My website doesn’t get any leads!
This is one of the most common complaints I hear from consultants or any business owner about their websites.
Today, I’m going to help you understand why your website may not be converting leads. When trying to figure out what’s going wrong with your website, we can usually narrow it down to these four basic problems:
- You don’t have enough website traffic.
- You don’t offer a solution your clients need or want.
- Your website is confusing and too hard to use.
- Your website lacks a clear call to action with an easy path to convert leads.
Problem 1: Your website doesn’t get enough traffic
It probably seems obvious that your website can’t convert visitors into leads if it doesn’t get any traffic. But you can’t fix this until you actually know how much traffic you get.
Set up website analytics
Many business owners just assume they’re getting no traffic based because their website doesn’t generate any leads.
This thinking is flawed.
It’s entirely possible your website gets a fair amount of traffic, but no one converts into leads. The only way to know if you have enough website traffic is to collect good website analytics.
But don’t rely on your website hosting analytics! These tools tend to include bots that are crawling your website. And bots are irrelevant when trying to determine if you have enough traffic to get leads.
Instead, you need to collect data from an analytics tool such as Google Analytics or Fathom Analytics. To help you decide which analytics tool is best for you, you can check out my article, Is it time to say goodbye to Google Analytics?
How much website traffic do you really need?
How much traffic your website needs really depends on how many leads you need to get from it.
One way to figure that out is math! To keep it simple, let’s say you need 2 leads per month. For example, the average landing page conversion rate for consulting businesses is around 2%. So to get 2 leads, you’d need at least 100 website visitors per month (2 / 2% = 100) to convert at the average rate.
Now, also remember to ask people who call if they looked at your website! Some leads may just call or send a direct email instead of completing your contact form or scheduling an appointment online.
How to get more traffic to your website
If you determine you need more website traffic, here are three suggestions to generate more traffic without spending a lot of money:
- Build your brand offline! Go to networking meetings, get to know people, and use print marketing to get people to know you and like you. Once they do, they’ll start going to your website, or refer people who will go to your website.
- Optimize your Google Business Profile! If you have a local business, verify and complete your Google Business Profile. Also, collect and respond to Google reviews. This approach will help your business show up higher in local search results.
- Get listed in online business directories! Take advantage of online review directories like Yelp, local business directories, and industry-specific directories.
To learn more about how to get website traffic, you can check out this article, 5 ways to get more traffic to your website.
Problem 2: You don’t have an offer your potential clients want
Basically, if you don’t solve a problem your clients want solved or help them reach a desired goal, you’re not going to convert leads. It really is that simple.
It doesn’t matter how good your services are if no one is really interested in them.
Get specific with your offers
Niching works. Identify a specific target audience for your offer and identify a specific problem or goal they have. This can be scary to do because we think we’re missing out on opportunities by leaving certain audiences out of our offer.
But in reality, appealing to a smaller audience often leads to higher conversions. Why?
- Potential clients will more closely identify with your offer. You are offering something they need, and your offer shows you understand them and their problems.
- It’s easier for you to identify what your potential clients needs if you’re targeting a specific group of clients.
- It helps you keep your website copy and messaging focused on that group of clients and what they need.
If your offers are too vague and too broad, they’re not really providing a solution to the specific problems people or businesses are trying to solve.
Let’s look at a real-life example. Let’s say you’ve just been invited to a wedding in a few days and you need appropriate clothing to wear! Nothing fits anymore. So you start looking for a place to shop. You don’t have a lot of time to shop around.
You find a few places: A generic clothing store, a wedding dress store, and a store that specializes in evening and dressier clothes for men and women. Where are you heading first?
My guess is you head to the evening wear shop because you’re more likely to find what you’re looking for in a short amount of time and get the specialized help you need.
Is your offer too generic?
Take a look at the offer(s) on your website and ask yourself if they are too broad. If you’re not sure about your target audience or what problems they have, then I recommend finding a niche for your offer.
Then, spend some time getting to know your target audience.
- Look at your competitors and see what they’re doing well or not-so-good.
- Do market research do find out what your target audience needs and what type of help they need.
- Listen to your audience! Go to the places they hang out and listen to what they say.
Problem 3: Your website is hard to use
I’d like to you to think about these three statistics reported by WordStream:
- Websites with a superior user experience generate a 400% higher conversion rate
- Nearly 90% of consumers shop with a competitor after a poor website experience
- 44% of consumers tell others about negative website experiences
These statistics show how website user experience is directly related to website conversions and getting traffic to your website.
Is your website user-friendly?
It’s easy overlook if our own websites aren’t easy to use. We understand them! But we need to put ourselves in our website visitors shoes and think about what the experience is like for them.
First, make sure your website menus are simple and concise. Make it easy for visitors to find what they’re looking for without overwhelming them with choices.
Imagine walking into a large department store that didn’t have any directories (or had directories that were hard to find or to understand). Think about how frustrating that would be. How long would you stay at that store or would you shop there again?
Second, make sure your website content is easy to read and is written for your target audience, not you or your peers. Try to avoid industry jargon unless you are serving clients in the same industry as you.
Along the same lines, keep your website structure and flow logical and consistent.
Third, make sure your website loads fast! I know you’ve heard this before, but if your website takes too long to load, visitors will just leave.
Finally, make sure your website is accessible and useable by all types of users! Follow good website accessibility practices, such as using good color contrast, using large enough fonts, and being able to to tab through the menus. Also, avoid a lot of animation and intrusive popups.
Problem 4: You don’t have a clear Call to Action
Here’s another statistic I’d like you to think about (also from WordStream):
- 70% of small business websites are missing a call to action on their homepage.
So, what is a Call to Action?
A Call to Action (CTA) is a section on a website and/or button that asks website visitors to do something or take some kind of action.
For example, the first section of a consulting website home page may include a button that says “book a consult call.”
If pages on your website are missing calls to action, that’s kind of like not having cash registers at a store. Website visitors can’t convert because there isn’t a path to convert.
Choose one consistent primary call to action
But just scattering a bunch of different CTA’s throughout website isn’t going to really work either. Your job is to make it easy for website visitors to do what you want them to do. If you give them too many choices, they won’t do anything.
For the best conversions, you should pick one main action for visitors to do. For example, do you want visitors to sign up for your newsletter or book a free consult call? Then, place that primary CTA in multiple places on each website page so it’s easy for visitors to convert.
Then, keep that CTA button consistent. Use the same or consistent wording. Keep its color the same. Keep it the same size. You want your website visitors to instantly recognize that button and what it means.
Finally, make sure the primary CTA button is noticeable. Ideally, the button uses a color that shows up easily on the page and doesn’t blend in with its surroundings.
Use action words for your CTA
Too often, Calls to Action are just too vague. The button may just say “Learn More” or “Click Here.” If you want people to take action on your website, you need to tell them what to do.
Samples of better wording for your CTA’s are:
- Sign up now to get instant access
- Book your free consult call
- Join my free community
- Claim your discount
- Access my free training
Take a look at the CTA’s on your website. Are they giving good instructions to your website visitors?
Is your website lead conversion-ready?
I hope this article helped you understand a few reasons why your website isn’t generating the leads you want. To quickly sum it all up, here’s a quick summary to help you troubleshoot why your website isn’t converting:
- Does your website have enough traffic?
- Are you making an offer your target clients want or need?
- Is your website easy to use and to understand?
- Do you have a clear call to action?
