Lots of Website Traffic, but Few Clients? Here’s why!

I often talk to website owners who get a lot of visitors to their site, but have a very low conversion rate. They wonder why people are visiting, but very few are actually becoming customers. Somewhere along the way the customer experience has broken down. So what should you do if you are facing this problem? 

Adjust Your Expectations

The first thing to note is that the majority of the visitors to your website will never contact you. Typical conversion rates vary by industries but even a 10% conversion rate is probably very good. 

Traffic is Good

If your conversion rate is super low, it will require some more analysis but I’ll start with the good news: you are getting traffic. This means that something you are doing is working. Your marketing strategy, whether it is intentional or accidental, is working and people are interested. 

This could mean that you are visible on social media, have great search engine optimization that is allowing you to be found or you are getting good referral traffic. (Plus, if you know that you have good traffic, it likely means that you have Google Analytics installed, great! This also means you can likely identify where your visitors are coming from, allowing you to capitalize on that work.) In the grand scheme of digital marketing, this is a major part of the equation. Now you just need to make sure your customer experience is great on your website!

Where Do Buyers Get Lost on their Journey? 

You have interested visitors, you have a great business with valuable services, so why aren’t your visitors seeing this and reaching out to work with you? There are a number of reasons that either on their own or together could mean that your visitors aren’t reaching out. If you are unsure of what your buyer journey should be, Mapping Your Customer Journey is a important component to help you evaluate your website.

Poor Design = Poor Experience

This is probably the most obvious reason, but perhaps not for the reason you think. The website should be focused on your customer experience and making it easy for them to move through. Your homepage should be a map that guides visitors to the next page of the journey. The goal of your website is to show your visitors what you do, the problem you solve and how they can learn more. Your website needs to represent a clear progression for your visitor and give them the information they need to keep learning and to reach out to you. If your website isn’t an easy, helpful guide that keeps people’s attention, they’ll likely move on.

Also, related to the function of your website, make sure that your tech is working as it should be. There are tons of things that can interrupt your customer journey if your tech isn’t working. Things like an insecure site, broken links, lack of mobile responsiveness, and a contact form that don’t work are simple things that will inhibit your customer from proceeding to work with you. 

Lack of Clarity Around What You Offer

You want to explain what you offer in relation to what your ideal client needs. For some businesses, this means an explanation of packages. For others, an explanation of what a typical experience includes. However, all businesses should explain what benefits their clients should expect to see from working with the business. Potential clients are coming to you with a problem, or a want and you want to demonstrate that you can solve their problem. Think about the problem your ideal client has and how you solve that problem and make their lives better. If you can demonstrate this to your ideal client, you will get more inquiries. 

Lack of a Single Call to Action

You need to tell your clients what they should do next. If they want to learn more, should they email you, book an appointment, sign up for your mailing list? You need to ask them to do what you want them to do. People are reticent to make a big jump or reach out. You need to guide them through the process to help their brain understand why this is a benefit. Then ask them to perform an action to guide their heart to actually take the action. However, also be careful of having too many calls to action. Ideally, each page will have one main call to action. You don’t want to confuse visitors by giving them too many options. Remember, your website should be a guide as to how you solve the problem your ideal client has. 

Unclear Who You Work With

You want your ideal client to know that you work with them and understand them. Your website copy needs to show your clients that you understand and can help with their pain points. You want your ideal client to be nodding their head and saying “yes, s/he is totally talking about me!” If you aren’t clear about who you help, your website visitor is likely to be confused about whether this is really for them.

This doesn’t mean that you need to explicitly say “I help moms who are seeking better work/life balance,” but your website copy should talk about the challenges of providing for family and also being present at work. Talk in broad terms about how you help with the issue they are seeing. For our example of moms and work/life balance this would be saying things like: “Organization and weekly planning can help you tackle your to-do list, while feeling more present with your family.” You are identifying what your ideal client is struggling with and showing them how you help. 

Your Ask is Too Large

If you only offer a high-priced offer, or a service that requires a long commitment, it’s unlikely that you will get many clients by putting a buy button at the bottom of your sales page and asking for their credit card info. Asking people to email you with questions, set up a consult call, or sign up for a webinar is a much smaller ask that can help you move the sale along. This makes it much more likely that people will say yes, by reassuring them and giving a better experience.

Especially for offers that require a close working relationship, people will want to “meet” you to make sure it is a good fit. You want to meet them as well, to make sure it is a good fit on both sides. If your higher priced offer isn’t as personal as a one-to-one service, perhaps it is a course or a group program, you can bridge that gap by offering a smaller course or program that will be a lower barrier to entry for clients and allows you to gain trust at a lower price point.

Visitors Travel Through the Process at Different Speeds

There are other reasons your website may not be converting visitors to buyers, but these are the ones that I see most commonly. Also remember that the sales process isn’t directly linear, no matter how good your website and customer experience is. Some people reach out the first time they hear about you. Others will follow you for years before they decide to reach out. Neither is wrong. If your website is building trust and authority with your visitors, that will drive results in the future. 

Look at your website with this post as your checklist and put yourself in your ideal client’s shoes. You may find some basic things that you’ll immediately notice make your business less attractive to visitors. 

Need to make some changes to help your conversion rate? Let’s talk about how to up conversions.