Keeping people on your website isn’t as simple as the old mantra, “If you build it, they will come.” Capturing people’s attention and getting them to convert requires a combination of factors. But before you can get to work, you need to address potential issues that could be stopping people from sticking on your site.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the reasons why people are leaving your website.
Your web design is outdated.
We all judge books by their covers. Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s something that humans do without realizing it. With this in mind, it’s important for your web design to make a good first impression.
Take an objective look at your website. Check out your competitors’ sites as well. If your website looks and feels outdated, it’s time for a refresh. The good news is that it’s cheaper and easier to build websites these days. With a responsive template, you can get a new, updated web design in no time.
Your content is difficult to read.
While the colors, images and graphics on your site matter, they’re not the only things. The fonts you use and the colors of your text and background make a difference, too. People need to feel comfortable reading your content, otherwise they can’t use it as a resource. While there are no set rules on what font you should use, we recommend high-contrast color combinations and clean sans serif fonts.
You have too many ads.
Web visitors are usually understanding of why they see ads online (though they still tend to ignore them), but too many will drive them away. If your website is using an old, ad-driven model, you might not be able to remove all of the ads. But you can hopefully decrease the number of ads or upgrade to a new web design.
Your navigation is unclear.
When visitors land on your website, they want to accomplish their goal in as few steps as possible. Make sure your visitors are able to do this. If your navigation is unclear or information is hard to find, you’ll need to rearrange your navigation so you can better serve your customers. Transitioning to simple breadcrumb navigation can boost your SEO efforts as well.
Your site is slow to load.
Slow loading web pages are the worst! People aren’t going to sit and wait for your pages to load, nor are they going to get a trustworthy feeling when visiting your site. Plus, a slow site can negatively impact SEO. There are a number of reasons why websites are slow to load (hosting issues, old plugins, etc.), so talk to your web developer to see what’s going on.
These are just some of the reasons why people are leaving your site. You won’t be able to please everyone, but with a clean, responsive design and enjoyable content, you will have an easier time keeping people on your site.
