10 Reasons Visitors Are Leaving Your Website

 

1) Your design is outdated.

If your brand is a book, then your website is its cover. And the truth is, we all judge books by their covers. This means the design of your website is crucial to your business' success. 

While it's unclear why customers place more trust in a brand with a well-designed website, it's no doubt that they do, and it's important to make sure your website can both compete and outshine your competitors. 

Check out our past blog post to learn 5 ways you can make your website more trustworthy. 

2) Your content is difficult to read.

Design goes beyond just simple colors, images, and the layout. The style and color of your font and text background play a key role in how easily visitors can read and digest your content. 

While there isn't a set list of do's and don't's when it comes to selecting font style and color (except Comic Sans - never use Comic Sans), high-contrast color combinations and large, clean fonts tend to outperform. 

Check out this HubSpot article to help you choose the right font for your website. 

3) Your site uses outdated plugins.

If your product content is buried in Flash files and outdated plugins, your visitors are going to be stuck downloading old programs that are no longer relevant and cost time to download.

Instead of using old plugins such as Flash, consider using other applications to help keep your website's user experience fast and intuitive. Applications like JewelCloud and Ring Builder help create a seamless shopping experience, with automatically updated pricing and product lists, as well as intuitive interactions.

4) You are overwhelming people with ads.

If your website is run on an ad-driven model, then removing them from your website entirely may not be an option. But just because you need to have ads, doesn’t mean you need to have them everywhere.

Unless your website is run on an ad-driven model, ads should be limited or even nonexistent. Instead of using your prime website-real estate for another company, you can maximize the space for lead capturing, sharing your company's promotions, and enticing customers to visit your blog or social media channels. 

5) The videos on your site auto-play.

There's a time and place for videos on your website, and an autoplay video with sound seems to always makes a visitor click the "Back" button. 

Most of your website visitors are going to be digitally-savvy and will be selective about the media content they consume. Introductory or informational videos shouldn't be set to autoplay; but, keep in mind that silent videos can definitely be used to enhance the visuals and appeal of your website. For reference, check out the GemFind homepage to see how a moving image can add appeal to your website. 

6) Your registration requirements are obtrusive.

Gated content is great for driving leads into a website sales funnel. But gating everything and protecting it with restrictive registration requirements will kill your conversion rate.

As you build your registration form, ask if every field you're adding is necessary. For tips on how long your landing page forms should be, read this blog post. 

7) Your gated offers aren’t relevant or appealing.

Crafting a compelling offer is one thing, but first ask yourself, is it relevant to your audience? If so, are you showing it off in a way that's appealing to visitors? If you see traffic patterns that indicate visitors are arriving on your landing pages and then bouncing, it's likely that they aren’t connecting with your offer or content

High-converting landing pages include a strong call-to-action and clearly identify the next step -- as well as what to expect by taking that step. Read this blog post for tips on creating persuasive landing page content. You might also consider split testing your landing pages to see what resonates with your specific audience.

8) Your site is slow.

Research from KISSmetrics reports that load time matters. Check out these key statistics from their analysis:

• 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
• 40% abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.
• Even a one-second delay (or three seconds of waiting) decreases customer satisfaction by about 16%.

If you’ve put off optimizing your site’s load performance, put it at the top of your to-do list right away. You can also learn about how to improve page load time here. 

9) Your site lacks personality.

Brand personality matters. Not only should your website display that personality, but so should your marketing campaigns. 

It has been proven numerous times that brands can build stronger relationships with their consumers when they express their personality. Brands have a look, a feel, and a voice, and while "ideal" personalities vary between different cultures, countries, and even industries, establishing a personality for your website and brand is a step in the right direction. Creating a well-rounded brand can help build relationships with both existing and new customers, and without either one, your sales will suffer. 

10) You don't have a call-to-action.

While this might seem easy, research by Small Business Trends suggests that 80% of small B2B business websites lacked a call-to-action as recently as 2013. Companies weren’t losing out on sales because their calls-to-action were poorly written. They were missing out because there simply wasn't a call-to-action. 

Your customers won’t take action unless prompted, meaning every sales page, blog post, product page, and so on should end with a compelling message and a clear call-to-action.