Why Do People Leave your Website?
It’s not enough to just have a website for your business. In today’s market a well designed, well built site is key to running a successful business. A poorly structured site can cause visitors to leave as soon as your website loads. We’ve made a list of some of the most common reasons people will leave your site and visit your competitors instead.
Slow load speed
People are no longer happy to wait patiently as an image loads slowly while making it’s way across the phone lines. When presented with a SERP (search engine results page) full of links users are more likely to click away from your site if, in the time it takes to load your website they have time to click on another link. With the rise in mobile usage it’s easier than ever to leave a site that might be taking too long to load.
There are lots of factors that can affect the load speed of your website, most of them are fairly easy to rectify. Using smaller images, optimising the load order of your content and increasing server power will all help your website load faster and prevent visitors leaving for this reason.
Poor website design
People often say ‘don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ but, if we are being honest, most of us do. This can be applied even more so to websites, visitors will instantly judge your site based on how it looks. Most users, for example, will immediately click the ‘back’ button if a website looks outdated or if the design choices mean it is difficult to read. The appearance of your site tells the user who you are before they have even started reading the content, so you want to make sure it conveys the correct message.
An unclear call to action
A call to action is essentially a big, easy to read message that tells your visitors what you want them to do. Usually it’s something along the lines of ‘book now’ or ‘get in touch’ and will lead the user to the contact page. You need to avoid anything misleading or that will cause confusion, as this will lead people to leave your site. Whether through design or words used, ensure your call to action is both clear and leads the user to their desired objective.
Not understanding your users
A key element to making the most of any kind of digital presence is knowing who your target audience is, what devices they use most often and what kind of content will encourage them to engage with you. Knowing the answers to these questions will point you in the right direction when it comes to writing the content for your website, selecting which images and colours to use and even what order to present your content in on each page.
Too much content
The majority of users that visit your site aren’t going to be interested in too much technical, in depth information, they also don’t want to have to read through huge paragraphs of writing. This is especially important when you consider the high volume of people that will view your website on a mobile device and therefore a smaller screen. Put simply, make sure your content is clear, concise and doesn’t ‘waffle on’, so to speak.
Too many adverts
I’m sure we’ve all visited a site that has near constant pop-up ads and videos, it makes the website really hard to browse, you can’t read the content and the majority of us will just go back to the SERP and select a different website. This doesn’t mean you can’t have any adverts on your website, just don’t add too many and try to avoid the pop-up kind that users will find the most annoying.
The above issues are all easy to fix but are often overlooked when it comes to building and designing a website, or even improving your current site. If you are looking to set up a new website, or want some help improving an existing site, get in touch.