Every individual or company running a business wants their website to have as many visitors as possible who will stay there as long as it takes to accomplish their goals. Every website is designed with a specific purpose in mind. The majority of businesses use their website to convert traffic into customers, but there are other important purposes for a website. To further expand this topic, the three main reasons people will visit your website are to:
- They may be interested in reaching out to you for business purposes
- It is their intention to purchase something
- They may be looking for something that is specific to the niche you are offering
Sadly, this isn’t always the case with so many websites. There are instances where people will visit your website only to immediately bounce back. When this happens, it means that there is a problem, and you may need to act quickly. A lack of website visitors could negatively impact your goals. In this article, we will discuss the most common reasons why people leave your website immediately and how you can fix them.
1. Your site is confusing and fails to grab the user’s attention
A website with a high resolution of visual effects or an attractive look will not be adequate in this modern day. Visitors sometimes have trouble finding what they are looking for and leave. In my opinion, most people would prefer things to be simple and convenient. As I previously stated, the majority of website visitors are searching for information and products that can be purchased with just a few clicks. So, why not make it easily accessible to them.
It has been proven that site visitors only need 5 seconds to form an opinion of your website and decide whether to stay or go. Always emphasize the end goal, justifying the means.
Make sure your site has the right images, moderate design and compelling messaging to make a strong first impression.
The most important thing you should consider is whether your website is clear and is communicating the appropriate message. Are the buttons easy to find? One tip I would recommend is that you frequently navigate through your site as if you were a visitor, and work your design from this perspective.
2. The contents on your website are outdated
Let’s face it, outdated content will not only turn users away, but also the search engines. There is nothing hidden beneath the surface. People want to know what’s new with the latest phone, app, and fashion style.
Imagine if you were searching for information that relates to 2023, but the site you just found on Google search still has information that relates to 2021?
If visitors find outdated news or posts on your website, they immediately assume that you are no longer actively involved in your business. They are unlikely to trust you or the services you are offering.
Publishing quality and updated content will earn you the trust of your readers. This is how you should start.
- You can begin by evaluating the design or look of your website. Do your research to determine what is trending.
- It is also helpful to publish blog posts regularly. If you are unable to write your articles on your own, you can always hire a virtual assistant.
- Another option would be to add some videos and images to your website to keep people’s attention focused on what they’re consuming.
Every website needs to keep their content fresh and up-to-date.
3. Your website is slow
I can assure you that this is usually the number one reason a user will leave your website. According to data obtained from research from KISSmetrics reports that a person’s average wait time for a web page to load before leaving is 3 seconds. The following are some of the key statistics from their analysis:
- 47% of consumers expect a web page to load within two seconds.
- About 40% of users will leave a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
- Customer satisfaction is reduced by 16% by even a one-second delay (or three seconds of waiting)
It is clear from this statistic that people have no patience when it comes to waiting for information they are eager to receive. A slow website won’t be able to catch the attention of potential customers because they’ll be hitting the back arrow or “x” button the next second your website takes time to load.
There are three ways to speed up a slow website:
- The first way to accelerate your website load is to limit the size of the images you upload. There are free online tools for compressing images. One of them that comes to mind is. tinypng.com. It reduces your image sizes without affecting quality.
- The second option is to minimize your CSS files. Adding extra spaces to your stylesheets increases the file size. You could try Fast Velocity Minify, a free WordPress plugin.
- In the third step, you should remove unused themes and plugins from your WordPress website. To remove an unused plugin, go to PLUGIN on your DASHBOARD and deactivate it. You can then go to your inactive plugin list and delete the ones you no longer use. To get rid of unwanted themes, go to APPEARANCE > THEMES and delete the ones you don’t use any more.
Another option is to use a website speed checker to monitor your site’s speed performance and receive recommendations for improvements.
Ideally, a website should be able to load all of its pages within two seconds. It must operate smoothly and there must be no room for errors, crashes, or broken links.
4. The audio or videos on your site automatically autoplays
I have seen websites where, when you gain access, whatever videos or audio they have embedded in them will start playing automatically. This is a great inconvenience to any user when they arrive at a website. Back then, Video/Audio landing pages were very popular, but now they are very old-fashioned.
Today’s customers want to be able to choose how and when they access online content. Autoplay videos are a quick way to get potential customers to leave your website without making a purchase.
5. You’ve not informed visitors about your website
A good website should clearly state its vision, mission, and goals for its users to see. You might be surprised to learn that there are numerous websites that don’t show the company name and logo or give a description of what the company does. This can make visitors frustrated and make them leave the site.
This is why it is important to have an “about us” page. Having an “about us” page lets users know who you are and what you do, which helps build trust. Truth be told, there is no need to create a website that people cannot understand what it is about. A large majority of users online will prefer to deal with businesses that they know something about.
Make sure your site has a well-defined “About us” or welcome message that explains who you are, what you do, and what you offer.
6. Your website is not mobile-friendly
Nearly 60% of site visits come from mobile devices, especially phones. Customers are now turning to mobile devices to perform almost all their transactions.
According to Similar Web, approximately 56 percent of the consumer traffic in the top U.S. websites came from mobile devices. Let’s dig deeper into this topic. Do the numbers out loud and think about how many viewers you’re missing. Not having a mobile-friendly website will make users go to your competitor’s website that is easier to use on a mobile.
A website with a good user experience for mobile users, must have a responsive design, easily clickable buttons, a mobile-friendly navigation, smaller file sizes, and simplified forms.
For a more profound understanding of how your website responds to different devices, please visit this free responsive checker tool and paste your website’s address into it.
7. Your content is hard to read
Design is more than just colors, images, and graphics. Your website’s fonts, as well as the colors of your text and background, can affect how easily people can read and digest the content. If your visitors can’t read your content because it’s poorly structured, it won’t convert them to action. There are no strict rules about which fonts to use and which to avoid, except you should never, ever use Comic Sans when making contents. For best results, stick to clean, ornamentation-free serif or sans serif fonts and high-contrast color combinations. When it comes to font size, I recommend using larger fonts to give visitors a better experience, whether they’re on the desktop or using a mobile device. In the case of headlines, use a font size of 22 px or larger. For the body copy, I recommend using 14 px or larger.
If you want to make a content that is attractive, easy to skim, and delivers a great user experience, you should use whitespace, a legible font, color contrast, heading and subheadings, and other design best practices.
It is also important to note that poor content is not only related to poor fonts or color, it could also be related to poor spelling and grammar or boring content. To engage the user, your content needs to be interesting and informative. Furthermore, please ensure that you proofread the content before publishing it on the web.
8. Too many ads on your website
There is nothing more frustrating than when you enter a website searching for information only to be bombarded by a barrage of advertisements.
According to a survey by HubSpot, 73% of respondents said they dislike pop-up ads, 70% dislike mobile ads, and 57% dislike ads that play before content will load.
Truth be told, who is deceiving whom? I also do it, but only to a reasonable level. I know that it costs a lot of money to make and maintain a website. Bloggers would normally try to achieve a return on investment by running advertisements.
Removal of ads from your website may not be an option if your website runs on an ad-driven model. However, just because you need an ROI does not mean that you need to have them placed everywhere on your site.
If you continue to bombard your site visitors with too many ads, they will likely become annoyed and think that you are simply spamming them. I have encountered numerous site visitors who constantly complain about the number of ads they see on a website, which discourages them from reading the content.
I would say to those who run plenty of ads on their websites to think about changing your digital advertising strategy and go get some cleaning done. Take the ads that aren’t really necessary and place them somewhere else. I also strongly recommend that you pay attention to the pop-up ads, as they are the most annoying ones.
Since trust is a key part of getting conversions, limit the number of ads you use and the places they are shown. The reality is that most website users expect to see some types of ads, just make sure they aren’t hurting the experience.
9. There is no call-to-action
A study by Small Business Trends found that 80% of small B2B business websites lack a call to action. This research was conducted in 2013. Isn’t that a bit overwhelming? This may seem like a no-brainer, but they were not losing sales because their calls-to-action were poorly written. They were simply failing to ask for the sale. The scope is, It’s important to end every sales page, blog post, product page, and so on with a compelling and relevant call-to-action that will encourage visitors to act.
Conclusion
I know these aren’t the only factors that can affect your ability to turn visitors into customers. There are many other possible reasons why people don’t stay on your site. These nine points should provide you with a glimpse into the appropriate line of action for you. Use these tips to keep your website visitors on your site, so they can take the actions you want them to take to turn them into customers. You should see major gains in your website’s performance if you address these issues on your website.
Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash
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