12 Reasons Your WordPress Visitors Aren’t Converting into Customers

Picture this: you’ve spent hours editing your website, adding eye-catching banners, and even setting up some special offers.

But when you check your conversion rates, they’re still flat as a pancake. Sound familiar?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about converting users into customers, it’s that increasing conversions isn’t always straightforward.

But here’s the good news: after years of working with thousands of websites, I’ve identified 12 key reasons why visitors often leave without becoming customers.

And in this article, I will share my insights to help you get more conversions on your WordPress website.

Note: This is a guest post by Thomas Griffin, the co-founder of OptinMonster, the #1 conversion rate optimization tool. This is an expert column that we publish where we invite a WordPress expert to share their experiences with our readers.

These aren’t just guesses – they’re based on real data and countless A/B tests. So, let’s dive right in and explore each reason why your visitors aren’t converting:

1. You Don't Understand Your Target Audience
2. Your Website Is Slow (Especially on Mobile)
3. Your Visitors Can't Navigate Your Website
4. Your Unique Value Proposition Is Unclear
5. Your Landing Pages Don't Look Credible
6. Your Pricing and Policies Aren’t Transparent
7. Your Forms Are Too Long and Complicated
8. There Are No Basic Customer Support Channels
9. Your Offers Have No Sense of Urgency
10. Your Popup Campaigns Are Ineffective
11. You Don’t Perform A/B Testing
12. You're Letting Abandoned Carts Slip Away

1. You Don’t Understand Your Target Audience

If there’s one thing I want you to take away from this article, it’s this: understanding your target audience is very important. Without this information, all your efforts to improve conversion rates are like shooting in the dark.

Let’s imagine you’re a chef opening a new restaurant. You’ve spent months perfecting your menu, but you’ve never actually talked to any potential customers. How can you be sure your dishes will appeal to them?

Now, you might be thinking, “But I know my audience already!” I hear this a lot, even from business owners who have been in the game for years.

But our audiences are constantly changing. What worked last year might not work today. That’s why we need to stay curious and keep learning about our visitors.

So, how can we truly understand our audience?

One tool I always use is Google Analytics. It’s a great platform that shows you exactly how your users behave on your site. You can see which pages they visit most, how they move through your site, and where they tend to drop off.

There’s evidence to back this up, too. A recent study showed that a food delivery app improved its conversion rate by 5.4% and reduced marketing costs just by using Google Analytics. That’s the real impact of real data.

For WordPress users, I recommend using MonsterInsights to connect Google Analytics with your site. It’s a game-changer because you can view your analytics right from your WordPress dashboard.

For instance, you can track a user’s journey before they fill out your signup form. This information is incredibly valuable when you’re trying to optimize your conversion funnel.

But data is only part of the picture. It’s also worth complementing your analytics with real user feedback. Talk to your customers, run surveys, or even set up user testing sessions.

This combination of quantitative and qualitative data will give you a well-rounded view of your audience.

For more information, you can see this guide on how to get website feedback in WordPress.

2. Your Website Is Slow (Especially on Mobile)

Here’s an interesting statistic: smartphone users are 5 times more likely to leave a website with a poor user experience. And mobile websites have a higher bounce rate (59.74%) compared to desktops (49.80%).

That means if your site is slow on mobile, then you’re losing potential customers before they even see what you offer.

Luckily, there are a few simple ways to boost website performance.

The first step is always to run a speed test. For example, Google PageSpeed Insights is free, easy to use, and provides actionable insights, especially for Core Web Vitals, which are important for SEO.

Once you know where you stand, you can start optimizing. Simple actions like compressing images or using a lightweight WordPress theme can make a big difference.

For a comprehensive approach, check out WPBeginner’s ultimate guide to boosting WordPress speed and performance.

3. Your Visitors Can’t Easily Navigate Your Website

If your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for on your website, they’ll probably just leave.

That’s why your main navigation menu should include links to your key pages, like your homepage, contact page, product or service page, pricing page, and about page.

If you have a larger website, then consider using a dropdown menu instead.

Other information, such as terms of service, shipping policy, or job vacancies, can be in the footer menu. This gives visitors another way to navigate, especially when they’ve scrolled to the bottom of a page.

Also, make sure your menu is responsive. I’ve seen many navigation menus that look great on desktop but just don’t look right on mobile. Typically, you want to use a menu that can easily be hidden and shown on smartphone screens.

Additionally, no matter how big your website is, one helpful feature that you should have is a search function.

It lets users filter their search results easily, helping them find exactly what they need. In fact, 43% of users on retail websites go directly to the search bar, and they are twice as likely to convert.

You can check out WPBeginner’s tutorial on how to create a search form using SearchWP. It’s easier than you might think, and it can make a big difference in how users interact with your site.

4. Your Unique Value Proposition Is Unclear

Ever wondered why some visitors leave your online store without taking action? It might be because they can’t figure out what makes you special. This is where your unique value proposition comes in.

Think of your value proposition as your elevator pitch. It’s a short, powerful statement that tells potential customers why they should choose you over your competitors. If it’s unclear, then you’re missing out on conversions.

Let’s take Blue Apron as an example. This meal kit subscription company is all about making cooking high-quality dishes easy for everyone by delivering meal kits directly to households. You can easily tell that from their homepage’s headline:

Creating a strong value proposition doesn’t have to be complicated, either. In fact, you can use AI tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to help.

Here’s a simple prompt I’ve used:

I'd like you to act as a marketing expert for the brand [Name]. Your first task is to generate a unique value proposition for the brand [Name] using this template:

“We help (Target Customer) do (Desired Outcome) by doing (Your Unique Solution).”

Here is some key information you can use to do your first task:

Company Overview: [Write down the name of the company, industry, and any key details about its operations.]

Target Audience: [List the type of customers or clients the company serves.]

Products/Services: [Write down what products or services the company offers.]

Unique Selling Points (USPs): [Briefly mention what differentiates the company from its competitors.]

Customer Benefits: [Briefly explain the primary benefits that customers receive from the company's products or services.]

If you need inspiration, my team has put together a list of top value proposition examples that are impossible to resist.

But here’s the kicker: having a great value proposition isn’t enough. You also need to make it visible and consistent across all platforms.

You have to make sure your value proposition is front and center on your homepage, in your popups, in your email campaigns, and pretty much everywhere else.

Blue Apron does this by highlighting the freshness and deliciousness qualities of their products in their discount campaigns.

It’s like reminding users, “Remember, we’re not just about convenience. We’re bringing restaurant-quality, fresh ingredients right to your doorstep.” This consistent messaging reinforces their value proposition at every touchpoint.

When your value proposition is clear and consistent across all touchpoints, visitors quickly understand what you offer and why it matters to them. This clarity can be the difference between a bounce and a conversion.

5. Your Landing Pages Don’t Look Credible

You might have the best product in the world, but if your landing page doesn’t look trustworthy, then visitors won’t convert.

Potential customers want to know they’re dealing with a legitimate business and won’t get scammed. That’s where social proof signals come in. These are like little credibility boosters that tell visitors that you’re the real deal.

Customer testimonials are a great example. They’re like word-of-mouth recommendations but on your website.

You can gather these testimonials from happy customers or pull them from platforms like Trustpilot or Google Reviews.

Another powerful trust signal? Logos of brands you’ve worked with. If big names trust you, it shows visitors that they can, too.

And don’t forget about numbers – if you’ve helped thousands or millions of users, make sure that information is front and center.

Let me share a quick win we had at OptinMonster. Our PPC landing page wasn’t performing well, so we decided to revamp it using SeedProd, a WordPress landing page builder.

Using SeedProd, we added a rotating testimonials block to display multiple customer reviews without cluttering the page.

We also included logos of brands that have worked with us and the total number of users (at that point) that have used OptinMonster.

The results? Our conversions shot up by 340%, our click-through rate improved by 13.30%, and we cut our customer acquisition costs by 47.20%.

If you want to dive deeper into creating high-converting landing pages, then you can check out this guide by John Turner, the co-founder of SeedProd. He breaks down the anatomy of a landing page that really works.

6. Your Pricing and Policies Aren’t Transparent

A study showed that transparent pricing pages had a 17.50% conversion rate, compared to just 10.31% for non-transparent pages. That’s a significant difference that could make or break your business.

Transparency is actually simpler than you might think, but it requires a commitment to clarity.

First things first: your pricing structure. You don’t want to just put a number on your page and call it a day.

Instead, I recommend breaking the price down. Is that price per month? Per year? For a limited-time offer? You will want to spell it out clearly.

Here’s a great example by Hostinger, who specifies that their pricing is for a 48-month term:

And if there are any additional costs (setup fees, transaction fees, or taxes), don’t hide them. Put them front and center or make the information easier to find.

The same goes for policies like refunds, returns, and shipping. They should be easy to find and even easier to understand.

I always recommend adding direct links to these pages right on your footer or explaining them in the FAQ section.

7. Your Forms Are Too Long and Complicated

Did you know that users typically abandon a form after just 1 minute and 43 seconds? That’s not a lot of time to capture their information.

The easier your forms are to fill out, the more likely people are to complete them. This applies to all types of forms, from lead generation to checkout processes.

The key is to keep things short and sweet. Ask for only the most essential information.

For instance, if you’re running a lead generation campaign, do you really need to know the person’s birthday? Unless you’re planning to send them a card, probably not.

For creating simple and user-friendly WordPress forms, I recommend WPForms. The plugin comes with conditional logic, which lets you show or hide form fields based on the user’s previous answers. So your form stays short and relevant for each user.

You may also want to see this guide on how to create conversational forms in WordPress to further boost form engagement.

8. There Are No Basic Customer Support Channels

I’ve seen it happen time and time again – visitors leave a site because they can’t find answers to their questions. And just like that, you’ve lost a potential customer.

At the bare minimum, your site should have three things: an FAQ page, a contact form, and a knowledge base.

A FAQ page answers common questions quickly, a contact form shows you’re reachable, and a knowledge base helps curious potential customers explore how your product works.

But if you want to give your users direct support without hiring a custom service representative, then an AI chatbot is your answer. My team has used this tool in our own projects to handle pre-sales questions.

It’s like having a sales team that never sleeps, answering queries instantly and keeping potential customers engaged.

For more details, see this guide on how to add a chatbot in WordPress.

9. Your Offers Have No Sense of Urgency

Your WordPress website looks great, all the performance metrics seem good, and you’re running campaigns left and right. But you are still not getting any conversions.

This can often happen because your offer doesn’t have any urgency.

Creating urgency is all about giving visitors a compelling reason to act now rather than later. Without it, potential customers might think they can come back to the offer later. And we know that ‘later’ often means ‘never’.

But one foolproof trick I use is to add countdown timers. They are great at pushing visitors to make a decision quickly.

In fact, one of my customers, Cracku, saw a 300% increase in conversions by adding a simple countdown timer to their offer.

You could also use a plugin such as TrustPulse to show live notifications every time someone makes a purchase.

It’s like saying, “Hey, look! Other people are buying this right now!” as it taps into that fear of missing out (FOMO) that everyone has.

10. Your Popup Campaigns Are Ineffective

Many people think that popups are annoying. But they can be incredibly effective when done right.

The key is to be smart about how you use popups. Since popups are known to be intrusive, you will want to display them at the right time, on the right pages, and to the right people.

For example, you could use a popup plugin like OptinMonster to set up display rules. These can exclude certain visitors, such as people who have already subscribed, from seeing a campaign.

You could also target users who have engaged with your website for more than 15 seconds. These folks are more likely to be interested in what you’re offering.

You can even get as specific as targeting users from certain locations. Doing a Black Friday sale? Show your popup only to visitors from countries celebrating the holiday.

By being this targeted, you’re not just throwing popups at everyone and hoping something sticks. Instead, you’re showing relevant offers to people who are most likely to be interested. This approach not only boosts conversions but also improves user experience.

11. You Don’t Perform A/B Testing

When it comes to marketing, I’ve learned that without A/B testing, we are often just guessing at what works.

A/B or split testing allows you to compare two versions of a webpage or element to see which performs better. It’s a crucial tool for understanding what really works for your audience.

A/B testing might sound daunting, but there are some tools that can make it super easy.

For example, if you have a WooCommerce store, then FunnelKit is a great option. This platform lets you test every step of your sales funnel, from your opt-in pages and checkout to thank-you pages.

And for popup campaigns, OptinMonster has built-in A/B testing features.

You can easily create a duplicate of your existing campaign, tweak it slightly, and see which performs better. It’s a great way to fine-tune your display rules, too.

Here’s a pro A/B testing tip: change just one thing at a time in your tests. Whether it’s a featured image or a headline, isolated changes give the clearest results.

There’s no one-size-fits-all rule for how long the tests should last. But as a rule of thumb, running tests for at least two weeks will get you the most reliable data.

12. You’re Letting Abandoned Carts Slip Away

A visitor adds items to their cart, gets to the checkout page, and then… they’re gone. If you’re not doing anything about these abandoned carts, then you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to boost your conversions.

In my experience, exit-intent popups can be a game-changer for recovering abandoned carts. These clever little popups appear right as a user is about to leave your site, and they can be incredibly effective.

In fact, they can recover up to 53% of cart-abandoning visitors. That’s more than half of your potential sales saved.

You can take things one step further by offering a small discount in the popup, just like in the example below by ShockByte. It’s amazing how often a coupon can turn an abandoning visitor into a customer.

But it’s not just about discounts, either. Sometimes, visitors abandon carts because they have questions. That’s why I also recommend including a button that opens a chat support window or leads to a contact form.

This way, you’re addressing potential concerns right at the critical moment.

I hope my insights helped you learn the top reasons why your visitors aren’t converting into customers. You may also want to see these WPBeginner guides on how to set up WordPress conversion tracking and the best WooCommerce reporting and analytics plugins.

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