10 Reasons People Are Leaving Your Website
1) YOUR IMAGERY IS BLAH
With only a few seconds to make a great impression on your site visitors, we pity the fool that underestimates the smackdown power of awesome imagery {and Mr.T tends to agree with us}. Since the effect of imagery is immediate, making sure your JPG, PNG, MOV and GIF game is thoughtful, impactful and intentional will go a long way in capturing and keeping your audience’s attention. That means high resolution, photographic quality images that work to enhance rather than confuse your site’s story. It also means resisting the urge to use cheesy stock imagery to save a penny here or there. Trust us, spend the extra $2 to purchase a great image rather than settling for a mediocre one and your site retention rates will thank you.
Quick Fix: Add a few QUALITY stock image sites to your armory and use them as your go-to’s when it’s time to add or change photos on your site. Our favorite is www.pexels.com.
2) YOUR PURPOSE ISN'T CLEAR
Your audience should be able to decipher your company's purpose or product without having to leave your home page {ideally, without having to scroll at all}. This is where a smart logo, company name and company tagline come in handy. These three elements should work together to make your company’s purpose crystal clear. But what if you offer something slightly ambiguous and hard to define {like....branding services, for example. *wink wink*}? In this case, list your services or products towards the top of your home page to help people connect the dots.
Quick Fix: Not sure your site’s purpose is clear? Send it to a professional for review {we know a gal} or have a trusted acquaintance take a look. The best way to test the clarity theory is to introduce your site to someone who’s unfamiliar with what you do. You can also use your site’s META tags to help define your company’s purpose in search engines and URL tab text.
3) YOUR CONTENT TO DESIGN RATIO IS OFF
It’s happened to all of us at one point or another; you click into a website and immediately think: “NOOOOPE”. The culprit? Sites that are too text heavy with abnormally small fonts, or have so many images and disjointed design elements that you’re not sure which way is up. Your content to design ratio is a delicate balance that needs to be considered carefully. Not only does this ratio help tell the story of your company, it should leave your site visitors eager to participate and read on.
Quick Fix: Some good rules of thumb to help you accomplish website nirvana? Break up long text sections with fonts of different style, size and color; use image banners and text overlays to create layered intrigue around important content; use shape themes or similar animation effects throughout your site to create cohesion and intrigue; last but not least, understand the power of icons to bring visual interest to an otherwise text dominant page.
4) YOU'RE NOT ADDRESSING THEIR #1 NEED QUICKLY ENOUGH
Understanding the WHY behind your site traffic is essential to understanding how to speak to your audience's motivators. If your company’s value proposition deals with solving a problem, make sure your site works to alleviate that problem quickly. For example, if you own a pest control company, you may want to prominently display your area of coverage, your phone number and a way for your clients to quickly get a quote. If your company’s value proposition deals with filling a need, such as a wedding photographer, give your visitors immediate access to examples of your work and clear pricing information. If site visitors have to work too hard to find what they need, your conversion rates will suffer.
Quick Fix: Take some time to put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Brainstorm things you would want to see when visiting a website around this topic and make sure your site aligns with the most urgent needs. If your target audience’s biggest need is information, make sure the layout and organization of the information is intuitive and logical.
5) YOUR SITE ISN'T IN LINE WITH WHAT THEY EXPECT
While staying true to your business personality and your company’s mission, vision and values is important to creating a niche for yourself in your market, you also want to consider what your site visitor might expect to see when visiting a website that falls under the “such-and-such” category. Product sites should have photos of your sales items and immediate links to shopping; service-based sites should offer explanations on types of services offered, pricing information and biography info to communicate why you’re qualified to offer said services; blog-driven sites should allow visitors to search by topic, be interlinked to relevant articles and tell a story about a life experience or passion.
Quick Fix: Research your competitors {a super handy little tool}, and find the ones who are really CRUSHING it at the game. What about their site's look, content and organization spoke to you; what made it a great experience? Now compare those things against your own site and make corrections where necessary. {Disclaimer: Your goal should be to MODEL things that work. Nobody likes a copycat.}
6) YOUR CONTENT IS INACCURATE, DRY OR HARD TO READ
Outdated information, overly mechanical content {unless dealing with a very technical topic like building robots} or text that requires squinting are all immediate turn offs. Keep your site as relevant as possible by regularly checking your content for accuracy, using the appropriate tonality and voice for your audience and making sure text is legible both in color and size.
Quick Fix: Keep body text at 12 point font size or higher with title and emphasis text a minimum of 4 points higher than your body text {this does not include footer information and the like}. Infuse some personality into your content by using humor, observation, story-telling or other interesting narrative techniques and check text monthly to ensure you’re offering the most up to date information.
7) YOUR SITE IS OUTDATED
Whether in content or design, having an antiquated website is the quickest way to lose traffic before you even get the chance to offer value to your audience. In fact, an outdated site may actually work against you by giving your clients the impression that you’re either not up with the times or you don’t put the appropriate effort into your marketing; this can be especially harmful if part of what you offer to others is centered around marketing, such as a real estate listing agent.
Quick Fix: If your site hasn’t been evaluated in the last 3 - 5 years, it’s time to take another look. Great website management should involve updating and reviewing your site at least twice a year with new, relevant content and imagery {more for product-based companies}.
8) YOUR "WTF?" NAVIGATION
A poor navigation scheme can wreak havoc on your site’s likability. There’s much to be said about the power of thoughtful tabs, well-placed back buttons and intelligently mapped links. Give your visitor’s several ways to reach one destination and take every opportunity you can to link to other pages or sections of your site when relevant {for example, if you mention a team member on your services page, provide a link to the team member’s bio}. Allow the site visitor to explore your site intuitively {leading them to information when it makes the most sense} and provide an easy way for them to return to where they were {oh, the glory of the back button!}. The easier and more natural your site's navigation is, the more enjoyable your site experience will be.
Quick Fix: Unless you host a resource site that’s purpose is to give information, you should have no more 8-10 tabs MAXIMUM for people to choose from {5-6 is ideal with sub-tabs if needed}. Using site anchors to take people to an exact section or image when a link is clicked is a nifty tool for directing attention appropriately. Pop-up boxes are also a simple way to give additional information without directing people away from what they’re already reading.
9) YOU REQUIRE PERSONAL INFORMATION
While allowing people to opt in to giving their contact info for follow up items, subscriptions, mailing lists or newsletters is a fabulous idea, REQUIRING people to give you their information to explore or use your site at all is a total traffic crusher. Most people get enough spam in their inbox everyday; email addresses should be something you earn with valuable content, not something you require for minimum access.
Quick Fix: Rather than making it mandatory, insert a ‘mailing list’ pop-up that appears after so long on the website, place one in the footer or insert one on your blog page {wherever it makes the most sense}. You can even use pop-ups as a call to action by offering something immediate in exchange: “Join our mailing list and get the '12 Tips for Mid-Century Modern Home Design’ in your inbox today”. Read our tenth item below for more advice on how to do this successfully.
10) YOU'RE BOMBARDING THEM WITH POP-UP ADS & AUTOPLAY VIDEOS
A tasteful pop-up encouraging visitors to follow you on social media or join your newsletter is a far cry from punching people in the face with obnoxious promotions, autoplay videos that seem to have no point of origin to silence them and lists that sprawl over 27 different pages with a pop-up ad on every new page load. Moral of the story: choose your ads, pop-ups and videos wisely and when possible, allow your visitors to have power over when they engage with them.
Quick Fix: If you do want to include an opt-in pop-up on your site, set a delay to give them a chance to warm up to you first or anchor it to a specific page that makes the most sense {such as a blog page}. Immediate pop-ups and autoplay videos can sometimes feel gimmicky and discourage visitors from sticking around.
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