It’s one thing to have a stream of visitors to your site, but a totally different thing to have them actually engage.
The real measurement of a website’s success is visitor engagement. The more involved visitors are, the more likely that your website will convert. If they merely visit and leave, your business will not benefit.
If you have been wondering what turns visitors off, here are some of the main reasons why they don’t hang around to explore.
YOUR PAGE LOAD TIME IS TOO LONG
Did you know that 40% of people will abandon your website if it takes longer than three seconds to load?
Consider optimizing your site speed, not just for desktop, but also for mobile and other devices because a fast site shows that you care about your customers’ time and experience.
There are a few reasons that impact speed:
#1 You have too many unoptimized images and videos on your site.
Unoptimized media take more time to load and are significantly heavier. If you have unoptimized media, then you should probably work on that first.
Here’s what you can do: Stop using JPG format when possible and use CSS sprites instead. This is a technique that compiles all of the images you are going to use in your website into a single image file. This helps to reduce the number of HTTP requests, thus improving site performance.
#2 Bandwidth limitations
Free hosting providers have bandwidth limitations, which result in slow loading times, especially when your website is frequented. If you want extra bandwidth to accommodate more visitors, you are likely to be charged for it, based on continuous additional payments for bandwidth.
To avoid this, we recommend that you commission web developers and/or agencies for unlimited bandwidth.
#3 Your site was hacked
Your website is most vulnerable when using free hosting providers.
It’s common for hackers to target and exploit free hosting sites by injecting malicious JavaScript code, making your page load very slow.
#4 You don’t have a mobile-optimized website
With the exponential increase in mobile users, having a mobile-optimized site becomes a necessity rather than just an option. It ensures that your content is displayed properly on all types of devices.
VISITORS NEITHER UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING AT NOR FIND WHAT THEY’RE LOOKING FOR
Readability formulas, such as ‘Flesch Reading Ease Score’ and ‘Gunning Fog’ suggest that your site content should be easily understood by a fifth-grader.
If your visitors don’t understand your content, it usually boils down to bad writing and/or poor design.
An easy way to help your visitors navigate your website is by including a header section.
It could also be that your content is not engaging enough for your visitors, which would drive them off your website without converting.
Your visitors might be looking for quick solutions to their problems (like saving money using coupons) and if they don’t find what they’re looking for quickly enough, it’s unlikely they would hang around.
You need to engage visitors by helping them achieve their goals easily.
YOUR SITE HAS TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS
Having too many distractions frustrates visitors. They may notice logos, text, links, ads and pictures that don’t load properly (or at all).
Here are the major distractions that you must avoid on your website:
- Too many ads
- Unexpected pop-ups
- Obtrusive audio & video clips
- Need for unnecessary sign-up/registration
Adding a major roadblock into your user experience before they can reach their goal will make your visitors leave in an instant.
Remember that web users want fast solutions to their problems; and if they don’t get them from you, they’ll go elsewhere.
YOUR WEBSITE IS OUTDATED
A website with an out-dated look and feel is not likely to get any attention. You can’t stay competitive if your web design and content look like they were created 10 years ago!
To stay updated, make sure you check the design and layout of your site every couple of months (or at least once a year) — update images and content, fix broken links, pages, etc.
Keep your website in good shape! — Subscribe your website to a monthly maintenance service.
KEEP YOUR VISITORS ENGAGED
It might look like a daunting task to keep your visitors on your website for as long as possible, but the trick here is simple — keep your website in its best shape (performance) and let users get what they are looking for easily (content).
Keep these two in check and you’re sure to drive more traffic and engagement.
Wondering how your website is performing? Get our FREE WEBSITE AUDIT!
Our team will provide you with a detailed report on how your website fairs in the following categories: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices and SEO, and discuss how you can fix it!
