Why are people leaving your website?
Let’s think about your biggest pet peeves when landing on a website.
Is it the annoying pop-up screaming at you to “sign up for our newsletter?”
Or, perhaps, the video that automatically starts blaring out without warning?
While these may seem like minor details, they all add up to create a bad user experience, and – inevitably – turn people away from your business.
Today, we’re taking a closer look at why people are abandoning your website.
Pssst, they’re probably the same reasons why you hit “back” and return to Google.
The irritating pop-up.
THE PROBLEM.
When you’re trying to find out information or purchase something, the last thing you need is someone asking you to sign up to their mailing list.
After all, it’s the first time you’ve ever met, and you’d like to take things slowly… and get back to what you were doing.
Businesses believe these pop-ups will fatten their mailing lists. And, while you may get a couple of email addresses with this method, most people will leave your website feeling frustrated.
THE SOLUTION.
Remove the pop-up altogether, especially if users aren’t taking you up on your offer.
Alternatively, you could approach it with a more discrete pop-up that slides in at the bottom of the page, rather than taking over the whole thing.
There’s also software out there that allows you to tailor messages to individual users. For example, if they are a returning customer, you could ask them if they wanted more help and resources.
Slow page load times.
THE PROBLEM.
No one wants to wait around waiting for websites to load. In fact, according to a recent report, nearly half of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less. And, 40% abandon sites that take longer than three seconds.
THE SOLUTION.
If your website is sluggish, you need to take steps to optimise it, such as reducing the size of images and videos and changing up the code.
You can read up on website optimisation with this blog post on page loading times.
It won’t work on mobile.
THE PROBLEM.
Nowadays, the majority of folk use their smartphones to access information, so if your website doesn’t function on mobile, you are actively excluding a large group of people from viewing your products and services.
In February 2019, 47.96% of web page views were on mobile devices. And, this statistic excludes tablets – so imagine how high the percentage would be if it included iPads.
What’s more, Google also judges you on your mobile friendliness and ranks mobile-optimised sites higher on their pages.
THE SOLUTION.
Your web designer needs to think ‘mobile first’ and create a site that is responsive on all devices and screen sizes.
Our article on responsive design should give you a few pointers.
Confusing navigation.
THE PROBLEM.
Even if your page loads super fast, you’re pop-up free, and the site works a dream on mobile, if the design is confusing, people will click away.
There are a countless number of sites out there that don’t clearly state what a business is offering within the first few moments of a user landing on the page. If someone has to hunt through your website to find out what you do, they’ll become bored and may even look elsewhere.
THE SOLUTION.
Get to the point fast with a combination of good design and compelling copy. An engaging heading plus a persuasive call to action helps users to get what they want fast.
Explain what you do straight away – in plain English – and then steer them to the next step, whether this is ‘contact us’ or ‘sign up’ or ‘buy now’.
Encourage people to stick around with familiar navigation tools that naturally guide the user.
Why Are People Leaving Your Website? If you’d like to see where it could be improved, speak to a member of our team today.
