5 Reasons People Leave Your Website
By Joel Black on 02/6/2014
Your website is the online home of your business and gives prospects an idea of what to expect in real life. The beauty of the Internet is that it provides a level playing ground for any business, whether small or big. A small business can get a professionally designed website to appear bigger than it is in real life.
Your website design can make or break your business. A good website boosts your reputation while a bad one will scare away potential customers. Customers come to your website to learn more about your business, products and services. This should be motivation enough to invest in a good website.
Below are five reasons why visitors may be leaving your website:
1. Cluttered and Confusing Homepage
Having lots of information on the homepage can confuse visitors, making them unable to know how to proceed. Online visitors are not patient and will skim through your homepage rather than read it word-for-word. Visitors do not want a long essay on your homepage and neither do they want an overcrowded page.
Confusing navigation can also deter visitors from going through your website. Your homepage should be simple but clearly link to the main sections of your website. The navigation bar should be visible and links appropriately placed on the homepage content.
2. Slow-loading Website
Online visitors do not have time to wait for a slow website to finish loading. If your website takes long to load, visitors will exit the browser window and move on to the next URL. They will look for the information they want elsewhere. Using heavy graphics and low bandwidth are the common causes of slow-loading websites.
Check your websites load time here.
3. No Compelling Call-to-Action (CTA)
A well-designed website with many pages but no call-to-action (CTA) will not help you achieve your business objectives. You might have a professional website but if visitors cannot find a CTA, they will just leave the website without taking the action you wanted.
Visitors are on your website to research your products or find particular information. If they are impressed, they will want to know how to get in touch with you. Moreover, some visitors may want to buy but just need a little nudge to take the next step.
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4. Irrelevant Information
Most visitors will get to your website by a typing a particular keyword on Google or other search engines. If a visitor lands on your website only to find it is unrelated to what he is looking for, he will just close the tab and move on. It is therefore important to target the right keywords in your content. Your website should also be optimized to rank for the right target keywords.
Tip: Keep an eye on your websites bounce rate in Google Analytics.
5. Poor First Impression
Your website is probably the first point of contact you visitors have with your business. If the first impression is good, visitors may well be on the way to becoming loyal customers. On the other hand, if visitors find your site crappy, they may never consider doing business with you even though you may have superior products.
Most visitors lose interest in your business when they find your homepage is poorly designed and just filled with a lot of text. The “wow” factor in web design retains visitors on you website and in the process, gives you the chance to relay your intended message.
Your website is the online gateway to your business and therefore, good design should be a priority. The quality of the website will determine whether visitors will stay or leave your site. Treat you website as the first branding for your business.
One response to “5 Reasons People Leave Your Website”
Also relevant is whether your website is easily viewed on a mobile device. The importance of this is discussed in this article: http://blueoceanbranding.com/responsive-websites/