11 Reasons Why Your Landing Page Doesn’t Convert Visitors Into Buyers or Leads

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You created a task-focused landing page. It looks great. You start driving traffic to it. But…

Nothing happens.

It is receiving plenty of visitors, but none of them are converting into leads or buyers.

What could be wrong?

11 Reasons why your landing page isn’t converting.

(in no particular order)

1. A mismatched message:

The people you are sending to your new landing page arrive with expectations that do not align with your offer. We see this so many times, where an ad (or even a CTA) says one thing, but the offer on the landing page seems to be different from the promise in the ad or CTA.

Ensure that your landing page delivers on the promise you made, and the expectations you created in the visitor’s mind.

2. Bad targeting:

You could be running ads to send visitors, but if you target the wrong audience, not only will you get fewer visitors, but they will be unlikely to convert into leads or buyers.

Ascertain who your ideal buyer or client is, and then target your advertising – and content marketing – according to that.

3. Distractions:

Yes, we understand that, depending on the ticket level of the offer, the landing page may need to contain more information.

However, keep any distractions to a minimum. Limit any outbound links (aside from an action button) to the footer of the page, with no navigation on top.

In addition to that, avoid large chinks of text, and avoid having competing calls to action.

Say everything that needs to be said, but use the absolute minimum number of words. Keep it all as short and as simple as possible – reduce as far as the offer will allow.

4. Outdated design:

While you don’t need cutting-edge design work on every single landing page you put out, some design elements simply look outdated.

When your landing page design looks outdated, visitors get the impression that your offer is outdated too.

To avoid creating this perception, use minimalist designs with neutral fonts, and use images and video just where they make sense – and not as “filler material”.

Keep in mind that – since most traffic nowadays is from mobile visitors anyway – it has to look good on a phone screen. There isn’t much space on mobile screen for fancy design elements. Make it easy to read and easy to understand the offer. Break any possible monotony with bits of color or pictures.

But all in all, keep it simple.

5. A weak or unclear value proposition:

If you are unable to clearly communicate the value of your offer, most people won’t see the value in it.

Additionally, if the value you do communicate doesn’t seem worth the effort or expense…

Do the math.

Ensure that your value proposition clearly communicate the biggest benefits to the visitor, and that they understand how their purchase, signup or form submission will transform their lives or their businesses.

6. Slow loading speed:

We live in a day and age where people have taken the term “instant gratification” to a whole new level. Most people in first world countries have blistering fast internet.

From their point of view, if their internet is fast, why isn’t your website?

If your landing page loads slowly, one of two things happen:

a. The visitor leaves before it fully loads.

b. The visitor stays, but now he or she already has a somewhat negative perception of your business.

Neither of these do you any favors.

Do whatever you need to have your pages load as fast as possible. If it is impossible to do with using simplistic design and compressed media, hook up to a CDN (content delivery network) like AWS (Amazon Web Services).

7. A weak CTA:

People are reluctant to take any action by nature. If more people were willing to take action, we would have had a much higher percentage of the population working for themselves or starting their own businesses.

Also, the culture of inaction has been ingrained in us by social media, who programmed most of us to engage in endless “doom-scrolling”.

Taking any action becomes more likely when you add a gentle push or invitation.

In order to maximize conversions on your landing page, the CTA needs to communicate something the visitor values. Something like “instant access”, or “order while stocks last”, or “talk to us before you waste any more money”.

8. A lack of trust:

While it is possible to make sales, gather leads or get signups without having social proof is possible, having 3 to 6 testimonials or references – or even embedded reviews from Google, Yelp or elsewhere, or even just trust badges from relevant trusted sites – will definitely increase your conversion rate.

9. Asking for too much information:

In the case of using the landing page to gather leads or mailing list signups, it has been proven that every additional field you add reduces conversion rates.

Fair enough, in many cases asking for some additional information is required in order to better understand – or communicate with – the prospect, especially for lead generation.

But, in both cases, only ask for what you really need.

In addition to that, if you have additional questions, try to offer a dropdown list or radio buttons to select options where possible.

Every field for which you can eliminate the need to type, will improve your conversion rate.

10. An Inconsistent or invisible brand:

Your branding should be visible throughout the visitor journey, from the moment they see your content or (if possible) your ad, right though until the landing page and any subsequent page they may need to visit.

Consistent branding builds trust. Trust converts.

 

11. No clear contact details:

This may not apply for mailing list signups, but it does apply to lead generation and direct sales offers.

Even though not many people will use your contact info, not having it available could make it seem like you have something to hide.

On the other hand, if you clearly display contact details, especially a phone number, it puts people’s minds at ease, making it easier for them to trust you.