Website traffic but no sales: find the page and the step where visitors leave

Website traffic but no sales: find the step first

With website traffic but no sales, find the one step where visitors leave: map the path to a sale as a funnel, read the heatmap of the page that loses most, watch recordings of the visits that left and check the forms for errors.

First separate a traffic problem from a page problem. Plerdy's landing-page guide says to compare bounce rate and conversion rate for the same page across traffic sources, and to judge only pages with 100 or more sessions.

Map the path to a sale as a funnel

A funnel lists the pages a visitor passes on the way to a sale, so the report shows the share who leave at each one. Plerdy's funnel needs its tracking code on every step page and holds at most seven steps.

1. List the pages in order. A store runs category, product, cart, order and thank-you page; Plerdy says a service site has fewer pages, such as its main page, Services and Contact Us.
2. Enter each as a full or partial URL. No step may repeat elsewhere in the funnel.
3. Walk the whole funnel once in Chrome Incognito mode to confirm each step records.
4. Read the percentage of users who leave at each step and take the largest.

Free Microsoft Clarity also builds funnels without code, from Settings, then Funnels, then New funnel.

Read the heatmap of the page that loses most

Open that page's heatmap. Plerdy's heatmap reports cover scroll depth, mouse movement and click sequence, and compare mobile with desktop. Check whether the form or button sits below where most visitors stop scrolling, and whether clicks land on something that is not the button. For lead forms, Plerdy lists which fields cause exits. How to read a website heatmap covers the colors and patterns.

Watch recordings of the visits that left

A heatmap sums up many visits; a recording shows one. Filter Plerdy's recordings by device, location, traffic source or key behaviors such as drop-offs, then watch 5 to 10 and note confusion, dead clicks and hesitation. On a store, its replay page lists cart and checkout errors, hesitation and repeated clicks.

Plerdy says five recordings prove nothing statistically: the numbers say where to look, and the recordings say what is wrong. Session replay tools compares what each plan records.

Check forms and checkout for errors

Plerdy's error monitoring watches JavaScript errors, 404 errors, 5xx server errors, AJAX failures and unhandled promise rejections, and shows the last visitor action before each error. It starts collecting once the script is on the site. Recordings also show lead-form field drop-offs, validation errors and submit failures.

Before trusting any number, submit a test form or make a test purchase and confirm the conversion was counted, as Plerdy advises.

Plerdy for the weak step, and who needs no tool

Plerdy's funnel analysis finds the step where visitors abandon, and its heatmaps, recordings and error monitoring then show what went wrong on that page, all from one tracking script. Funnel analysis is among Plerdy's tools, yet its pricing page has no funnel row and names no plan for it. Its 14-day trial gives you the Scale plan's limits for heatmaps, recordings and error monitoring on a live site. Best heatmap tools for website lines up the alternatives.

By the source comparison in the first step, a page that converts for one traffic source and not the others has a traffic problem, which your analytics already show without a heatmap tool. A site that has the weak step and cannot see why should move to a heatmap and recording tool, free Microsoft Clarity included.