visitor metrics. This allows you to see whether you're losing mobile momentum, which could be a sign that your mobile visitors aren't having a good experience.
5. Segment your traffic sources
People come to your site from all over the web. Consequently, put your landing page traffic sources into "buckets" so you can look at each category's conversion rate.
We did this with our site statistics for 2021 and came up with some fascinating numbers. We discovered that our top buckets of lead conversions came from referral traffic at 5.86%, direct traffic at 2.65% and organic search at 0.67%. These were enlightening results because they showed some unrealized gaps and exciting opportunities.
After exploring these metrics, we've made two plans. The first is to attempt to woo more early stage visitors from referral and direct traffic. The second is to figure out why our conversion rate is so low for organic search and make adjustments accordingly. You can bet we'll try some A/B testing throughout the year.
Your website acts as a gate, so make sure it's wide open to your strongest prospects. When you give visitors exactly what they want, you up the odds that they'll give you their information — and loyalty — in return.
