Have you found yourself Googling “my website doesn’t convert” recently?
You’re not alone!
Many small business owners struggle with converting their viewers into customers. Technical issues aside, there are many reasons why people don’t convert once they reach your website.
It can be anywhere from slow page loading times to inconsistent branding, to even confusion about how to checkout or book a service.
Whatever the reason may be, our conversion rate experts are here to save the day. They’ve compiled a list of the top 10 reasons audiences don’t convert to a small business Ecommerce website and how to solve each of these issues.
What Is a Good Website Conversion Rate?
First, let’s focus on the different conversion rates between a website and Etsy. Since Etsy is one of the largest online selling platforms, we want to focus on them for those of you who are trying to increase your Etsy conversion rate.
But before we get into what is a reasonable conversion rate on Etsy, let’s ask our conversion rate experts about website conversions first.
About 25% of all businesses have less than 1% conversion rates, with the top 25% of accounts having twice that – 5% or more.
On average, a “good” conversion rate is considered 2.35%.
However, our conversion rate experts recommend setting KPIs based on your industry’s benchmarks. For example, if you run a food and beverage company, a good conversion rate for you may be 3%, given the industry average is less than 1%. But a 3% conversion rate, if you’re in the commercial equipment industry, would only be considered slightly above average.
It’s also worth noting that the average order value on a desktop was 42% higher than on a mobile phone in 2020.
What Is a Good Conversion Rate on Etsy?
As we discussed, not only does the metric for a good conversion rate vary from industry to industry, but it also varies depending on how your audience is purchasing your product.
Due to the fierce competition and the fact that over 50% of Etsy’s traffic comes from mobile, Etsy’s average conversion rates are slightly lower than website averages.
The average conversion rate is about 2% on Etsy.
Over the last few years, conversion rates on Etsy have decreased due to the fact that more and more sellers have been joining the platform. Competitive niches like jewelry and clothing see a wide range of conversion rates among sellers.
When your audience can easily go back and click on the competitor right next to your listing, it’s harder to maintain a high conversion rate.
Our conversion rate experts agree that if your Etsy conversion rate is between 1.75-2.75% that you’re on the right track!
How to Calculate Your Conversion Rate
Conversion rates are calculated by taking the number of sales you’ve made and dividing that by the number of total visitors that have visited your website.
For example, if you had 50 sales from 1,000 visits, your conversion rate would be 5%.
Now that we’ve figured out what your conversion rate goals should be and how to calculate it, let’s get into the ten reasons your website suffers from a low conversion rate.
10 Reasons Your Site Isn’t Converting
Your Site Is Too New to Be Found Organically
One of the biggest reasons our conversion rate experts say websites suffer from low conversion rates is simply that they are too new.
If your brand awareness is limited or doesn’t exist, it’s hard for others to trust you enough to give you their money. Some ways to increase your conversion rate may be by using social proof or driving traffic with your email list, but how can you do either of those if your business is brand new and you don’t even have an email list or testimonials, to begin with?
The best way to increase your conversion rate to a new website is through landing pages.
Your landing page should be the middleman between someone going from a follower to a customer; it lets you make a trade for some sort of special discount or product in return for providing their contact information.
While landing pages may be the least popular type of sign-up form, they actually have one of the highest conversion rates sitting at just under 25%!
By giving a discount for a specific product or service for a consumer’s email address, not only are you increasing your conversion rate, but you are increasing your email list numbers as well.
You’re Not Optimizing Your Email or Landing Page Copy to Drive Traffic
This brings us to our second reason. Our conversion rate experts noted a significant amount of businesses don’t optimize their email copy or landing page copy to sell their products specifically.
It might be because you’re too shy about directly asking your customers to make a purchase, or maybe it’s because your CTA isn’t clear enough. Whatever the reason may be, not optimizing your emails and landing pages directly affects your conversion rate.
To learn more about increasing your conversion rates through email, click here.
To learn more about increasing your conversion rates through landing pages, click here.
Your SEO Is Nonexistent
Optimizing your content for search engines is different from optimizing your content for conversions, but the results you achieve with one supplement the results you reach with the other.
Maintaining a strong connection between an ad, or an organic search result, and a specific landing page is critical for conversions. If someone clicks on your link and finds themself somewhere different from their ad or search result, they aren’t going to stick around.
How to optimize pages for conversions:
Match title tag and H1 heading
Design a clear site structure and pathway to checkout
Don’t overpromise on your ads or search results
Make sure you exclude out-of-stock products from search results
Adjust your layout based on keywords
Make your website easy to navigate
You Aren’t Keeping Your Audience in Mind
Have you ever gone to a party and felt like you weren’t supposed to be there? It makes you want to leave immediately, right?
Don’t let your audience feel that way either!
When you disregard what your audience is wanting and needing in a product or service, they’ll end up leaving just as quickly as they arrived.
Your Descriptions Focus On Features Rather Than Benefits
Features and benefits are sometimes hard to distinguish for those who are writing their own web copy. While they might be similar, they are entirely different psychologically.
Features are elements of your product.
Benefits are why that feature matters for your customers.
Features tell customers what, and benefits tell customers why.
For example, let’s say you are selling a car. The feature may be heated seats, but the benefit is staying warm in the winter months.
Many customers are looking for a product or service that solves something for them. As a business owner, you might feel a little weird at first laying out all the why’s behind your features. Customers aren’t dumb after all; shouldn’t they know why a feature is good for them?
And you’re right! They aren’t dumb. But laying out why your product or service would benefit them appeals to consumers for two reasons…
It saves them time trying to figure it out on their own
The benefit catches their attention more than the feature
Heated seats are great, but staying warm in cold months is greater.
Your Pictures Are Low Quality
Images invoke specific emotions and feelings that complement your website’s content. People process visuals 60,000 times faster than text and help someone decide whether to remain on your website or not.
The right photos make a huge difference in your website’s overall impression and effectiveness. Our conversion rate experts have seen many otherwise decent websites that are ruined by poor photo choices or low-quality photos.
Here are some guidelines to follow to ensure your images are high-quality:
Hire a professional photographer when available
If not, purchase items that will help level up your image quality, such as a good camera or smartphone, a ring light or lightbox, appropriate decor, plain backdrops, etc.
As an alternative, utilize high-quality stock photos
Use images of your product being used
Don’t overcrowd your images
Always show positive imagery (smiling, laughing, happy)
Don’t post blurry photos! Not only are they distracting, but they automatically lower the quality of your brand and product
You Have No Sales Funnel
A sales funnel is a sequence of steps a lead goes through before deciding to purchase your product or service. It’s called a funnel because only some make it through to the conversion stage.
Putting in consistent effort to carry your prospect from the beginning to the end of the funnel is essential to increasing your conversion rate.
Below should help you understand each stage and the type of nurturing and content you should produce for that specific stage:
For example, segmenting your audience and sending those in the “consideration” stage a how-to video is an excellent way to lead them into the next stage, but won’t help you “awareness” audience at all.
Subsequently, newsletters won’t help your “interest” audience become loyal customers, but will help your “purchase” audience.
Your Checkout/Booking Process Is Confusing or Too Long
As discussed in a previous blog about shopping cart abandonment, a complicated or long checkout process is the third biggest reason consumers leave a website before purchasing.
Our conversion rate experts recommend using a progress indicator during checkout so your audience can see exactly where they are in the checkout process.
A nearly completed progress bar can also serve as a visual reinforcement for shoppers to continue purchasing. By clearly showing customers where they are in the checkout process, you’re eliminating the possible worry that actually buying something from you will take more time than they are willing to commit.
You’re Brand Voice and Tone Isn’t Consistent
Your brand voice and tone should be unique to who you are and who your audience is. It should be easy to understand, easy to notice, and easy to define.
If your brand is more casual and comical, having a serious tone randomly sprinkled throughout your website can confuse and turn off audiences who have gotten used to your friendly tone.
Creating a style or branding guide is one great way to keep your brand voice and tone consistent. This guide will help you keep track of and document all the ways you should (and should not) use your branding.
Below is an example of how you can document and outline your brand voice and tone:
Your Audience Doesn’t See Your Value
Last but not least, our conversion rate experts mark that sometimes a website conversion rate may be low because the audience doesn’t see the value in who that particular brand.
You may offer the world’s best product or service, but If your audience doesn't see the value in what you offer and what you sell, then they're just going to go to your competitors.
The best way to show your value is by providing social proof, or testimonials, throughout your website. According to Nielsen.com, 70% of people will trust a recommendation from someone they don’t even know.
When you highlight customer testimonials throughout your website, your brand is seen as more trustworthy and reliable, which in turn can improve the chance of a viewer buying your product or service.
Key Takeaways
Your low website conversion rate can be because of many different factors. Technical issues aside, it can be fixed with something simple like adding social proof to your website or ensuring a consistent brand tone and voice.
But if your web conversion rate is low and you’re not sure why, give our web designers a call. We specialize in creating websites that help convert your viewers into customers.
Regardless of if you’re creating a simple landing page or a full-blown eCommerce website, we know the words, phrases, and strategies to help funnel your audience from awareness all the way to purchase.
Kellyann Doyle is a Content Marketing Writer at Zoek, an SEO, Web Design, and Digital Marketing Agency that assists small and medium-sized businesses with their online footprint. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in 2013 from the University of Houston with a Major in Communications and a Minor in Marketing and has been working in the Digital Marketing world ever since. When not working, you can find Kellyann trying new recipes, enjoying a good nap, or watching Friends for the 500th time.
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