What Makes Someone Leave A Website?

You might be attracting huge traffic to your website on daily basis. But if you can’t retain a good number of these visitors, all your efforts are wasted. This data shows up in a metric called “bounce rate”. It will tell you how many people left your site very soon without much interaction.

High bounce rate is definitely not a good sign for your business. It means that your existing customer base is not expanding. This is happening because your website is not able to impress the newcomers. So, you just have to spot the errors in your web design and correct them. Sounds easy, but it’s actually tough to satisfy everyone.

The thumb rule is to cut down the elements which may frustrate the viewer. And to utilize the space to create appealing and interactive webpages. But you don’t know what thing in your site repels the visitors. This article will help you to solve this problem. Here we have put some selected tips on web designing. Especially we have remarked “what not to do” in your site to avoid customer dissatisfaction. Along with that, you will get solutions to fix these common glitches.

The reasons why people are leaving your site:

1. Table of Contents

   Improper Navigation

When a new visitor enters your site, he doesn’t know how to proceed further. He will be comfortable if he finds the proper navigation keys and menu. But if your site has a complex process of navigation, the customers will get confused. If it takes a large time to search the desirable links, they will feel drained. Due to the very short attention span, most of the people will leave the site itself.

What not to do –

• Don’t keep the navigation links scattered throughout the homepage.
• Don’t place misleading visual icons, that wrongly define a linked webpage.
• Don’t hide the navigation links amidst the textual content.
• Don’t provide confusing titles to your navigation buttons. For example- “Other Links”.

Solution-

• Organize all the navigation keys in a single bar. If the site is too large, add a site map for convenience.
• Give logical titles to the navigation keys. They should be simple, easy to understand for the common people. For example- HOME, BLOG, STORE, CART, DOWNLOADS, ACCOUNT LOGIN etc.

2. Excessive ads

Ads suck up the entire fun of consuming content. Many websites have flash ads that cover a large amount of space. Sometimes they would popup and force us to find the close button. Some sites have constantly appearing ads that give a terrible experience to the visitors. It is a prime reason why visitors are fleeing from your site.

What not to do

• Ads should not be the first thing to view on your website. That means the most eye-catching part of your site should be free from ads.
• Don’t show ads that cover up a large space of your main page.
• Your pop up ads should not obstruct the main body of content. Remember it is the content for which your audience will come. Not for the annoying ads.

Solution

• We agree with you that ads are a great way to generate extra income. But don’t forget your real target which is to elevate user experience. So, they become your loyal consumers. Hence, limit your ads display to a concise section. So, that it doesn’t interfere with content viewing.

3. Poor Content Structure

About 50% visitors left your site unhappily because they couldn’t find the desired content. If you design a good structure to organise every bit of content, people can easily access them. They can collect info like contact details, product features, sales offers etc.

What not to do

• Don’t keep a number of pages to display the same information. Especially if it can be represented in a single webpage.
• Always give an introduction to every page. So that viewer can know what the page is about, without reading the entire articles.

Solution

• Try to guide your audience to the content they are searching for. For that maintain a simple structure and create buttons having page headings.
• Use bold headings and highlight the main keywords.
• Group the similar contents for easy search.

4. Automatically playing audio and video

It is very much annoying when you are quietly enjoying a blog and the audio starts playing in the background. So, the reading flow is disturbed and the visitor leaves the site.

What not to do

• Don’t stream videos automatically without taking the viewers permission. He should have the freedom to start or pause a video.
• Don’t play background music when the customer is browsing your site. It will distract him from the actual intention.

Solution

• Give the users freedom to play the audio and video by themselves. For automatic streaming have a close option.
• You can simply provide the summary of a video below it. So that the user can decide whether to watch the video or not.

5. Compulsory signups

Some websites make it mandatory to create an account, log in before viewing the content. This is frustrating for the new people because they know nothing about what you offer. It compels them to leave your site and find a new one.

What not to do

• Don’t show recurring popups urging viewers to create an account with you. They will be annoyed and go away.

Solution

• Provide a preview or demo to justify that you will serve quality content after people sign up with you. Don’t directly jump to the registration request.

6. Unattractive content page

You might be having a poorly formatted content page. That is why it didn’t met people’s expectations. And they left your site.

What not to do

• Don’t make a webpage that provides very less or no value to the visitors.

Solution

• Simple site design can also make a deep impact if the content is great. Make sure that your website is useful for potential customers. Provide optimum guidance to take them to their desired solution.
• Update your website regularly. Have a system to interact with the audience like blogs, discussion forums, feedback and comment section etc.

7. Bad text formatting

In a website, people are going to mostly read through the titles and texts. To appeal the visual sense, the font design, colour, size should be stunning. Errors should be avoided. Multiple mistakes and boring colours can drive away from the newcomers.

What not to do

• Don’t use typefaces which have less contrast or are excessively elaborated.
• Don’t use bright colours too much. It will look flashy and quite unprofessional.

Solution

• It’s better to hire a professional web designer than to do yourself. They can give a completely amazing look to your website which will retain more customers.

8. Irregular Updates

Suppose every design is perfect on your website. But people are still abandoning it. The possibility is that you are not updating your site with fresh content. No one will prefer to read outdated blogs that were published long years ago.

What not to do

• Don’t keep your site activity static or very less throughout the year.
• Don’t put a notice telling that the site is under construction. This is not impressive and may cost you a lot of costumers.

Solution

• Try to add some new content on a weekly basis. It will keep your audience entertained. Along with that, your Google ranking will rise up.
• Add a blog section where you can publish fresh news and articles regularly.

So, these were the top reasons why your web design may not be working. Try the given tips and tricks judiciously. Then you will see how impressive your site becomes, and how quickly it gathers a huge audience base.