Originally published in The Conversion Journal: Your Site Gets Traffic. So Why Isn't Anyone Buying?
When a WordPress site has visitors but no orders, most owners reach for more traffic. More ads, more posts, another campaign. It rarely helps, because the problem usually sits after the click.
Here's the short version of our first journal, as four checks you can run this week.
1. Compare sources by orders, not visits. Put visits by source next to orders by source for the last 30 days. The channel that sends the most people is often not the one that sends buyers.
2. Match the landing page to the click. If an ad or search result talks about one product and lands people on your homepage, many will leave. Point each campaign at the page it promises.
3. Find products with views but no cart adds. Lots of interest and almost no add-to-carts usually means something on the page puts people off: the price, missing details, stock, or unclear delivery costs.
4. Place a test order on your phone. Baymard Institute puts average cart abandonment at about 70% across 50 studies, and extra costs like shipping and fees are the top reason shoppers give for quitting checkout (source). Notice when the full price first appears, and whether guests can check out.
This works the same whether you sell with WooCommerce, SureCart, FluentCart or Easy Digital Downloads. Swap "order" for "booking" or "form sent" and it works for service sites too.
The full journal covers all seven places visitors drop off, a simple funnel to read your numbers, the mistakes people make most, and a complete checklist. Read it on The Conversion Journal.
The Conversion Journal is published by Analyzine, a self-hosted analytics plugin for WordPress. See what we're building at analyzine.com.