21 Website Conversion Killers and How to Avoid Them
Updated November 2022
Is Your Website Working Against You?
The primary purpose of your business website is to tell folks how great your business is. It needs to attract visitors and convert them into your product or service consumers. That is not likely to happen if they face a bunch of website conversion killers on your home or landing pages.
From slow load times and flat calls-to-action to buzzword babble or a hard sell, these mistakes are guaranteed to lose your conversions and leads. While they may sound minor to many of you, they are anything but insignificant. With a human attention span less than that of a goldfish, you mustn’t give your site visitors reasons for leaving.
While website conversion killers can come in many forms and flavors, here are some of the most common ones. If your website has any of them, you should consider changing that as soon as possible.
21 Website Conversion Killers
1 – No Direction
One of the worst website conversion killers is not having any direction. The content of your business website must direct visitors to your call to action. Make it clear what the next step in the buying cycle is. And make sure to explain why that is beneficial.
2 – No Call to Action
Missing CTAs are a widespread website conversion killer. You leave that part up to your website visitors by not defining a call-to-action. Merely saying they should call or email, you will not work. Instead, you should decide on a reasonable first step and instruct visitors to take it.
3 – Too Many Calls to Action
Have you ever visited a website and felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of things it asked you to do simultaneously? When customers visit a website and see calls to action all over the place, they can easily get overwhelmed about what they should or shouldn’t click on. Too many calls to action can distract from the primary goal of your page.
4 – Pop-Ups
Not only does Google’s Algorithm include rules stating that your pop-ups can not encompass the majority of your site, but most website visitors also dislike pop-ups.
In addition to the intrusiveness of excess usage, pop-ups have become increasingly associated with spam activity. They, therefore, have become commonly regarded with suspicion, further discouraging web users from interacting with your site should your site contain many pop-ups.
5 – Cluttered Page Design
You know the saying: “Less is more.” Minimalism applies here. Your potential consumers will leave if your home or landing page is cluttered, crowded, poorly designed, and confusing. Instead, the first page of your website that visitors see must be friendly, inviting, and easy on the eyes.
6 – Too Much Content
You are missing the point if you have reams of text content on your website. Remember, the attention span of a human is shorter than that of a goldfish. Nobody reads that much anymore. So be sure to keep the content on your website in bite-sized chunks.
7 – Spelling and Grammatical Errors
Various spelling and grammatical errors suggest a lack of professionalism on your webpage. Why should your clients trust their money with you if you can’t even invest a small sum of money in a proofreader? Remember, your website is like the online storefront of your company. Would you want your company’s storefront to look haphazard, like last-minute work?
8 – Intrusive Videos/Music
Many sites use videos and music to attract their brand or product. These visual and audio features are excellent when used correctly. However, if they play automatically or block site visitors from seeing the content they came to see in the first place, you will lose customers. In addition, automatically playing videos and music can disrupt the browsing experience, pulling your customers out of their groove.
9 – Techno Babble
You may be into your industry jargon, but your site visitors are likely not. You are talking to them, so keep your content personable and easy to understand. You can leave the buzzwords for white papers, case studies, and the like.
10 – Not Being Credible
Being pushy and sensationalistic will only drive your visitors away. Make sure to establish credibility and trust among your audience with social proof. In other words, publish evidence in various formats such as web pages, blog posts, white papers, case studies, etc. Then let your website visitors decide for themselves.
11 – No Contact Details
A company’s lack of contact details might result in low conversion rates. If your prospect cannot find essential information like the company’s email addresses or contact details, it might affect their confidence in doing business with you. Where can they turn to if something goes wrong?
12 – Not Being Helpful
Imagine a shopkeeper, arms folded across the chest, and scowling at people. Not exactly friendly and inviting, is it? Avoid creating that feeling on your business website. Instead, you should be informative, helpful, and inviting.
13 – No Empirical Evidence
Most consumers will look at product reviews before making a purchase decision. That includes product ratings on e-commerce sites. Therefore, be sure to include product reviews and ratings on your website.
14 – Slow Page Load Speed
Page load speed is not only an important search ranking factor; it also is one of the biggest website conversion killers. Your website may look like the best thing to have ever graced the web with its presence, but if it loads slowly or doesn’t respond well, you’ll lose customers.
We live in a day and age of instant gratification, and so do your customers. If they can’t get what they’re looking for within a few seconds, it’s a guarantee that they will leave for a different, faster site.
15 – Keyword Disconnect
Your website visitors come from somewhere else, most likely searching for something. And whatever search term or phrase your visitor clicks on must immediately appear on your page.
16 – Not Using Social Media
Your prospects expect to engage with your business on social media and share your content with their social networks. If you don’t allow them to do so, you will miss out on many opportunities for engagement and conversion.
17 – Not Allowing Social Log-In
If you require consumers to sign up for an account to purchase from your site, many will not do so. Allowing them to use their social profiles to log in will influence at least some of your potential consumers.
18 – Excessive Advertisements
Advertising has, and always will have, a prominent place in the digital world. Advertising is an excellent source of income, but it can also be one of the most significant sources of conversion death, especially when used in excess. An ad should never be the first thing visitors see when they come to your site. Excessive ads can kill the experience you’re going for on your site.
19 – The Hard Sell
Let’s face it; nobody likes the hard sell. Especially first-time visitors to your site are not very likely to purchase immediately if you appear overly pushy. It usually is a better approach to nurture the relationship before you hit them with the Buy Now button.
20 – Not Allowing Search
Your business website may seem perfectly obvious to you. But even a small business or e-commerce site can be confusing for visitors. You can speed up access to your relevant content by including a search function on every page of your website. Be sure to direct them with the appropriate signposts.
21 – No Marketing Strategy
Your business website needs to be part of your marketing strategy. Once you attract visitors, you must keep them interested in your brand. You must stay in touch with them to remind them how great your business is. Getting your visitors to sign up for your newsletter or subscribe to your blog is an excellent way to do that.
Avoiding Website Conversion Killers
If your website has any of the above conversion killers, you must remove them immediately. I know many of you also focus on other areas of your business. But this must be a priority!
Start with the easy ones first. Make sure your call-to-action is clear and straightforward. Rewrite the copy to include a more human factor as needed. Ease up on the hard sell. Put yourself in the position of your website visitors. Make your business website as helpful as it can be.
Other website conversion killers will take longer to fix, and most likely, you will need some professional help. Those include improving page speed, creating opt-in forms, and anything else of a technical nature. Remember that you are investing in your online presence; the extra effort and cost will be worth it in the long run.
If you are still planning or working on your business website, you may want to check out some more web design or WordPress posts on our blog or learn some additional tips and tricks.
Creating a useful business website is one of the most challenging tasks for any business. Many business owners start with the best intentions but end up failing on their own. Shouldn’t you let a professional at least help you?
The aspects of internet marketing, especially web design and conversion rate optimization, take time. Unfortunately, many business owners can’t find the time for these essential business activities. However, if this is you and you want to improve your website conversion rate, we can help.
Need Help Avoiding Website Conversion Killers?
Do you want to increase conversions and sales? Are you unsure how to eliminate any website conversion killers on your website or e-commerce store? Our team of WordPress experts will be happy to help you with this. But first, look at our portfolio and read our case studies.
Then, if you believe we are a good fit for your business web design needs, let’s talk! We offer a full range of consulting and design solutions for businesses and product brands.
If you are unsure how our team can help you fix any website conversion killers on your business website, feel free to reach out to us.
Did You Eliminate Your Website Conversion Killers?
Did you have conversion killers on your website or an e-commerce store? Have you removed them? Has that helped you increase conversions? Do you have any other website conversion killers to add to our list?
Please leave your comments below so our audience can benefit, and grab our feed, so you don’t miss our next post! And help your audience grow their business by sharing our website conversion killers with them!
Thank you! We appreciate your help ending bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita
