It’s almost 2020!

And if your website is not converting visitors into engaged users, there’s something wrong with it, right?

Look, I understand.

Converting your website visitors into engaged users is not an easy task at all.

Getting people to buy something, is NOT an easy job.

When I first started my first E-Commerce Shop, I didn’t know the ABCs of selling stuff online and that made me lose TONS of money.

What I didn’t know was that conversion rates don’t magically prop up high.

As Oli Gardner, The Founder of Unbouce said, ‘Conversion optimization is part art (listening to your gut) and part science (listening to the numbers)’.

The reasons for your low conversion rates may be hidden in those numbers and you just might be missing them.

Now, some of the experts of conversion rate optimization, talk about how a 11.45% conversion rate is what the Top 10% websites achieve.

But, I want you to know that don’t beat yourself up if you’re not in the Top 10% or on average zones too.

Conversion Rate Optimization is a slow and steady process that doesn’t happen overnight. By making some simple tweaks and putting in some continuous efforts, you can drastically increase your conversion rates.

But first, you need to know about what’s missing and what pulling you down!!

You need to focus on the data gathered through your website and know exactly where you’re lagging.

Try to understand this: You may have an awesome content strategy and still, your conversion rate may float down.

It’s maybe because of the communication gap between you and your audience, or maybe because of the ineffective intelligent pop-ups or maybe because of the wrong lead magnet.

But mostly, these reasons are pretty basic and you’re missing them by an inch.

So let’s look at the top 14 reasons of why your website isn't converting visitors into engaged users.

1. The Landing Page of your website is not worth it!

This is probably because you've forgotten the cliche phrase 'First Impression is the Last Impression'.

#Users who land on your page through a paid ad or a content piece deserve more than a slow loading site.

This page HAS to open up quickly and point towards the information the users are looking for. #Your landing page's design is a very important factor to consider if you want to convert visitors into engaged users.

For example, consider these two landing pages.

The second landing page clearly emphasizes more on the offer while the first one is highlighting unnecessary elements.

If there are too many distractions around your offer, users will easily get distracted from the core offer and will eventually, bounce from your website.

#Keep a regular check of your bounce rate, conversion rate metrics and your conversion funnel flow to identify if the users bounce without clicking anything on your landing page.

If this is happening, then a fault in your Landing Page is probably the reason for your visitors remaining as visitors and not converting into engaged users.

2. You don't have an Effective Copy.

This is the meat of your Landing Page.

If your Copy ain't exciting and persuasive, don't expect your conversion rates to get any better.

#Being personable, focusing on the reader and not the product, using fear as motivation are some of the principles of copy according to Drypen, that always works!

#Persuasion and convincing are the two major pillars of copy-writing. You need to use some explicit set of words that almost always work like mentioned in Buffer.

#Storytelling has become an important part of a tempting copy.

As Russel Brunson says this, you need to create an Attractive Character and weave a storyline around that.

You could use a 'Before and After' Story or a 'Secret-Revealing' Story, but it should make the reader feel for your story. Here are some great formats for a solid story.

#Don't abandon the focus from the user in order to highlight the product.

I'm not asking you to not talk about the product at all. Instead, talk about how the user will be effected after they use your product.

All in all, writing copies that convert is not a very big deal, but you need to follow some calculated steps like mentioned by Optinmonster.

3. Your CTA is not NAILING it!!!

Imagine a perfect copy and a solid design complimenting it, and then coming to an unrelatable CTA that makes no sense at all.

Ask yourself this question a 1000 times, 'Is this CTA convincing enough to click on?' #Check whether your Headline and CTA go in-line with each other.

Optimizing your CTA so that it serves your lead magnet and it's headline, is a must for increasing your conversion rate.

Look below to see a confusing and a clear CTA.

The first headline and CTA are miles away from relating to each other whereas the second headline and it's CTA make a lot of sense.

#Clarity and visibility of the button are one of the key elements of an awesome CTA.

Make sure your CTA is clearly visible and doesn't merge with the background.

For example, look at the graphics below.

You see how the first CTA goes with the background but is very easy to miss. While the second CTA stands out and is enticing enough to click on.

#The Right CTA is also about the RIGHT word.

Generic words like 'Buy Now, Add to Cart, Act Now' ask the user to give up something and creates negativity.

Whereas words like 'Join, Download your FREE copy, Earn Now, Learn This' tell that a user might gain something after clicking it.

The second CTA clearly attracts more attention.

#Hubspot gives us some clear CTAs that we can't help but click.

Therefore, all you need to do is check whether you're facing any CTA problems, fix them by using these tips and run Split Tests to see what works best.

Ignorance towards a bad CTA is probably one of the reason why your website isn't converting visitors into engaged users.

4. You have an Unclear Target Audience

If you think you can just assume the people who'll turn into your buyers, then you're in big trouble buddy.

Defining your Target Audience is not a Hit and Trial Method. Well, part of it is.

But you can't throw random shots at random people assuming that they just might catch your offer.

#Finding your Target Market is the first big step that you need to take.

You need to examine your audience's demographics, interests, psychographics, etc. to spend your marketing money in the right manner as says CrazyEgg.

#Analytics play a major role in researching for your audience.

Testing your social media ads, surveying your social media interactions are some of the mandatory steps you need to take for your market research as recommended by Hootsuite.

You need to look through your interactions with people on your social media profiles to know whether what you're offering them, is, in fact, their need of the hour.

#Qualifying the people as your potential buyers is also a planned step.

A lot of people will engage with your ads and posts but not all of them can be tagged as potential buyers.

You don't want to spend your marketing budget on a demographic which is unlikely to buy your lead magnet right?

Ask them some background questions in the form of a questionnaire in the earlier stages, like the reason they want to shift to your product.

This will help you to know more about them and eliminate the unfit personas. Read some questions given by Neil Patel.

5. Your Product Pictures are poor.

#Your Product Images matter a lot when conversions are concerned.

Big Commerce tells us how images are the cornerstones for branding and how they stimulate emotions in the buyer.

#Mistakes while setting product pictures are very common and can be avoided by ensuring the White Balance, clear backgrounds, variety of images as guided by Pixelz.

#The right angles, shadows, alignment, color are just some of the specifics according to Pixelz, that are the key elements of good product photographs.

6. Your Website is not Optimized for SEO.

Optimizing your site for SEO is all about ranking higher on Google whenever anyone searches for your product or service.

Whenever someone searches for a particular keyword, the bots of search engines crawl through the web and look for relevant content.

#The bots look for things like relevancy towards the keyword, matching meta tags, relevant content, etc. which are the basics of optimizing your website given by Search Engine Watch.

#Doing keyword research and then including relevant keywords in your website will give you an edge over others to convert your visitors into engaged users.

Tools like Google Keyword Planner, Soovle are some of the awesome Keyword Planning tools recommended to us by Brian Dean, the Founder of Backlinko.

Paid ads are an obvious a way of getting your website on top of SERP but even Google Adwords give your ad a quality score which takes into account things like site speed, title tags, meta tags, etc.

#To generate more traffic, in order to get more conversions, SEO is your go-to step.

Neil Patel guides us with a step by step manner on how to optimize your website.

7. The Placement of Pop Ups is wrong.

The right placement of pop-ups with the right size can skyrocket the number of website visitors converting into engaged users.

Whereas intrusive and irritating pop-ups can skyrocket your bounce rate.

In fact, Neil Patel, an expert in Conversion Rates strongly recommends Exit Pop-Ups which only appear when a user's mouse moves towards the close tab.

So here are 5 key features of Pop-Ups that have to be kept in mind:-

Know which Pop-ups are a No-No: Pop Ups that make the content invisible and act as a barrier between the user and their value have to be avoided.Don't keep more than 1 Pop-Up on one Page: Make sure that your page is not bombarded with all your lead magnets at once. Suppose if a user us reading a blog about conversion rates, show them a conversion rate magnifier lead magnet, once when they're in the middle and once during the exit.Make them short and responsive: Pop-Ups are used to deliver a unique message to the users. You should make sure they are simple and give at least 2 options to the user.Don't Use Bully Pop-Ups: Some people try to bully people into clicking on their button.

These kinds of pop-ups incite hate and shame for oneself and later on, for the site itself. Make sure you're away from that.

Use these 5 interesting Pop-Ups given by Wishpond: The right type of pop-ups will surely affect your conversion rate positively.

#Avoid using interstitials that make the content less visible. Even Google recommends controlling your pop-up size, especially on mobiles.

So don't forget to place in your pop-ups rightly, because of these little forms of promotion are surely not dead.

8. No Value Proposition in your offer/product.

Aren't we all saying this plenty times in a day, 'Products today NEED to bring value to the Customers'.

#One of the reasons why your website isn't converting visitors into engaged users is that your offer is NOT providing Real Value i.e. it's not solving the customer's problem.

If you're attracting the user through a Digital Marketing blog, you need to give some either a Digital Marketing Template or a Social Media Template so that it adds real value to their work.

#Your product descriptions play a major role in converting the user.

We've come way ahead of the times where we used 'excellent product quality as one of the features.

Using sensory words (words that awake certain senses in humans), giving social proofs, dividing the content through bullet points are just some of the features of a solid product description as recommended by Neil Patel.

Value proposition would also mean giving something to your users that other people are not willing to offer.

You might be familiar with a term known as 'USP' i.e. Unique Selling Point of a product which differentiates it from your competitors.

Engaging in competitive research is very important as you can then develop something that your competitors don't offer.

9. Wrong Pricing Plan.

'All buying decisions come down to Price' says the Business Journal, famous for influencing the business community.

If your product price exceeds the amount of value your product is providing, or if your competitors are selling the same product at a lower price, the number of engaged users are bound to go down.

#Market analysis would come in handy to know about prevalent product prices.

Qualtrics provides us with a detailed study on how to engage in pricing research.

Knowing how much your target audience is willing to pay for a certain product has to be on the top of your To-Do's.

Assumptions will drag you down whereas interacting with your prospects and going through your competitor's existing offer will help you.

This process is known as the Reverse Engineering Process wherein you continue with what's working in the market and continue to make changes in your offer.

#Don't forget to use small but tricky tips like adding '9' to your price at the end or creating product differentiation via selling combos.

Discounts and offers also play a major role in attracting the users' attention.

10. Negligence for Mobile Users

According to BigCommerce, by 2021, Mobile E-commerce sales are expected to account for 54% of

total e-commerce sales.

I'm sure you want to be a part of that 54%, right?

Then you need to stress upon a fast and awesome mobile-friendly site too.

Think with Google actually says that Mobiles are transforming Retail trends and in order to be present for 'I-want-to-buy-it' moments, your mobile site should be your topmost priority.

#Increasing your font size, compressing your images and CSS, easy navigation isjust some of the tips for a mobile-friendly website.

Hostgator can tell you more about how not to lose your users from mobile because they will surely convert into engaged users.

11. Untrustworthy Website; No Live Chat

A poor User Experience will lead to the loss of trust in your website and higher bounce rates.

Users need to feel safe and secure when they enter your website.

#Things like shipping policies, terms, and conditions, privacy policy,returns and exchange policy might seem a bit old-school.

But when it comes to a user pulling out his/her credit card, such information can be of utmost importance.

#Using Social Proof is one of the oldest techniques in order to increase your credibility.

# Neil Patel recommends that using Official Seals, contact information, etc. will make users trust you more.

Sometimes people want to talk to you about an offer while they are browsing.

You being unavailable can lead them to bounce from your site.

Hence, Live ChatBot is a very crucial part of your website which will make it more trustworthy for the users.

12. Lack of A/B Testing

No matter how good a UX Designer or coder you are, you wouldn't know the truth about your website until you test it.

A/B Testing a like a No-Brainer for every Ecommerce Platform.

You can A/B almost everything, from CTA's to your Copy to your offer.

#Run the different pages/buttons for a specific amount of time and be sure to analyze the responses through your analytics software.

Either version A or the version B or any other version will get more clicks for the same time period. That's your jackpot!

Be sure to restrict your sample size to a minimum as recommended by Meclabs Institute.

Tools like Unbouce, VMO are awesome for A/B testing your landing pages and further, converting your website visitors into engaged users.

13. Your Checkout Process is not Smooth.

Satisfying a user goes up until the end.

An amazing copy and CTA leading up to a rough checkout is a bad position to be in.

According to Barilliance, 78.65% of people tend to abandon their carts at the last moment.

There could be many reasons for this:

Unavailability of preferred payment method.Unavailability of a progress bar showing the user exactly what stage of shopping are they on.Trust issues with website i.e. no returns and exchange policies and no trademark seals.Extra Shipping Charges,

Believe it or not, Shipping Charges are contributing to low conversion rates.

Reconsider the increment in the cart value by some extra bucks because the user surely gets irritated when they are all set to buy a product and their overall cart value increases JUST for shipping.

Adding various payment methods like PayPal, Internet Banking, COD, etc. is a must for every e-commerce shop.

Do not lose out on customers just because of some technicality, walk that extra mile.

#Building up the trust is a sure spot method of converting visitors into engaged users.

14. Missing out on Remarketing Strategies.

Lastly, a bulk of your potential buyers are going away because of lack of any remarketing strategies from your end.

Wordstream suggests that Remarketing is Incredibly powerful for brand building and for increasing conversion rates.

Remember when you leave that T-Shirt site and then you open up Facebook, and that t-shirt follows you everywhere?

That's remarketing for you.

#Making better deals to people who have already viewed your product increase the probability of it being bought.

Sometimes, you can also miss out on many prospects if your tracking code is not working.

#Make sure your analytics software is up to the mark.

As you already know, cart abandonment is a BIG headache for e-commerce sites.

Therefore, sending out cart abandonment emails can trigger the buying behavior of your prospect and boost the number of engaged users on your site.

Now that you know, what's pulling you down, it's time to act upon these barriers and push them out of the way.

Conversion rates are bound to go up if you focus these problems and strive hard to work upon them.