As a business owner, every step you take and every decision you make, should be towards improving the health of your profit margin. If any process or aspect of your business doesn’t contribute – positively, of course – towards that margin, you’ll probably be getting rid of it pretty soon.

Your website is part of that process and it too should be contributing towards making you money. The only problem is you can’t just get rid of it if it isn’t doing so: you need your website, no matter what. Your only choice is to figure out what is holding it back from being as profitable as you need it to be and then fix it.

Of course, before you can do anything about it, you will need to identify the reasons, and below we have listed 6 reasons why your business website isn’t making you money as it is supposed to:

1. Your Design

The design of your website is important in determining how long (if at all) your clients will stay. If they find any issues with it – even if they don’t like your theme – they will make a u-turn. Your site should have a “vibe” that goes with your business. The colors, for example, must not only harmonize with one another but with your services as well (think red for a love website, white for wedding planners, etc.). There is a whole science (mainly psychology) built on the technicalities of how colors can affect your clients’ purchasing habits.

Take some time to make sure you have the right colors, fonts, etc. to influence your visitors.

2. Your Code

Your website should be able to deliver on everything it promises to do. There is no excuse for buggy code in this time of $5 freelance coders: if there is something you can’t fix yourself, outsource it. There are thousands of coders out there that will be glad to have a look at it for you. Of course, you will have to pay them well if you want to get it fixed properly.

3. Speeds & Uptimes

Time is essential (imagine this: someone clicking their fingers in rapid succession) there is no time to waste. Everyone is in a rush, and even if they weren’t, there is always someone that can deliver faster service than you – so, you need to keep on your toes.

Get rid of all lag times by looking at your internet service, your hosting and, most importantly, your website. Test and keep improving your site’s performance and load times until you can improve it no more. Keep it light and functional.

Another thing you might want to keep an eye on is how often your site is down: too often, and people might assume the worst about you and your business. There are monitoring apps and websites out there that will keep track of your site for you – for free. Make use of them.

If you still find that your site is often down, change your hosting provider.

4. No One Knows You

Just because you have created a website doesn’t mean everyone is going to run to it and jam your bandwidth. For that to happen you have to be a well-established business that already has the necessary exposure.

For the rest of us mere mortals, we need to invest heavily in marketing – SEO, SEM, and SMM. It is a non-stop process that will have to be performed throughout the site’s lifetime. This is the only way you can make sure your site will be seen by the people you are trying to reach. Constant advertising, marketing, social media sharing and communication should be part of your long-term online presence strategy.

5. Navigation is a Nightmare

Suppose your visitors come to your site and start searching for a page where they expect you to have placed the details/information/services they are looking for. If,

1. They can’t navigate to said page or,
2. Find the page but can’t find anything on it…

…they will find themselves lost, will be discouraged and leave your site.

Your site should be as well-planned as a city. Everything you have to offer shouldn’t be more than two clicks of a link away. If possible, put it on the landing page – right on the page where your visitors arrive. That way you, you will have a higher conversion rate.

6. Finally… Your Business

Let’s admit it; if you are offering something that no one wants to buy – you won’t sell it. In this case, if you have done everything you can, but still find you can’t sell much, you will need to take a look at your goods and/or services.

If it isn’t that, then you should probably see if you aren’t asking your prospective clients to pay much more than they are willing to. Maybe a market analysis is in order?

Finally, always keep track of rise and fall of traffic. When you do something right, you will see it rise – keep doing whatever it is. Otherwise, cease and look for better ways.