The #1 Reason Your Website Isn’t Getting Traffic

If you’re a business owner, chances are you’ve thought “why isn’t my website getting more traffic?” In fact, 96% of websites never get any traffic according to AHREFs.

Maybe you believed that launching a great website would suddenly get you tons of clicks and inquiries, only to be let down when that didn’t happen naturally. 

Here’s the puzzle piece most business owners are missing: simply having a website live is not enough to start getting traffic organically (read: without driving it yourself via social media, ads, networking, etc.)

And it’s frustrating to go through the effort of launching one only to hear crickets - especially knowing how important it is as the foundation for your online presence. 

Why does that happen?

In short, launching a website, no matter how beautiful it is, will not automatically get you found - if you haven’t created searchable content that drives traffic.

Websites Have Stages 

I think most people don't realize that there are actually stages to a website, and not all websites are equal. Different websites with different levels of content are at different stages of growth.

When we think about a website, that could mean anything from a single, comprehensive page, to a multi-page services website, or a simple site with a Homepage, About page, and Contact.

The sites that succeed in driving new traffic and visibility don’t stop there.

After launch, they publish content that targets phrases their audience is already actively searching, to attract new visitors. 

Think of it like using hashtags on Instagram (when hashtags still worked). If you knew a hashtag was popular in your audience, you would use it.

The equivalent on your website is that if you knew your audience was searching for specific information, you would create content around it. But the difference is, the visibility of website content actually grows over time - vs an Instagram post which may have a lifespan of just a few days.

Most Websites Never Make It To The Traffic Stage

A new website without content that targets searches is not going to naturally get found. And, unfortunately, not every web designer builds your website with the content and pages that will actually target your audience’s searches.

In fact, launching a website without adding strategic, searchable content, is a bit like setting up an Instagram profile without publishing posts. 

Build it and they will come does not apply here, unfortunately.

This means unless you already have an audience to share your sparkly new website with, you won’t automatically see traffic begin coming to your site. You’ll be left hustling to manually network and drive traffic yourself. 

So let's talk a little bit about the stages of a website and what you can expect at each one – and most importantly, when and how you can expect to start driving real traffic organically.

Phase 1: Getting Your Website Live

Get your website live, even if it’s just one page.

• Starts building your "visibility credit score" in Google and other search engines.

• Gives you a customizable address with customizable content to send users to. 

The first stage is just getting your website live on a domain. Maybe it’s as simple as a single section with a headline, a paragraph, and a contact form.

Even with a simple page like that, getting a website live on your domain is going to start building up what I like to think of as your domain’s visibility credit score in Google.

This is why I recommend getting a website up on your domain ASAP even if you’re not ready for a full website. The longer your website is live and Google begins tracking the history of your website content, the more built-in trust you develop with Google.

Some businesses start and stop their website journey here, with a simple 1-page website – and that’s fine if it works for them by using their preferred traffic avenues! But a site at this stage won’t grow any significant amount of organic traffic.

A lot of business owners also get confused about why their website doesn’t show up for their business name or drive conversions when they're still in this stage. 

The reason is because you haven't built out your website with enough brand signals and searchable content for search engines to know what business the website represents, and they probably haven't created a traffic strategy to get the website found through other avenues. Because ultimately, every business needs traffic from somewhere. 

Phase 2: Adding Core Pages

Add pages beyond the homepage, like About, Contact, and legal pages.

• Increases trust with search engines and users.

• Helps you show up in search for your brand name.

• Establishes a solid foundation to support later stages.

Phase two is when you have published the core pages expected on pretty much every website, beyond just your home page.

This includes building out a separate About page, a dedicated Contact page, and your legal pages.

These pages will help your website to start showing up when people search for your business name, because they give Google and other search engines like ChatGPT the additional written information they can crawl and read, to understand who you are and what your business is. 

Better yet, they will also give the silent visitors who are stalking your business everything they need to make a buying decision - because yes, people still often research businesses by Googling them and visiting their websites before getting in touch. And if you’re silently losing business because your website doesn’t have the info you need, that’s an easy fix!

Even with a small number of visitors from your marketing efforts, your website will convert better if you’re giving a great first impression and answering all of the questions they have, instead of causing them to bounce away. And this is really important if you’re already putting effort into marketing your business elsewhere.

This is what sets the foundation for a complete website, and for you to start building content that actually drives traffic. 

In fact, some people start focusing on traffic before they’ve finished this phase. If that’s you, that’s totally okay, but I do recommend revisiting this phase and making sure that you have all of the basic, “boring” pages completed.

These basic pages may not seem important on the surface if they’re not search-targeted, but they are. They should not be treated like an afterthought - they’re an essential part of a well-rounded traffic strategy because every one of them sends important brand signals to Google. 

Phase 3: Optimizing for Sales & BOF SEO

Incorporates bottom-of-funnel sales pages service/product pages that are optimized for SEO and sales.

• Creates targeted pages to begin driving organic traffic for your offers. 

• Adds the content that will really convert visitors into customers.

• Ensures your website is high converting for ads and other traffic sources.

• Ready to utilize paid ads effectively.

• Gives you the primary pages to promote in traffic phase. 

Phase three is when you start actually adding sales assets, like sales pages or pages that talk about the specific services you offer.

I’m not talking about a single services page that just lists everything. I mean dedicated pages that focus on each service or offer individually - optimized for conversions and to target the relevant SEO keywords. 

These pages sell your services or your products to the user that's visiting, and they help you get found in Google for those offer-based keywords. These used to be known as “money-pages” in SEO… but I refuse to call them that. [cringe] I like to call them TLPs (target landing pages).

It's really only after you have those incredibly important assets, that you get to the traffic phase where you can start working on searchable content that drives traffic long-term.

Phase 4: Optimizing and Driving Traffic

Build searchable TOF and MOF content that will increase its own traffic over time, and create supporting content for the BOF pages built in phase 3.

• Creates long-term, evergreen traffic assets that will compound your visibility and traffic numbers over time.

• Increases traffic to BOF target pages built in phase 3.

• Begins driving traffic to more MOF and TOF target pages that also support the BOF pages.

Now, after you have all of your core pages and traffic assets done, you get to the traffic phase where you can start working on searchable content that will build your visibility and traffic over time.

Why do you have to wait until the rest is done?

>> If your site is missing the trust pages from phase 2, it’ll have a harder time ranking.

>> If your site is missing the BOF target pages from phase 3, you won’t have the sales assets you need to drive actual leads and inquiries.

Basically, each stage builds on the last one. Without the other phases being complete, your efforts won’t be as impactful as they could be.

Aside from creating searchable content, this phase is also when you can start sending traffic like paid ads to your website because through the completion of the prior 3 phases, you have all of the assets and optimization that you need for your website to actually be high converting - aka for your ads to actually perform without wasting your time and money.

Translation: your website won’t be holding you back or making you look bad anymore, so adspend will no longer be a waste.

Which stage is your website in? 

Hopefully this walkthrough has helped you understand what stage you’re in and some of the elements your site is missing to getting better results.

If you're frustrated feeling like your website is not performing after you put a bunch of time and effort into it or after you put a bunch of money into it or hiring a designer, don't fret. 

Many people stop in phase 2 - where they’ve got a handful of basic core pages, but they haven’t built out searchable content for their main services, or begun to support those pages with additional traffic-driving content. 

You need to get through the remaining phases and create searchable, evergreen content to create a website that actually performs for you - and yes, you can do it.

If you want my successful website roadmap to figure out where your website stands and what you need to do next, just let me know here and I'll send it over to you.