So, you got this idea for a business. You’re pumped about your new project, so you start buying everything you need to get it off the ground, like a website domain. You can buy a year subscription to a website builder and use your newly minted domain. Next, you begin working on your company’s website. After you create a website, you can add pages for people to land on, upload photos, and create a contact page so people can easily reach you.
In just a few hours, you can create a business website that tells visitors who you are, what you do, and how they can purchase your products or services or contact you to schedule an appointment.
After you take a break and have something to eat, come back and browse the internet some more. You’re itching with anticipation. Your adrenaline is on full blast. You can hardly wait for your first customer.
A day goes by. A week goes by. A month goes by. A few more months go by…and no website sales. No website traffic. As you sit and wonder why your hope and enthusiasm is draining out of your body, you start to feel frustrated. Why can’t you get your online business up and running if you’ve heard of other people’s success stories?
The reality is this isn’t uncommon. There could be a multitude of reasons why your website is not getting traffic. The good news is they’re all fixable. So, perk up! You got work to do!
4 BIG Mistakes Causing Low Website Traffic
This is not a complete list, but these are often the reasons for low website traffic. We recommend starting here. The author suggests going through a list and comparing it to what is on the website to ensure accuracy. Make improvements as you see fit.
Your Website isn’t Indexed
If you have no website traffic, the first thing you should examine is why this is the case. It can easily be looked over but it’s easy to check and fix. Start by checking to see if your website is appearing in search results. To search for something on the internet, you can use a search engine such as Google, Bing, or Yahoo. In the search bar, type “site:yoursite.com”. If your website is indexed, it will come up when people search for relevant keywords. An error page will appear if the website cannot be found, containing about a paragraph of content.
The reason this is a problem is that if your site isn’t being indexed, then it can’t be found when people search for it. Google is by far the most popular search engine, so it’s important to make sure it indexes your site.
Logging on to Google Search Console is the easiest way to get Google to index your website. Enter your domain and click continue. You will need to complete a verification process, which you can do by following the prompts.
You’re Not Implementing SEO Tactics
We’re mainly talking about keyword or keyphrase optimization here. The better optimized your pages and content are, the easier it is for search engines to understand what your website is about. The keywords and keyphrases are used by search engines to help index and categorize content on the web. They help search engine spiders identify when a piece of content is relevant to a search query.
And if you’re last picked then, you get the crumbs. If you don’t optimize your website for search engines, you’ll get very little traffic. If you want to be near the top of the search results, you need to do better than just SEO.
Analyze what needs to be fixed and work your way up to the content and design To fix your website, start with the skeleton. Analyze what needs to be fixed and then move on to the content and design.
Login to your website builder. Make sure the metadata on all your landing pages is effective. This includes the page title, heading (H1), description, and page URL. Find 1-3 keywords or keyphrases that you constantly use over and over again when optimizing your landing pages. Use these keywords or key phrases throughout the content on each landing page.
You’re Not Optimizing Keywords/Keyphrases Correctly
It feels like you just came up for air after being underwater and someone pushed you back down again. We know. We get it. If you don’t optimize your website correctly, you could get penalized by the search engines or worse, send them the wrong message.
The incorrect optimization of a website can lead to a number of problems including indexing errors by search engines, an inability of the search engine to correctly understand the business, or the imposition of penalties for using “black hat” SEO practices.
To avoid being penalized, use your keywords and key phrases naturally. Also, avoid keyword stuffing. If you try to sound like something you’re not, your audience will be able to tell, and so will Google.
Some other notes:
- Make sure all metadata has at least one targeted keyword or keyphrase.
- Try to use your targeted keywords and keyphrases in subheadings too.
- Include your targeted keyword or keyphrase in or very close to the first paragraph and last paragraph of your pages.
- Use synonyms or different versions of your targeted keywords or keyphrases throughout the content.
Poor Quality Content
The quality of the content is almost as important as optimizing your website. This is not only important to Google, but also to your users.
If your content is not providing any value to your website’s traffic, they will leave immediately and not engage with anything else on your website. This affects your website’s bounce rate, which is the percentage of visitors who leave your site after only viewing one page. You can view your site’s bounce rate in your Google Analytics account. A high bounce rate is not good. This lowers your trust factor, giving you a poor ranking.
Write content that appeals to your targeted audience. Put yourself in their shoes. When people land on your page, they expect to read or learn about the subject of the page. The intent of a search is to find relevant results to the query. Once you understand what your readers want, you can create content that helps them solve their problems or provides the information they need.
A few other tips about writing good quality content:
- Don’t leave any stone unturned. Make sure you answer their question, solve their problem, etc. in its entirety.
- Never direct them away from your site to learn more about the topic unless it’s a law, study, or the like.
- Always end your content with a call to action like purchasing a product, calling you for services, or providing links to other content on your website to learn more.
Again, poor quality content affects your bounce rate. Here’s how to fix them.
5 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Bounce Rate
It can be difficult to accept that your website has a high bounce rate, just like it can be difficult to accept that your child is not the best looking kid in their school. When you go into Google Analytics and check your website’s numbers, you may be surprised to see a high bounce rate. This may be because your website is not as appealing or user-friendly as you think it is.
It’s hard to come to terms with. Why does it seem like nobody else loves your website as much as you do?
If you want to make your pages more appealing and reduce the number of people who leave your site immediately, there are a few things you can do.
Optimize Page Load Time
If a marketer’s bounce rate is high, it could be because of a problem with the content on the page, but it could also be because of a problem that the user has before they even get to the page.
One of the most frustrating problems a web page can have is taking a long time to load. It is important to improve your website’s on-page optimization to keep users from leaving, since 47% of users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
This is especially true for mobile sites. According to Radware, if a connection speed is just 500 milliseconds slower, “peak frustration” will increase by more than 26%, and engagement will decrease by 8%.
Also, slow loading pages are one of the main reasons why people abandon their online shopping carts. Almost half of the world’s leading ecommerce websites take longer than five seconds to load on mobile devices.
Before you look at the content of your pages, make sure your visitors can actually view them in a reasonable amount of time.
Make Your Content More Accessible with Smart Formatting
Ever clicked through to a blog post or web page, only to discover an immense, intimidating wall of text? If your writing is hard to read, you probably already know how frustrating this is for your readers. Your content might be valuable and unique, but if it is dense like War and Peace or Les Misérables, readers will be scared off.
Making your pages look inviting and easy to use will help keep people from leaving your site right away. The more effortless it is for a visitor to get what they want, the more likely they are to continue browsing. Use shorter paragraphs and include white space to make your content more approachable and easier to read.
Here are some ways to make content less visually intimidating:
- Appropriate use of headers
- Frequent subheadings
- Suitable images
- Bulleted lists
Making your content more accessible and allowing the reader to quickly identify relevant points makes it more likely they will continue reading.
That said, don’t insult your readers’ intelligence, either. Audiences are typically capable of understanding what they need from a performance or work, so it is advisable to give them what they want. I have seen blogs that provide useful information, but they include a line break or image between every sentence, which can be just as annoying as huge walls of text.
Use Sidebar Widgets and Promotions Sparingly
Some web pages can be used to provide your audience with relevant content, offers and other material. You would be hard-pressed to find a good blog that does not have something in the sidebar. If you overload your website with ads, offers, and other distracting elements, it will repel visitors and encourage them to leave.
If you want to make the content in your sidebar more visible, do so in a way that offers the reader additional value. An example of how you can make your site more useful to readers is by providing recommendations for related articles after a blog post. This gives readers more content to explore on your site, making it more likely they’ll stay longer. If you choose to include awards and trust signals in your sidebar, make sure they’re from reputable and renowned sources so they will actually be useful.
Be careful of the types of pop-ups that are offered by services such as Bounce Exchange. promotions that appear as soon as a user visits a page can be effective but can also be distracting Make sure your visitors have had a chance to look around and get comfortable with your content before you start pressuring them to sign up for your newsletter or other promotions. Don’t push too hard, too fast.
Cross-Reference Bounce Rate with Time on Site
Bounce rate data should not be used as the sole indicator of a website’s success because it does not provide context.
Bounce rate is one metric that should be considered along with other measures when looking at the overall performance of a website. This will help you determine if the problem is with a specific page, a type of page (like your site’s blog or product pages), or your whole site. If you are having issues with people bouncing off of your blog pages, it might be because of the content you have. If your website’s bounce rate is high and visitors are only spending a short amount of time on the site, it’s likely that you’re not providing the content or information that they’re looking for.
Make Your Site’s Navigation Effortless
Site visitors are lazy and want everything given to them with little effort. If you make your users work for what they want, they will go to another site. This is why it is so important for your website’s navigation to be as easy as possible.
Look at your current website navigation and see if there are ways to simplify it. Then simplify it some more.
