If your website suddenly stops generating leads, donations or sales, don’t panic. While “the market” could be part of the issue, it is likely that a bug, a broken funnel, a change in UX or a shift in how people arrive and use your website is affecting conversions. If that’s something your organisation or business has experience, this article should help you to diagnose the problem fast and resolve the issues.
At Forte we’ve had the chance to work with a wide spectrum of organisations: from federal and local government teams delivering essential online services, to nonprofits raising funds and sharing their stories, to education providers boosting enrolments, and businesses of all sizes chasing leads and transactions.
That experience means we’ve seen firsthand what happens when conversions stall. We’ve diagnosed bugs, patched checkout failures, simplified donation funnels, and rebuilt forms so people can actually complete them. Whether the goal is a form submission, a donation, a checkout, or even a simple click, the patterns (and fixes) are surprisingly consistent across sectors and devices.
While we often dive into the marketing side, this post takes a developer’s perspective: a practical, strategic look at how to spot when a site stops converting and how to fix it before it eats into growth.
The symptoms: what “conversion failure” looks like
When a website stops converting, it rarely announces itself with flashing lights. Although in many cases, leaders and managers who are very close to the numbers quickly become the siren to announce the smallest change in performance. But when that’s not the case, here are common red flags we look for:
- Leads, donations, or sales nosedive. For example, a 30%+ week-on-week drop without an obvious reason. With average website conversion rates sitting around 2–3% across industries (Smart Insights, Shopify), even a small dip can mean hundreds of missed opportunities.
- Mobile and desktop split. Conversions tank on one device type while the other holds steady. This is common in nonprofits, where mobile donation conversion averages 8% compared to 11% on desktop (M+R Benchmarks).
- Forms or checkouts misbehaving. A sudden spike in errors, abandoned carts, or half-completed donations.
- Bounce rate climbs and time on page shrinks. When users leave your core landing pages without engaging. Again, many nonprofits see only 0.16% of site visitors actually donate (Business Initiative), so higher bounce means even fewer conversions at the bottom.
- Analytics goes silent. When goal completions suddenly read zero, but you know people are still enquiring or buying.
Before panicking, spinning up a task force, skyrocketing your ad spend or simply blame the algorithm, ask your team to run this quick triage
- Is it real? Open your CRM, donation platform, or order system. Are conversions actually down, or is analytics just not counting them?
- Can a human complete it? Ask your team to test the main conversion path. Fill out a form, make a real donation, or run a $1 checkout. Do it on desktop and mobile.
- What changed last? Check your latest notes or ask the marketing and development teams. If there is a new plugin, an update or a design tweak the same day conversions dropped, you could be close to finding your prime suspect.
- Health check the site. Look at uptime logs, page speed, API connections, integration logs and any server error spikes. A sluggish site or SSL warning can kill conversions instantly.
- Payments & forms. Confirm gateways are connected, SSL is valid, and captcha/required fields aren’t blocking people unnecessarily.
- Slice the data. Segment by channel, device, or geography. If only mobile users dropped or only paid traffic tanked, you’ve narrowed the cause.
These checks won’t fix everything, but they’ll either reveal the culprit or give you a clear signal of where to dig deeper.
The Diagnosis Framework: Finding the root cause
Once you’ve confirmed the drop is real, it’s time to go methodical. Conversion failure usually comes down to a specific trigger: a bug, a broken funnel, or a change in traffic. Here is how we break it down at Forte:
Segment the drop
Look at the data in slices. Did conversions fall everywhere, or just in one segment?
- Traffic source: Is organic and direct traffic still fine but paid search collapsed? Start with your ad landing pages or create one which will help improve ad and campaign quality.
- Device: Mobile tanked while desktop held steady? Likely a mobile layout, performance, or user experience issue. In saying that, we often find people use different devices to complete a conversion (research on mobile and pay on desktop).
- New vs returning: If regular or loyal users drop off, it often points to a change in flow they weren’t expecting (new website, new booking system, etc).
Change timeline
Make sure that you map and monitor conversions in relation to any events that may have occurred. Was there a plugin update? Did the website change in any way, such as the addition of a pop-up banner? Was a marketing campaign either launched or stopped on the same day that the numbers declined?
Often, correlations like these can be the cause of any issues.
Technical audit
Running through the basics is key, but it is also crucial to dig deeper and take a look at all technical aspects within the website:
- Test forms, checkout and donation funnels end-to-end.
- Check console logs for any frontend errors
- Verify integration credentials, including payment gateways, APIs, third-party connectors (CRM, EDM, ERP), SSL certificates or any other webhook cals
- Monitor page speed and server errors, including slow or broken pages. Google Analytics, Google Search Console and website logs are key for this.
- And naturally, ensure that tracking pixels and tags are in place and triggering when required. This applies to both the website and booking systems, as well as intermediate widgets and similar tools.
Behaviour audit
Use heatmaps, session replays, or funnel reports to see where users bail. Are they rage-clicking a button that doesn’t work? Stalling at a new form field? Dropping on step 3 of 4? Many times, numbers alone don’t show the reason “why” but user behaviour tools do.
When conversions suddenly dry up, it’s rarely a mystery. By spotting the symptoms early, running a quick triage, and using a structured diagnostic approach, you can often find the root cause before it snowballs.
A little vigilance today can save a lot of lost growth tomorrow. And if you need a hand with that, book a free consultation today.
