The end goal of any business is to drive revenue. All your marketing is intended to help you accomplish that goal. So if you find yourself saying, “My website isn’t making money,” then something is definitely wrong.
Your company website should help drive conversions and revenue, especially if it features an online store where people can make direct purchases. If it’s not, it means there’s a problem somewhere that you need to fix. So, what might the problem be, and how can you deal with it?
On this page, we’ll go over six possible reasons that your website isn’t generating revenue:
- Your website isn’t optimized for SEO
- Your page layout isn’t confusing
- Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
- Your page speeds aren’t fast enough
- Your site isn’t secure
- You didn’t use any CTAs
Keep reading to find out more about each one!
1. Your website isn’t optimized for SEO
One thing’s for sure — your website definitely won’t drive any revenue if no one visits it. And if you want people to visit your website, you need them to be able to find it in search results. That’s where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in.
SEO is a strategy that involves optimizing your website to rank in Google. If your SEO isn’t up to snuff, that could be the cause of your website not making money. To fix it, you should simply work on boosting the quality of your SEO strategy.
One way to do that is to include relevant, long-tail keywords on your website, signaling to Google that your site should rank for those terms. You should also use tactics such as:
- Earning backlinks
- Optimizing images
- Creating content to address search intent
- And more!
Some of the other items on this list also fall under the umbrella of SEO.
2. Your page layout is confusing
Another possible reason that your website isn’t generating revenue is that it’s too hard for users to navigate. You can’t expect people to make purchases if they can’t find their way around your online store.
If your site layout is the problem, one of the first things to do (if you haven’t already) is to add a navigation bar to the top of your site (possibly with dropdown options). That way, users can easily jump to key pages or sections of the site.
You should also make sure the layout of the pages themselves is intuitive. That includes pages that show up in the purchase process.
As users select the product(s) they want, fill out their financial information, and confirm the purchase, make it as simple as possible for them. The more drawn-out or complicated it is, the more likely it is that they’ll dip out halfway through the process.
3. Your website isn’t mobile-friendly
These days, a lot of people visit websites on their phones, not just their computers. That means that if someone visits your site on their phone and it’s not optimized for mobile, they won’t stick around.
In fact, it’s worse than that — Google ranks sites based on their mobile versions, so a non-mobile-friendly website will get penalized in rankings.
“With a variety of screen sizes, from desktops to tablets to phones, having a website that responds effectively to a user’s device type is essential for a revenue-driving website. Few users have the patience to work around a site that is difficult to navigate on a smaller screen, and many will just leave in frustration.”
Needless to say, these outcomes won’t lead to much revenue on your website. So, if you want to boost your revenue, you should take the time to optimize your website for mobile.
One of the simplest ways to do that is to use responsive design, which is a type of web design that rearranges the elements on a page to fit the screen where it appears.
With a mobile-friendly site, you’ll retain much more traffic and drive more website revenue.
4. Your page speeds aren’t fast enough
Another factor that affects your site’s user-friendliness is page load speed. If your site takes forever to load, most people will get impatient and visit a competitor’s site instead.
Plus, just like mobile-friendliness, failing to optimize your page speeds will cause you to rank lower in Google. The resulting loss in traffic could be part of the reason your website isn’t generating revenue.
“Most users have a short attention span, so if your site is taking a long time to load, it’s unlikely that they are going to stick around — there is always a faster site with the answers they need. Working on an ongoing basis to keep your site fast and light is essential for pushing buyers down the conversion funnel to make your site a key revenue driver for your business.”
To improve your page speeds, retain traffic, and ultimately earn more money through your site, you can take steps like:
- Caching web pages
- Limiting redirects
- Minifying code
- Compressing images
5. Your site isn’t secure
When people buy products on your website, they have to provide their financial information. But if you expect them to do that, you need to do everything you can to help assure them that your site is secure.
There are a few different ways to do that. To start, you can install various security plugins to help protect users’ financial information. During the purchase process, make sure you tell users that you use those plugins. That will help them feel safer divulging their info.
On a broader level, you should also use HTTPS. HTTPS is a more secure version of the standard HTTP protocol, helping make your site as a whole safer to visit. When users see “https” at the beginning of your site’s URL, they’ll be more likely to stick around and make a purchase.
6. You didn’t use any CTAs
Finally, the issue of your website not making money could stem from a problem with your calls to action (CTAs) — or even a lack thereof.
A CTA is a short sentence or blurb that encourages users to take a particular action. For example, let’s say someone reads an article on your site. What’s the next step that you want them to take? It might be to sign up for your email list. In that case, don’t expect them to read your mind — tell them to subscribe to your emails. Bonus points if you provide a link or a button that lets them easily do that.
The same goes for purchase CTAs. Users won’t purchase unless you encourage them to do so. Put CTAs on your site (especially on product or service pages) that push users to buy from you. Be sure to give them a button to click that will initiate the purchase process.
Get expert help driving more website revenue
It’s not fun dealing with a website not making money. Thankfully, the tips listed above should help you resolve that issue the majority of the time — but not always. Sometimes, it’s best to bring in a professional agency to help you manage the workload of increasing your website revenue.
If you’re looking for some marketing experts to drive more revenue for your business, we can help. Our conversion rate optimization (CRO) services are perfect for increasing sales on your website, and with our decades of experience in web design, you can trust us to get the job done.
Contact us online today to get started!
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