7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn't Generating Sales

19 September 2014
7 Reasons Why Your Website Isn't Generating Sales
Steve Baik

1. You're not attracting the right type of traffic.

I don't know where you are currently advertising or promoting your site, but if the traffic is not targeted or low quality, you are wasting your time. The key to making an online sale is to get the right visitors to your doorstep. If you have a website about travel, but a majority of your visitors are coming from Internet Marketing sites, you're mostlikely not going to produce a sale. You have to target your traffic for your specific keywords.

2. Your visitors don't trust your site.

It's one thing to get visitors to your site, but it's a whole different ballgame to convert them into paying customers. In this day and age, trust is a big issue. With so many scams out there, people are going to be naturally skeptical about a website they have never visited before. You have to convince people that you are trustworthy. How are you going to do that? There are many factors that can either build or break down trust, such as trust logos, testimonials, external reviews, money-back guarantees, payment methods, etc.. Each one of these things can mean the difference between a sale and someone who didn't trust your site enough to part with their money.

3. Your website design sucks.

I'm being pretty blunt here, but the reality is, if your site looks like it was made in the 1990's, people won't think twice about leaving. You only have one opportunity to make a first impression, so make sure you don't scare them off with an ugly appearance. Apply psychology into your web design - make the visitor feel comfortable.

4. Your site is confusing.

Make sure to spell everything out on your site. Your navigation menu should be clear. Make the user feel like they know exact what they are doing. The easier you make it to buy something, the easier you'll be able to make money. If you are selling products on your site, make it easy for them to purchase. And, if you have thousands of products to choose from, make sure each product is clearly defined. Furthermore, by using simple call to action buttons or links throughout your site, you can make the shopping experience much more pleasant and convenient.

5. You have errors on your site.

This is somewhat in line with the trust factor. A site that has numerous 404 error pages and broken links are going to scare customers away. Make sure to scan your site for errors and fix them immediately. Fixing errors are not only good for users, but also the search engines.

6. You are non-responsive.

These days, customer service has taken a back seat to making profits. Not answering emails or phone calls are the easiest ways to lose customers. Don't be one of those businesses. Answer every email that comes in within a 24 hour period, and also leave a voicemail option on your phone if you are shorthanded.

7. You don't have enough traffic or you're looking at inaccurate stats.

Your traffic is only going to be as good as the source of your data. This means that you need to understand what numbers you're looking at and from where the numbers are coming from. A lot of business owners log into their cPanel or Urchin account thinking they have the most accurate stats. Not true. Often times, those traffic stats are inaccurate because they sometimes count bots as human visits. Also, not understanding the different types of visits will lead you to think that you have more traffic than you actually do. For example, a unique visit is not the same as a visit. And, a hit is not the same as a visit. These are all different data points that you must know how to distinguish.

Hopefully this list has helped you.

Do you know of any other factors that could prevent a website from generating sales?

 

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