No Call to Action (CTA). Take it from me, the content writer whose own website sat stagnating for years. Back in the day we built sites that were just online “brochures” for our businesses. Our websites matched our marketing materials and we really did believe that “if you build it they will come.” Nowadays, it’s just downright lazy to have a website that’s not working for you, and by that I mean lead generation. People signing up on your site for something you’re giving away for free whether it’s a newsletter or a report or a 15-minute consultation.

We’re all guilty of building our pretty websites and taking such pride in putting it all out there only to fail to attract any “real” potential business.  So here’s a simple fix for you. First, figure out what you’re going to give away. (Check out Ian Brodie’s “5 Simple Marketing Tweaks That Will Get You More Clients” for some ideas.) Then come up with a clear and insanely concise “call to action” or CTA. No wimpy “Read Mores” or “Learn Mores” or “Click Heres.” What you want is juicy, specific instructions. My CTA button reads “Get Your FREE Website Content Analysis.” That’s the main thing I want you to do, is click that button and sign up for my personalized content assessment.

So what’s your main thing? And how do you make that enticing for the user?

No Attention. Give your website some love! If you’re not paying attention to your site, nobody else is either. Granted, once you’re cranking in thousands of unique visitors every month, maybe you don’t have to baby your site quite so much. But there’s a reason why people visit websites and stick around. They see something interesting. Isn’t that what we all do? We skim the words, something catches our eye, we click a link, we scan some more, and then we’re gone. That’s what they’re doing on your site too.

So give people something to participate in whether it’s watching a 2-minute video you just uploaded, or reading a blog post — something that’s current and relevant, not just your tired old services and offerings.

No Intention. Piggy backing on the call to action point, you want to guide the user to the next thing. If you have a lot of good content on your site, make sure you’re linking to other pages within your site to keep your audience with you as long as possible. Get a handle on your website analytics to understand what people are looking for when they get to your website, what pages they’re coming in on and which pages they’re leaving from. It’s often not our main page that makes the first impression so don’t neglect your other pages. Put your call to action anywhere it seems appropriate and relevant.

Same goes for links within your site to other pages. Once the user is gone, they’re gone. If you didn’t grab their name and email address by offering them a goodie in return, then your website didn’t do you any favors. Again, get clear about what you want your website to do and guide the user to fulfill on that.

For more on making your website more “sticky” and other tools of the content writing trade, follow @killertaglines on Twitter.