As a business owner who owns a website, it’s only natural that you expect to make sales from your website as you’ve uploaded the necessary products and have promoted them the best way you know how.
But do you know that your website or strategy might be lacking some touches that have made your site not yield any profit for your business up until now?
Hell yeah! You definitely must be making a mistake somewhere and these mistakes are what we would be addressing in today’s post.
Now, what are the common mistakes website or business owners make that have caused them not to see a spike in sales? The common mistakes are:
Lack Of Useful Navigations And Website Structure
Trust me, if your website has the worst structure, there is no way you will make any sales or money from your website.
Imagine you deal on phones and a customer searches for your business on google or any other search engine using the keyword “buy iphone 11 pro.”
On hitting the search button, your site pops up with the title the user searched for.
Excited, the user clicks on your link but unfortunately landed on a different page promoting iphone 12 pro instead.
This alone can piss the user off and also cause the user to leave immediately which in turn, will increase your bounce rate. You definitely do not want such to happen right?
Another thing I would love to point out about bad website structure or navigation is that for a user or customer to be able to understand what’s on your website, there has to be proper navigation pointing them in the right direction.
You don’t want a user to come to your site and not find accessible links to the necessary pages he or she is looking for.
Let your categories be aligned in the right order. All posts should be linked to the right categories at all times in order for the user to easily navigate your website.
Also, remember to have your form placed above the fold of your product landing page. Make sure to include a call to action button and give them reasons to opt-in to your form (you can offer a freebie, something addressing their pain point which is popularly known as a lead magnet in digital marketing). It can be an ebook, templates, or videos. Let’s move on.
Low Website Speed
Another thing that could cause you not to make money or sales with your website is how fast or slow the loading time of your website is.
This is so because a lot of users have little or no patience whenever they are searching for answers to their questions; most especially as there are a lot of competitors out there with better site speed and results to offer.
That said, you want to make sure to attend to this issue if your website is currently experiencing it.
For best results, you want to make sure to optimize the images of your website by using an online software called webp. The webp software helps in compressing the size of any image without having to make it lose its quality.
Another important tool you want to make use of is WP rocket, though it’s not free. There are barely any websites that don’t make use of wp rocket as it’s quite a popular plugin known for its help in the increase of site speed. You definitely might want to check it out.
Lack Of Good Marketing Strategies
Another thing that could cause your website not to make money or sales is lack of good marketing strategy. Yes, it’s good to do SEO and hope it performs some magic, but a lot of successful businesses today run ads.
By running ads, I mean paying platforms like google, facebook, instagram , twitter, quora, pinterest or youtube, to get in the face of your target audience. Some of these platforms have billions of users every month and you know what that means right?
By using their product or services promotion tool, you definitely will see a spike in traffic and sales on your website most especially if everything on your site is well optimized.
These platforms have different audiences with different interests and you definitely would find your type of audience amongst them.
Take Apple for example. There is this marketing strategy I’ve seen them use time and time again. If you are a movie lover, you would have noticed that most laptops used in some American movies are apple. This gives viewers the impression that apple is the best brand out there.
So, you see, you just have to develop an insane marketing strategy or better still, adopt the ones mentioned in this post.
No Medium Of Building Relationship
If you are a business owner and you are yet to take your business online by creating pages on various social media platforms, then you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
You can’t just create a website and expect it to convert just like that. If you are depending fully on ad partners like adsense, Ezoic, and the rest like that, I would understand as you only need users to click on those ad banners to be able to make money.
But in a situation whereby your website is optimized for your personal business, you have to follow a lot of channels in order for your prospects to convert to paying customers.
From your website, you can ask your users to follow you on social media. That way, you will be able to interact with them and maintain a close relationship.
Just see it as a way of making sure you remain in their hearts for good. The more they see your brand, the more they get to know your brand, and the more likely they are to convert to paying customers.
Post valuable contents on your social media pages, reply to comments, and engage with your audience. That way, you will be able to build their trust for your brand.
SEO Performed Wrongly On Your Website
carrying out wrong SEO strategies on your website could also result in you not making any sales or money from your website.
What’s the essence of hiring an SEO specialist when he or she only ends up getting you bad links that would hurt your SEO?
Because so many businesses are so desperate to raise the DA (domain authority) of their website, they go extra miles just to get the job done. Imagine using services available on fiverr, your business will not only lose traffic but also sales as the SEO strategy practiced on there is black hat.
For best SEO results, you want to use a service like Fatjoe. This company is known for its excellent SEO strategies. They don’t practice black or gray hat SEO, they only practice white hat SEO which is really good for every website looking to make some income.
Site Not Indexed By Google
If your site is yet to be indexed by google, it means that you are losing tons of traffic which equals sales. So, you want to make sure every post and important page on your website is indexed.
How would you even make sales when your site is nowhere to be found in search engines’ results?
No Email Marketing Strategy
you have to invent a great email marketing strategy for your business. The fact that you own a website shouldn’t make you feel reluctant in getting a working email marketing strategy.
Now, let me tell you this. 80 % of successful businesses today practice email marketing. This is a great way of sending reminders to your audience, reminding or giving them reasons why your product or services is important.
The more emails you send to them, the more likely they are to return to your website; and the more they return to your website, the more likely they are to make that buying decision.
Bad Sales Funnel
Having a bad sales funnel could also result in you not making money from your website.
It’s one thing to collect emails from your website and it’s another thing to have a high converting sales funnel.
Bad Copywriting Skills
I know you own a website for your business and you definitely must have written a detailed post about your products or services, but have you asked yourself if these contents are well optimized for humans or search engines? It’s one thing to write optimized content and it’s another thing for the optimized content to convert your website visitors to paying customers.
Irrelevant Content
Posting content not related to what users are searching for could also result in you not making sales. Before you dive into any niche or business, do a market research and make sure that product or service is something people are already searching for.
Without anyone searching for your products or services, you definitely would not make any sales and you will end up posting irrelevant content on your site. So, before you dive into any niche, do a market or keyword research. If you are not sure how to do this, you can hire Fatjoe to get the job done for you.
Site Not Optimized For Mobile
Another important thing website or business owners tend to take for granted is not optimizing for mobile.
According to statista, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 58.99 percent of global website traffic In the second quarter of 2022, consistently hovering around the 50 percent mark since the beginning of 2017 before permanently surpassing it in 2020.
So, not optimizing your website for mobile will cause you to lose more than half of your traffic which in turn results in little or no sales.
Conclusion
Taking into account the above mentioned reasons and correcting them will not only increase your traffic and sales, it will also place your business on that level you’ve always dreamed of.
Of course, the dream of every website or business owner is to see a spike in traffic, brand recognition and sales; but the question is, are you willing to put in the work, are you willing to hire the right people for the job?
Don’t just go out there and hire some shitty services that will hurt your business and leave it beyond repair. Take the right action and watch your business grow in no time.
Read also: How to start a freelance writing business with no experience 2022
FAQ
My Shopify Store Is Not Making Sales
The reasons why your shopify store might not be making you any sales are:
1. You have a bad design: your store design really affects what your visitors think about your business. Having a very bad design immediately pass the wrong impression to them and might influence their decision whether to buy from you or not.
Eyes feed first before anything else so, you have to create the right impression on your store visitors.
2. Your store has a slow loading time: this however can drastically affect your users as there are lots of competitors out there with better store layout and loading time.
A user searching for a product on your store has little or no patience, so, the minute your store appears slow, they bounce off immediately. This is therefore a great issue you might want to address if your store has been experiencing it.
3. Not having varieties of product images: Giving users different experiences of your product by uploading a variety of product images can really affect a user’s buying decision. As I mentioned earlier, eyes feed first before anything else, so the more attractive the images of a particular product are, the more likely your store visitors will convert to paying customers.
Having interactive and eye-catchy media such as video and 3D renderings, encourage customers to stay in your store longer, which of course could cause them to buy one or two things from your store.
4. You don’t have a clear call to action: not giving your users how best to navigate your store can cause them to bounce off just as fast as they came. You want to make sure to include a clear call to action button on your store that help users better navigate your store.
Don’t know what a clear call-to-action button is? Check out these 15 clear call-to-action button examples.
5. Bad or no marketing strategy: A lot of businesses want to make sales but they clearly have no marketing strategy. As a store owner, you want to consider using the below strategies for your business.
- Email marketing: whether you are buying email lists or you are using the one in your possession, it doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you are promoting your store or products to your target audience.
I know you are surprised or wondering if it’s possible to buy email lists in your niche. Of course, it might please you to know that it’s 100% possible. And the fact that these lists have a high conversion rate makes it amazing.
Sending emails to your users create relationship and trust. You also want to make sure to give value via your emails. Don’t just appear too spammy and salesy. Giving values creates a long-term relationship and leaves your brand in their hearts for good.
Because you’ve been doing this for a while, whenever they feel they need one of your kinds of Products, they make an immediate buying decision by purchasing from you.
However, constantly sending emails to your users leave an impression or creates a constant reminder in their hearts. With everything happening in our today’s world, people are likely to forget, so they need you to constantly remind them about probably an abandoned cart and stuff like that.
- Social media marketing: Social media marketing is another strategy you don’t want to take for granted.
Having pages that represent your brand on all social media platforms is one step you want to take as it will not only increase your brand’s visibility, but it will also increase your store’s traffic and sales.
The more you engage with your audience on your social media pages, the more likely they are to convert to paying customers.
There are a whole lot of marketing strategies you want to put into consideration e.g paid advertisement, influencer marketing and the rest of them.
6. Not Having A Niched-Down Store
Not having a target audience can also result in your store not making any sales.
Because there are a lot of products in different niches littered in your store, your visitors get confused and end up not seeing you as an authority in your niche.
If you are selling camping gear, and you also have breast pumps in your store, users tend to find it awkward and might probably bounce off your store. Therefore, you have to make sure to have a niched-down store, targeting a particular audience.
7. Having Bad Or No Sales Funnel
It’s one thing to use a good sales funnel platform, and it’s another thing to have a good sales funnel.
You should always have a laid-out plan for everyone who added to cart but bounced off eventually. There should also be a laid out plan for everyone who visited your store but didn’t take action.
There is a whole lot that goes into building a good sales funnel so, you definitely might want to look into this strategy.
8. Not Spying On Your Competitors
If you are so confused about what to do with your store, you can start by spying on your competitors. There is nothing you want to do now that has not been done by someone else before. Spying on your competitors will give you an insight of what to do with your store.
Let’s say, for example, you are confused about what kind of emails to send to your audience, you can sign up for your competitor’s newsletter. By doing this, you will get an idea of what to do with your email marketing strategy.
How To Get Sales On Your Website?
To get sales on your website you want to make sure to get:
- Enough traffic: the more targeted traffic you get, the more likely you are to make sales.
- A niched-down website: don’t be into a lot of things. Do a market research and focus on one thing.
- A website with fast loading time: the faster your website loads, the longer your visitors stay on your site.
- A good marketing strategy: leveraging on marketing strategies like social media marketing, email marketing, paid advertising etc. will not only give your website or brand the exposure that it needs, but it will also cause a spike in website traffic and sales.
- There is a whole lot that goes into making your website have sales and you might want to check them here.
Why Isn t My Website Converting?
Your website isn’t converting because it’s lacking these necessary techniques
Why Are My Products Not Selling?
The main reason why your products are not selling is probably because:
- You are into everything: having different product that doesn’t fit into a particular audience can cause you to experience less or no sales of your product. You have to make sure to focus on a particular niche.
Don’t be everywhere, let your customers know you for a particular brand or product. You can’t be selling baby diapers and at the same time be selling furniture. If you must do both, then different websites should be created for each of them.
Both products should not be found on the same website as your website visitors might end up being confused.
- You don’t have a hot-selling product. Before venturing into any business, the first thing you want to do is a market research.
Are there people searching for this product? If there are, how many are they? How likely are they to come back to the same products, are there competitors in this niche?
All of these are questions you should ask yourself before venturing into any business.
- Lack of marketing strategy: Not having a good marketing strategy can also result in you not making sales.
- No sales funnel: Sales funnel plays a paramount role in every business hence, the need for every business owner to pay attention to this strategy.
Why Is My Website Not Responsive?
Your website isn’t responsive because you have a bad theme. Having a well-optimized theme will not only make your website responsive but will also prepare your website for SEO.
Why Is My Website Not Ranking On Google?
There are several factors that could cause your website not to rank on google and they are:
- Your website is not being indexed by google.
- You are not targeting the right keywords used by searchers.
- You are not performing the right SEO for your website
- Your target keyword has a lot of competition.
Why Is My Website Not Redirecting To Https?
Either you are simply looking at cached results (clear your browser cache) or your .htaccess file is not evaluated by the http server. That can happen if it is located in the wrong place or if such files have not been enabled.
The first step you might want to take is to change the order of the rules, if yours are not reached yet.
RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} ^copybloggerthemes\.com$ [OR]
RewriteCond %{HTTPS} !on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ https://www.copybloggerthemes.com/$1 [R,L]
Try using the above code in the htaccess file. Next, use the below code to add it anywhere in wp-config.php.
define(‘WP_SITEURL’, ‘https://’ . $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’]);
define(‘WP_HOME’, ‘https://’ . $_SERVER[‘HTTP_HOST’]);
Remember to backup your htaccess file before making any changes to it. This is very much advisable so that when something goes wrong, you will have the backup file to save you from heartaches.
If after following the above steps and you are still faced with this problem, contact your host and they would be glad to help. My host does all of the technical jobs for me so I’m never really worried about issues like this.
Why Is My Website Not Responding?
There are many reasons a site might not load or respond, such as misconfiguration, corrupt files, problems with a database, outdated browser/plugins or something as simple as needing to clear your browser’s cache and cookies on your computer. You might want to visit here to see how such problem is solved.
Why Is My Website Not Ranked By Alexa?
The main reason why your website might not be ranked by alexa is because your website is new and does not have enough traffic yet. However, the fastest way to get an Alexa rank is to :
- Make an account on that website,
- Verify your domain name
- Get a tracking script (similar to google analytics
- Paste it into your website pages.
And that should be it, give it some days and you will get a rank at Alexa.
(New Update): Alexa has been shut down.
Why Is My Wix Website Not Responsive?
Your wix website is not responsive because you are using the wrong website builder. Just like a wordpress site, you have to use a well-optimized wordpress theme for your site to be responsive.
Why Is My Wix Editor Not Loading?
Local issues that are specific to your computer, browser, or internet connection are the most common cause of the Wix Editor not loading/ working. You can visit this link for more detailed solutions.
Why Is My Godaddy Website Not Working?
Below is a detailed answer from one of their representative. You might find it useful.
GODADDY’S REPRESENTATIVE:
Sorry to hear you’re having so many issues. As I’m a volunteer and not an employee, I can’t speak on the actual known issue itself. I can give you some insight on the process, however.
Usually, a known issue happens when a server, or a cluster of servers, start acting up. This can be due to anything from a random glitch in a command line script to an actual mechanical malfunction.
Sometimes, it can be pretty tricky to pin down the actual cause. You implement a solution and it causes something else to break or, because of the solution, something breaks several days later because the memory got exhausted in the server stack or something.
Yeah, so, as you can see, it’s a complicated machine that’s running your website. And you likely share the same server with hundreds of other accounts which reside in a server farm that houses several million websites which is part of a larger network of servers that host over 17.5+ million websites altogether.
I can say that if it’s a known issue, the system admins and engineers on the back end absolutely have their eye on it and they’re diligently trying to correct it. It’s a process and, like all things, that process can sometimes be painful. If you have a little trust, I’m sure they’ll get your website up ASAP.
And yes, I understand it’s your business and you are losing potential income. But this is technology. Sometimes it breaks. Someone gets paid to do that. Just have a little trust.
After going through the reply, I think it’s best you contact godaddy for further assistance.
Why Is My Square Website Not Working
Here is a detailed answer to this question
Why Is My Website Not Secure WordPress?
Your wordpress website is not secured because you failed to install SSL certificate on your website. You should always make sure to purchase an SSL certificate whenever you are purchasing a domain and hosting.
Why Is My Google Website Not Working?
Not sure what you mean by your google website not working. However, if you mean your website not appearing on google, I’ve already given an answer to the question here
But if you mean your site not displaying while you are trying to access it via google, then you might want to follow the steps here in order for the errors to be corrected.
Why Is My Website Link Not Working On Facebook?
You could unintentionally set off Facebook’s anti-spam algorithm by posting your website URL too frequently in a short period of time. This could result in the URL being blocked. Or perhaps you were simply blocked without your fault. Facebook’s algorithms are not flawless, and occasionally you just have bad luck.
Why Is My Verizon Website Not Working
Below is a reply from one of their representatives to someone having this issue
Verizone’s Rep
“Sorry you are having difficulty, an agent with access to your account will reach out to you directly by email, private message in the Forums and/or the billing telephone number on your Verizon account for more information to help you resolve your issue.”
Basically, you can only correct this error by contacting them.
Why Are Websites Not Displaying Properly?
These issues are frequently brought on by your browser retrieving outdated data from your cache or cookie folder. The issue is typically resolved by clearing them. These guidelines can be used to do this activity in the most popular Windows browsers.
Why Is My Website Not Updating?
Your website isn’t updating because most times, your browser (especially Google Chrome) will display a cached version of your website rather than the most recent one. Simply press CTRL + F5 (or Cmd + R on a Mac) on your keyboard to reload the page to fix this problem.
Why Is My Website Not Showing Up On Google?
This is either because your website is yet to be indexed or it’s probably not ranking at all. To be sure whether or not your website appears on google, head on over to google, type site: yourdomainname.com (site:www.herbals.com) By doing this, you are going to see all your pages that have been indexed by google.
Why Is My Website Not Showing Up In Search Engines?
The answer here could also serve this purpose. It’s either your site has not been indexed or you are being outranked by your competitors.
Why Is My Website Not Showing Up On Google Anymore?
This is because your competitors that have more DA than you are now targeting the same keyword as you.
Sometimes, google’s update can cause your website to lose its rankings most especially if you are practising black hat SEO.
Why Is My Wix Site Not Updating?
This is probably because you failed to Save and Publish the page where your POWR app appears.
To correct this, click Save and Publish after making changes to a POWR app in the Wix Editor. If not, your changes won’t be reflected on your live Wix website.
Another thing you want to do is clear your cache or better still, deactivate your cache plugin, then reactivate it when you are done updating the site.
Why Is My Website Not Trusted?
Your website is not trusted because it does not have an SSl certificate installed on it. Whenever a user tries to visit your website, the message “this website is not safe or trusted” reads on your screen which can however, make you lose tons of traffic.
To make sure this never happens again, you have to purchase an SSL certificate and install it on your website.
This indicates that your site is safe to browse on and that every information your users provide on your site is also secured as it would be hard for hackers to get in.
Why Is Google Analytics Not Tracking My Website?
This happens when you are tracking the wrong view and property. You might be using the tracking code from another property if you have access to multiple Google Analytics accounts and properties.
You might also be viewing reports in the incorrect account or for the incorrect property and view if you have access to multiple Google Analytics accounts and properties.
Why Is My Domain Not Pointing To My Website?
If your domain is not pointed appropriately, you must change the value of your current A record. Check to see whether your domain’s nameservers are configured correctly if it still doesn’t work.
Why Is My Website Not Secure Wix?
This is probably because you’ve added HTTP (instead of HTTPS) code to an HTML element on your site.
Why Is My Website Not Secure Square Space?
You probably might not have installed SSL certificate on your website which could result in your site being insecure.
For third-party domains connected to Squarespace, check that the DNS records in your provider’s account are entered correctly.
Why Is My Website Not Responsive?
This is because you installed a theme that isn’t optimized for mobile and SEO
Why Is My WordPress Site Not Publishing?
A cache plugin could cause or prevent your WordPress site from publishing. Try deactivating the cache plugin if you have one installed on your website. After doing this, go back and publish your post. Remember to activate the plugin once you are done publishing your posts.
Why Is My Apple Pay Not Working On Website?
Try using the safari browser just to be sure whether it’s working or not; but if the issue persists, you can use this link to register your complaint. Good luck.
Why Is My Weebly Website Not On Google?
A lot of things could result in your weebly website not being found on google. You can read the causes here.
Why Is My Website Not Working On Instagram?
Your link in bio may not be working because your Instagram cache is filled with outdated files.
Another reason could be that you failed to utilize the field under your settings where you can link to your website; this makes the link clickable. You can’t have a clickable link by just putting it in a bio, it has a specific field that it goes in.
Why Is My Website Not Showing On Bing?
This is because your website has not been indexed by bing, or better still, you are yet to rank on the first page of bing. Either way, factors like not doing proper SEO on your site could cause your site not to appear on search engines.
Why Is My Website Not Loading On Safari?
There are several reasons why a website won’t load on the Safari browser on macOS. The website may truly be unavailable. But if Safari specifically isn’t working, try clearing the browser’s cache, turning off content and ad blocker addons, looking for the most recent software upgrades, etc.
Why Is My New Website Not Showing Up On Google?
This is because your site is yet to be indexed by google or you are probably been outranked by your competitors.
Why Is My Website Not Indexed By Google?
This can happen when you are yet to submit your site to google search console. If you are still faced with indexing issues after submitting your website, then you have to check for duplicate content. By duplicate content, I mean, you having multiple pages leading to the same post.
e.g megherbal.com/category/health/how to lose weight
megherbal.com/how to lose weight
Google will see this as duplicate content and therefore might delay in having these pages indexed. This is so because they get confused as to what page to index between the two since they are the same content in their eyes.