You’ve gone through the trouble of building a website for your business so your customers have a way to find you online, which is great. But are you sure that your website design isn’t actually losing your business?
There are several reasons why potential customers may be leaving your website rather than sticking around. Take a look at this list and if you find that your website is guilty of any of the following infractions, make some changes and keep a hold of your customers.
Unclear navigation
Any time a new visitor lands on your website, you want it to be absolutely obvious where they should go to find the information they are looking for. Don’t hide the navigation or disguise the names of the links with cutesy or cryptic names. If people have to think too hard to find what they need, they will most often go away.
Related to unclear navigation is complicated navigation such as too many pull down menus that require the visitor to make too many decisions early on. This can overwhelm your users and when that happens, people will often choose to leave.
Low-quality graphics
Images and graphics that are grainy, pixelated, or fuzzy make the entire website look cheap and unattractive. Always use high quality images that complement your content. You can find inexpensive or free images from a variety of places online.
Missing call to actions
If you don’t make it clear what you want people to do – whether that be sign up for an email list, call for a consultation, or visit a landing page to get more information – you are missing an opportunity for conversion. At the very least, you want to encourage people to join your mailing list. Every page should have a call to action and every piece of content should include one as well.
No way to contact you
You always want to give your customers a way to get in touch with you. Include a link to your contact page where they can find information like a phone number, email address to contact support, or a street address and directions on how they can find you if you have a physical storefront. You can also add this information to your homepage or a sidebar to make it even more convenient for people.
Difficult to read
If it is too hard for your visitors to find the information they are looking for, they will leave. You can make it easier for readers by writing in a clear and concise way and using online friendly formatting so your information is easier to consume. This means making headlines big, bold and informative; using plenty of subheads, short paragraphs and bullets.
Avoid thick, dense paragraphs that ramble and fail to get to the point quickly. Larger, dark text against a white background and a serif font is easier to read. If your web designer chose a pale or tiny typeface, it could be forcing people to work too hard and therefore turning people away.
Non-responsive design
More and more search traffic is coming from people on mobile devices. A non-responsive website will automatically cause people to click away – that is even if they see you in the first place. Google has adjusted their algorithm so mobile websites will be given priority when users search from a mobile device.
