As a result of your online marketing efforts you now have an increased number of relevant visitors to your website, and what's more, you know that your traffic is of a high quality.
But you're still not seeing an increase in sales. Why?
The rate of success you achieve on the internet depends on two things: traffic and conversions.
The internet is a game of numbers and you winning or losing this game depends on the number of people you get to your website and more importantly how many of them convert into paying customers.
So just why isn’t your website converting? Here are 7 major reasons:
1. Poor content
Nonexistent or ‘thin’ content and content written specifically for search engines is probably one of the biggest reasons why you are struggling to convert your visitors into sales. The truth is, your visitors don’t care about how many times or where a keyword appears on a page and neither do the search engines to an extent.
So forget keyword density and keyword placement, do you want to know what gets websites to the top of the results pages and in front of prospective customers? Google and other search engines rank pages according to these two factors:
- Popularity
- Value
Of course, to have very popular content, it must be valuable and by this I mean it must address the needs of internet users who come across it. Now, this does not mean that you should ignore keyword research, meta data, page descriptions and the like, however, it does mean that you should focus more on your readers. In short don’t write for robots write for humans.
Know your audience, connect with them and build that trust. Think about it, what kind of content goes viral on social media? Inspirational, funny, whacky and weird. Informative, educational and helpful. People will share your content with their own followers/fans but only if it adds value.
2. You’re a copycat!
What’s worse than publishing boring content is copying other people’s work and presenting it as your own. Too many businesses and entrepreneurs are held back on their growth by trying to write like the ‘guru bloggers’.
The need to develop your own unique blogging voice cannot be overemphasized. It’s important to remember that on the internet your credibility is much more important than anything else. People follow people, not companies.
Developing your own unique blogging voice will help to distinguish you from your competitors and establish you as an authority in your niche.
3. You don’t know your target audience
Only a con would sell anything to anyone. A salesman/woman would (or should) only sell you products and services you need and want. The truth is, we are all in sales whether directly as a vocation or indirectly.
The problem is, most of us don’t know that! Today most businesses that are successful offline are struggling online because they don’t know who they are marketing to. They don’t understand their market and yet they still expect to make money from it.
Taking the time to identify your market and ways to reach them can save you a lot of money that can be used for other areas of business.
4. Poor website design – page pollution
First impressions matter a lot and the same is true on the internet. Your website is a reflection of you and your business. By not taking the time to invest in good design, you are literally leaving a lot of money on the table.
Within 5 seconds of landing on your website, users have already made a decision whether to continue reading your content or close the window. Having an effective website that clearly explains what your business is about and guides your readers on what to do can put you miles ahead of your competition.
Your homepage should be simple, clean and welcoming. It shouldn’t be crowded, confusing and messy. This is your ‘shop window’, make it welcoming and tell your prospective customer clearly what it is you do or sell.
5. Lack of engagement with your readers
Would you leave your guests unattended in your home? Of course not, but how many of us do that with our blogs, websites and social media platforms? We publish great content and promote it well but when the traffic starts trickling in, we are nowhere to be found. In essence what you are doing is like sending out invitations to your party and when everyone turns up, you are missing in action.
Before long your casual attitude becomes negligence. Comments, emails and questions are not responded to and readers feel unappreciated. The few relationships you had built start crumbling and before you know it, nobody reads your blog, Twitter page or website anymore. Responding to comments, questions and emails is a key metric that will greatly determine the success of your online real estate.
That said, comments are not only meant to make your readers happy, they are a way to add value to them. Usually, readers will ask questions about your services or products through comments and by responding to their questions you will be increasing their trust in you and building your credibility.
6. No sharing options – anti-social
If you are like most people, the first thing you want to do when you hear good or bad news is to spread it. However, by publishing great content and not having avenues that let your readers share it, you will be impeding your own growth.
With 1.19 billion people on Facebook alone (Source: Facebook) and 231 million active Twitter users (Source: socialmediatoday.com), chances of your content being of value to someone else is very high. Therefore, by neglecting to include social sharing channels on your blog or website you are limiting your own reach.
7. Lack of Consistency
Eating seven apples on Saturday instead of one a day just isn’t going to cut it. Similarly publish 5 pieces of content today and none for the rest of the week is bad. You must have a systematic approach to your content marketing efforts otherwise your ROI will be in the red.
Moreover, sporadically publishing content on your website/blog confuses your readers and shows a lack of seriousness on your part. You must be consistent in your content marketing campaigns if you are to increase your conversions.
What do you think? Do you agree with this list? Want to add to it? Let’s continue this discussion on in the comments. We would love to hear your thoughts on this.
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End note
There are of course lots of other reasons why your hard earned visitors don’t buy from you. Even making small tweaks and changes can see an upturn in conversions.
Want to find out how angelfysh can help you?.. Contact us today… we’d love to help.
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