Your website launched and has been up and running for a while now. When checking your website stats, you realize people leave your site just as quickly as they arrive. What’s the problem? Below are six rhyming reasons (to help serve your memory) why your site may be driving visitors away.
Unresponsive sites bite.
People are accessing the internet on their mobile devices more than they are on their laptops and desktops. It’s important to have a responsive website that resizes itself on other devices such as smartphones and tablets. Otherwise your website will appear tiny on smartphones, and visitors won’t go to the trouble of resizing your site to a readable size to view your content.
If the design is bad, visitors will get mad.
Large blocks of text are difficult to read and exhaust eye muscles. Break them down into smaller paragraphs, include images when appropriate and be aware of the word choice you use to describe your business and the services you provide to customers. You want to use understandable terminology instead of complex jargon. If you use a large color palette on your website, especially artificial bright ones or colors that make the text hard to read, reconsider your choice since it can be unpleasing to the eye.
Bad navigation equals abdication.
Make sure to create a path or process you want visitors to take when they make their way around your website. If visitors don’t know where to go when looking for your products or services, they will most likely hit the close button instead of the contact button. Categorizing your products and services into groups will help users find what they are looking for and having CTAs under them will direct users to make a purchase.
If your site is slow, it’s a blow.
You’ve probably heard of the three second rule in regards to sports or dropped food, right? The same rule applies to website loading times. If your website doesn’t load in less than three seconds, studies have shown visitors are more likely to leave your site. Too many images, rich content (like videos) or sites that aren’t optimized for performance can add to slow loading times.
Broken links simply stink.
If your site doesn’t function properly and includes outdated content, it will drive visitors away. Test every link on your website to make sure they work and are connected to related information and sites. And make sure the related content is current.
If contact info is hard to find, you’re in a bind.
Contact information should be easily accessible and found frequently throughout your site. If visitors are finding it difficult to get in touch with you, they’ll simply go onto the next website. Include a phone number, email address and location to build up your business’s credibility with visitors and to show you want them to reach out to you for any questions or concerns.
There are several other website aspects that can drive visitors away such as loud automated music, unsecure pages, pop-up windows or flashing banners and a lack of social media presence, but the above six are the ones we find most irritating and least user-friendly. Although your website is about your business, the purpose of your site is to educate visitors about your business. The goal of any website should be to provide visitors with the best user experience and least amount of disruptions. By avoiding these website mistakes, you’re on your way to having a more visited and user-friendly site.
