It takes 50 milliseconds for visitors to decide whether they like your website or not. Pretty intimidating, huh? In these digital days, your website is your hole-in-the-wall storefront. You want people to come in and enjoy browsing. So we’ve come up with a list of what to avoid so that your viewers don’t just nope out of there.
7 reasons why visitors leave your website
1. Annoying pop-ups
Talk about an instant turn-off. If you do opt for a pop-up, keep it classy: very easy to get out of the way, with a quick, clean message. Refrain from allowing pop-up ads on your website; they’re irrelevant to your content.
2. Too many ads
When you have too many ads on your website, these things can happen: either users are annoyed and they leave; or, users block them out mentally and they’re reduced to useless eyesores. They can also lead to false clicks, which can really irritate your site visitors. Yes, it happens — one-third of all ad clicks are accidental.
Your choice of web ads is also very important. A whopping 82% of internet users claim they’ve exited a website because of an autoplaying video ad.
3. Heavy content and autoplay
If your website takes too long to load, 39% of users will simply leave. How long is too long, you may ask? Almost half of all users load time to be 2 seconds, max. To avoid this, optimize your content. All images used should be saved for web use.
Autoplay content can also contribute to slow load times. And even if they do load quickly, most users do not appreciate music or videos that play instantly without their consent.
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4. Tricky navigation
The largest chunk of your viewers look for information about your products and services. Coming in second are those who want your contact details. Third are the people who want to know about the company itself. Make navigation easy and avoid broken links. If users don’t find what they’re looking for, and they keep running into dead ends, chances are they’ll give up (and never come back).
5. Not mobile friendly
If you’re not building your website for mobile, you’ve lost half your audience. 52% of web traffic worldwide was through mobile phones, from 50% in 2017. In fact, most users think that a company’s mobile website should be as good, or better, than its desktop version. And if that’s not enough to convince you, know that Google takes mobility into account, too: mobile-friendly websites are prioritized for top search results.
6. No authentic content
If your website doesn’t come with a blog, you may want to rethink your priorities. Users appreciate added value and authenticity, and a blog provides both. Companies with blogs get up to four times as many leads as those who don’t.
55% of marketers say blogging is their top priority for inbound marketing. Best of all, content ages well because of organic SEO — meaning your blog post stands to gain more leads over time.
And even if lots of readers admit to skimming through posts, quality remains the key. Overdoing keywords will make for an awkward read. Aim for a natural flow propped up by a great headline and a concise opening paragraph.
7. Bad (or boring) design
You may be legit, but your website can betray you. 75% of users judge your company’s credibility based on design alone. And it isn’t enough to simply not be crappy: a page has to be pretty too. Given 15 minutes to peruse a website, people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain.
Bad typography can render your content illegible and unattractive. There’s a balance between too plain and too much. Get as quirky as you want everywhere else, but when it comes to typography, simpler is better.
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