Did you know that the average time a visitor spends on a website is less than 15 seconds?
That’s how long you have to capture their attention.
If your website doesn’t pique their interest in this time, you are leaving so much money on the table.
In measuring website performance, there’s a metric called bounce rate. It captures how many visitors leave your site after viewing only one page.
Using website management tools such as Google Analytics, we are able to understand how a user interacts with our clients’ websites.
Bounce rates gives us insights web visitors first impressions.
If your bounce rate is high, you’re going to need to make some changes to your site.
So how do you keep a visitors interest and reduce your bounce rate?
This blog post explains 5 most common reasons why visitors leave a website prematurely.
Before we get into it
Although we have written this post in the most understandable and digestible way we can, you might need a web developer to investigate your site properly.
Beyond the common factors listed below, there are numerous other things which could cause visitors to leave a site prematurely.
Alternatively, contact us for a free consultation. We can identify the problem and offer possible solutions even faster.
5 Reasons Why Visitors Leave Your Website Prematurely
Here are the 5 reasons why visitors might be abandoning your website.
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SLOW PAGE LOADING
The number one reason why visitors abandon a site early is because of slow web page loading.
Check out the metrics on this site
This would be considered a slow site.
The key metric to notice is the speed index which is a crawling 8.6 seconds.
When 80% of visitors leave a website after just 3 seconds of waiting, this spells disaster for any marketing campaign or even organic growth.
This increases your bounce rate and tells Google that your website isn’t a reliable source, thereby affecting your SEO negatively.
Taking Action
Use the Google Page Speed Insight tool to know the speed of your site.
. If your speed is good then it could be something else discouraging your visitors.
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NO CLEAR VALUE OFFERING
It takes 2.6 seconds for a user’s eyes to locate the area of a website that most influences their first impression according to sweor.com/impressions.
Here’s an example of with a website we built for Liquid Fusion, an oil and gas procurement company.
Notice the clear value proposition, larger than any other text on the page.
We removed any ambiguity in the value proposition so users know simply what the company does.
As you scroll further down the page, there are more explanations.
We also added some call to actions to direct them to other pages for more information.
No one makes a sale from their home page and you want your visitors to spend as less time there as possible.
Taking Action
Create a simple and clear value proposition which users can read to understand the value your business offers.
This should one of the first things your visitors see on your website.
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OUTDATED DESIGN
Another strong influence for website interaction is webpage design.
One of your duties as a business owner is too make sure the ambience of your office is welcoming and clean so visitors feel welcome and comfortable when they visit.
This is the same thought process you should consider for your website design.
Some of the turn offs for visitors include:
- Old color patterns that make the site look like it’s from the early 2000’s
- Dated page layouts that try to give all the information at once.
- Broken links and buttons. These are really frustrating.
Suggestion
If your site looks like this:
You are most likely due for a revamp.
A design that is dated gives off the impression that there is no maintenance. If there is no maintenance then how can consumers trust your business?
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IRRELEVANT CONTENT
Websites that have too many pop-ups and audio/video auto-plays discourage visitors from getting to the main content of the site.
With pop-ups for surveys or promotional offers you shouldn’t hold your visitors ransom to view them.
That means allowing them to exit a pop-up immediately and not spamming the pop-ups as they are visiting your site.
Pop-ups and audio/video auto-plays can be effective in increasing conversions when done correctly.
However, having the default volume on audio/video auto-plays and too many pop-ups hints to the visitor that you don’t have their best experience in mind.
Also, having so many ads on a page is a big turn off because you will make it hard for them to find your conten
Taking Action
If you are using ads, try to find a higher value offering that can offset the forgone revenue from the ads so your visitors get a better user experience.
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WEBSITE NOT MOBILE-FRIENDLY
According to Statista.com, an estimated 54.8 percent of global website traffic came from mobile devices in the first quarter of 2021 alone.
Therefore not having a site optimized for mobile viewing will play a big role in the low engagement you are getting.
This doesn’t mean you have to create a whole new mobile version.
Instead, as an SME you should aim to first develop a responsive web design.
A responsive web design displays content according to the size of the screen. This enables your content to not be too small or too large.
Taking Action
You have to keep in mind that fingers are being used instead of a mouse and the height of the buttons should be just about the width of a finger.
So you will truly know when your site is mobile friendly when it is easier to navigate on your phone.
CONCLUSION
These reasons are common for poorly developed sites or sites that have had little to no maintenance over the past few years.
The main takeaway is that optimizing your site by fixing all these mistakes could take as little as a few days but bring a tremendous increase in traffic and conversions for your business.
It’s an investment in resources that pays for itself within a few months.
Do you need a new website or want to refresh an existing one?
Request a meeting now and we will arrange a follow up meeting to discuss your needs at no charge to you.
Thanks for reading!
