Once visitors come to your website they should have clear prompts to interact with it. If, for example, they landed on one of your blog posts, that post should include links to highly relevant content. If they’re on a product page on you Ecommerce website, it should be clear and easy for them to make a purchase; a section of similar, related products for the visitor to consider could also inch him or her closer to the item he or she actually wants to buy.

The point is, each part of your website should be designed to help your visitors progress through the buyer’s journey. Your most important pages should be within a click or two of your home page, and your site should be encouraging your visitors to continue interacting with you until they’re ready to buy. Give them clear CTAs, and include prompts to sign up for your mailing list or check out your educational resources where appropriate. Each part of your site should be designed with the goal of eliciting a response from your visitors. Even when that response isn’t to immediately make the conversion from visitor to customer, it should be one that keeps the visitor interested in you, and builds your brand as a valuable resource for the visitor. On every page you should be giving your visitors something to click on, and a reason to click it.

Your hard work has paid off. You’ve advertised, you’ve gotten active on social media, and you’ve even started to rank highly on certain Google searches. So now that you’re visible and gaining traffic, why aren’t you making more conversions? It could very well be that your efforts to increase traffic, while clearly successful, have not been targeted well enough. It’s one thing to get people to click through to your website; it’s another to get the right people to click through.

Imagine a sit-down Italian restaurant that sells small, personal pizzas as part of its menu, but doesn’t offer takeout or delivery services. The restaurant owner knows pizza is popular and has put a lot of effort into ranking highly for local searches including the keyword “pizza,” and now shows up as the top result on Google. He expects to see a rise in sales to match that success, but after people visit his website very few of them are actually calling to make reservations or coming to the restaurant.

It all seems counterintuitive, but there’s a reason those visitors aren’t converting into customers. Pizza is a popular takeout item, practically a fast food meant to feed a family, but this restaurant is offering more of a fine dining experience with individual menu items. The people searching for nearby pizzerias aren’t looking to sit down for an expensive meal, they’re looking for a quick and cheap dinner to take home. While our restaurateur does make pizza, he does not cater to the people who are actually searching for pizza. All his efforts have been in vain because he has focused on ranking for pizza, instead of “fine dining” or “Italian restaurant,” which would have brought more relevant leads to his site.

Our restaurateur got his traffic boost, but his visitors did not get what they wanted. If you’re not making conversions, you too may need to reexamine your SEO strategy and make sure you’re focused on the most relevant keywords for your business, not just any popular search terms that might be
related to you.

Perhaps you have attracted quality visitors, and you’ve even gotten them to click around your website without bouncing off the first page they see. Not every qualified lead is going to be ready to pull the trigger right away, however, and that may be the reason you’re coming up short. If you want your visitors to become customers, you need to nurture them between their initial visit and their final
purchasing decision.

There are a few ways to do this, one of which we already mentioned. Mailing lists are a great way to collect contact information from potential clients, so give your visitors an opportunity to sign up for yours. Once you have a lead’s email address you can send him or her general newsletters and mass email blasts, effectively keeping your brand active in their minds, and you can also send more targeted emails. If your lead spent time looking at a product page without making a purchase, send a follow-up email to remind the lead about that product. It could be just the thing the lead needs to make a decision, and to make a purchase. The same principle can be applied to services, or anything else that would qualify as a conversion for your business.

Don’t just stop at email, though. You can also reenage with your visitors though retargeted ads–another effective way to remind them of the products or services they’ve shown interest in. Reach out to your past visitors and encourage them to return; they may have simply needed time to mull over their decision and a gentle reminder to make the conversion.

Be sure to stay active on social media as well. Your visitors may have questions, and they could be just as inclined to ask those questions through Facebook as they are through your contact page.

Remember, A/B testing is the friend of every developer and every website. If you’re not sure where your missed opportunities are, it’s time to experiment. Make subtle changes to your site, track how they impact you traffic, and respond accordingly.

Need help pinpointing your visitors’ pain points? Dotlogics can help you convert visitors
into customers.