7 reasons why your visitors leave your website

Monday, June 19, 2017

You have your own website? Congratulations! That's the first step to increase your sales! The next logical step would be to increase your ROI. There are lots of ways to reach that goal, but in this article, we'll take a look at 7 mistakes you shouldn't do, because they might chase your visitors away...

1. Music that starts automatically

That's a big NO! Even if your sound is only ambiance music, people hate being forced to listen to something. Even worst, if there's no way to stop it, you can be sure that visitor will go look elsewhere.

2. POP-Up windows

I know it's tempting to include a pop-up window to try and increase your newsletter subscriptions, sales, or whatever reason you have. But don't! The average user rarely likes that kind of intrusion in his navigation, what's even worst, more often than not, these pop-ups are hard to close on mobile.
If ever you decide to use them anyway, make sure you use them well! For example, only display it after the user has spent a couple of minutes on your website, or if he visited a certain number of pages beforehand. Also, make sure what you display will be something your visitor might be interested in (Tourisme Baie-James displays this newsletter subscription pop-up only after the user has visited 4 pages on the website, so it's only visible once the user has really shown great interest in your product).

3. CLICK BAIT, PAGINg, clicking to view the full story

That's also a big NO. By using these strategies, you're not helping your users at all. Lots of gossip websites and sites that "help you lose weight" use these techniques to increase their page views. But if your goal is to help your visitors, make them loyal and increase your sales, these aren't good techniqus. Here's a small example...

4. Loading takes too long

Life's too short to wait. If you don't want your potential customer to click "back" and leave your website, make sure it displays within 2 seconds, especially on mobile. For desktop versions, since people are a little less in a hurry (and are more patient), you can take a little longer, but only if it's to offer a better experience to your visitors.

5. Ads: TOO MUCH IS TOO MUCH!

If your ads take most of the screen, you're doing it wrong. It doesn't look professional and you'll look like a gossip website. 
But seriously, if you want to be taken seriously, your content (which you've either paid for, or worked hard for) needs to be the center of attention. That's what we need to see first, and that's also what your visitors want to see.
Scoop: in 2018, Google will penalize intrusive ads, so you better think twice...
Example: On some news websites, sometimes ads steal the show, and even worst, the force the page to load and re-load repeatedly for nothing... 

6. Things that flash

First of all, having something flash is outdated and doesn't look professional. Animations need to be used only on something that's really important, or that you can click. Using it on anything else will only distract your visitor.

7. Lack of contrast

If your text doesn't have enough contrast with your background, it's possible your users won't be able to read it and will go see your competitor. Pay attention to your colour-blind clients! They're nice and they don't deserve that mistreatment! ;)

So you now know what to do if you want to keep your visitors on your website!