When new clients with pre-existing websites come to me, this often their number one question: why isn’t my website converting?

They can see from their analytics that people are coming to their website, but on the back end, it’s all crickets. No sales, no calls booked, nothing.

Here, I have a super quick video showing you three things that might be keeping your website from converting:

Written Tips for Why Isn’t My Website Converting?

Here are the three things mentioned in the video – plus some bonuses!

#1 – I’ve written about this one before, but if your website has a high bounce rate (typically anything 70% and above) that means that it’s time to check your top-thirds! One of the biggest contributors to a high bounce rate – meaning someone doesn’t take any action after the page they land on and simply “bounce” (not interested – I’m outta here!) – is that the top-third of the page they landed on wasn’t interesting or informative enough to get them to scroll down. Or it didn’t hook them enough so that even if they did scroll down a bit, they had already basically checked out.

One of the biggest culprits? Big-ass banner images at the top of the page with absolutely no context. This is a mistake that I’ve made myself and it was, I suppose, en vogue for awhile – but unless you have a photography website or something else very visual, an enormous photo at the top of your page isn’t going to give your viewers enough information to pique their interest.

#2 – Confusing design. Sometimes we try to be clever. Often when we try to be clever, our audience doesn’t get it. In my second example in the video, I share a site that has a text treatment that makes the text look like it’s on a button – but, it’s not a button. This is confusing. Don’t confuse your viewers!

confusing design for why isn't my website converting

See that 👆… It’s not a button, but it LOOKS like a button.

Take a look at all of the pages on your website (or better yet, get some fresh eyes on it) and see if there are any parts where you were trying to be clever, or trying to make something pretty, but that could be confusing for your prospective clients.

#3 – Your sales pages aren’t really sales pages. A few paragraphs for a $100+ product probably isn’t going to cut it. Unless you’re J.Crew and you’re selling a sweater. Info products and 1:1 services need to provide prospective clients with enough information to get the sale.

  • Make sure that you’re answering questions like:
  • What problem is this going to help me solve?
  • How is it going to help me solve it?
  • Why is it different from everything else I’ve already tried?
  • Who is going to help me do this?
  • Why should I trust them?

There’s a lot of stuff on the internet these days. And a lot of it is crappy. Your prospective clients know that and assuming they don’t already know YOU, they need to know why, your services or your product are different.

#4 – Your navigation isn’t effective. We have all been trained to look for the top menu bar in order to make our way around a website. Take advantage of this and make sure that your menu is clear, easy to navigate and highlights the services and calls to action that you want front and center.

#5 – You’re not giving people enough information to navigate your calls to action (CTAs). A CTA is anything that invites a viewer to take another step. Buttons and links are always CTAs. Invitations to a free consultation is a CTA. To join your free Facebook group is a CTA. You have to earn that click! Make sure that whenever you present a button that there is enough information in the section where the button is, or on the page preceding where the button falls, that the viewer will feel ready to make the click. It’s a common mistake to think that just making a button is enough, but people will skip over a button at least 50% of the time. And that percentage goes way up if you don’t set yourself up for success.

Alright, let’s do this. And if you need some help, I have a live website audit coming up with ethical copywriter Lauren Van Mullem from Truer Words by Lauren. We’ll be going over common design and copy mistakes so you don’t want to miss it. Sign up here.

Best of luck! Xx, Kara

Ready for more?

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✨ Ready for the DIYer’s dream? Check out Website Launch Bootcamp, where a website designer (me!) and an ethical copywriter (Lauren Van Mullem) teach you brand strategy, ethical copy for coaches and website design in one nifty (and affordable!) package. ✨