9 Reasons Why Visitors Leave Your Website (And How to Fix Them)

Let’s imagine a scenario for a moment.

You’ve spent months of time, energy, and investment getting your business website up and running. It looks great, and you’re excited to watch the leads and sales roll in. That’s the goal right, to get leads and turn them into customers.

But, when you check your website stats, you see something that worries you. People are visiting your website, but they’re leaving almost immediately. Your visitors aren’t buying, signing up, contacting you, or even taking a few minutes to explore your site. There’s lots of website visitor metrics to look at here from Dwell time, bounce rate to traffic source.

This isn’t just a scenario. It’s also a very real problem that many business owners face each day.

They do all the hard work to put their best foot forward and showcase their business with a shiny new website.

If visitors are abandoning your website, don’t worry. There is good news.

Most visitors aren’t leaving because they don’t like your business. They’re leaving because they’re facing common website issues that you can fix.

In this post, I’m sharing the real reasons visitors abandon websites and what you can do about it.

As always, there’s no technical jargon or complex solutions – just simple, practical advice you can use to engage your website visitors and transform them into customers.

Here are some thought points in no particular order to help you get started:

• Attention span – The first 5-10 seconds of a website visit are crucial. Modern web visitors often make snap judgements, so if you’re not able to engage them immediately you lose them. Use clear, bold headlines to introduce your content. Consider adding appropriate images or videos to the top of your page if they help to illustrate any points you make.
• Shock Factor images – to grab your potential leads attention even through outrage using news related images such as the below “Gulf of America” in brackets after “Gulf of Mexico” from Google Maps is not only humorous but engaging. Original Images such as this will not spike the interest of the reader and a particular bike rider demographic but also Google current affairs and news.

• Make things entertaining – I’m sure you’re thinking there’s nothing entertaining about a doctors surgery or a church website. It’s not only about your unique selling point which needs to be super clear, contextual but also a bit of eyebrow raising visuals can go a long way. Consider a search on Google related to the topic you’re working on in your blog. Note the search volume beside each of these is from my Keywords Everywhere SEO tool.

• Slow loading speed – A slow website is a very common issue that leads to visitor abandonment. Your website needs to load in under 2 seconds. Test your website speed but make sure you choose the Australian based server for this test. If your website takes more than 2 seconds to load, it either needs optimising or may benefit from moving to a new web host. I’ve got loads of details about technical SEO and testing website speed in my article.
• Unclear navigation – If it’s hard for visitors to find the information they’re looking for, they’ll leave your website. Your website’s navigation should be easy to use, showcasing your most important pages. Don’t leave visitors hunting for information. Look at your current navigation – are your most important pages available within a single click? If they’re not, it’s time to update! One of the issues you may have could even be design, a designer may like the clean look of not having a traditional menu but I’m afraid a balance of tradition/expectation and design should also be a consideration.
• Lack of trust – People buy from those they trust. If your website looks outdated or lacks important trust factors, your visitors may not feel safe purchasing from you. Add trust factors such as customer reviews, testimonials, case studies, and accreditations. When a visitor can see others enjoying your products or services, it makes it far easier for them to purchase. Read our article about getting trust in being helpful not salesy or solving and not necessarily selling. It’s all about trust prior to conversion and important step some ignore in the process.
• No clear next step – Every page on your website should have a clear next step for your visitors. You might want them to make a purchase, request a quote, fill in a contact form, or subscribe to your email list. Review each page on your website and look at what you’re asking a visitor to do. If you’re not asking them to do something, it’s time to update your content and show your visitors the next step you want them to take. A website should be like a journey where you want to take them to choose their own adventure like the books I use to read in high school but a well chosen strategy using influential words and images will make sure your lead goes to where you want them to go. You can read more in my article on conversion strategies.
• “What’s in it for me?” – Completely in line with Storybrand type strategy which we love at Get Leads. A common mistake businesses make is to focus their website’s content on themselves rather than their customers. Your visitors want to know how your products or services help them, so ensure your content focuses on the visitor and not you. If your website contains a lot of “I” or “we”, you should consider rewriting it to focus on your visitors (”you”) instead. Read more about the WIIFM or StoryBrand in this article.

• Poor mobile browsing experience – Typically more than 50% of your website visitors are likely using mobile devices. It’s crucial to ensure your website delivers a great experience; otherwise, mobile users won’t hang around. Test your website on your smartphone. Is it easy to navigate and use? Make a note of any issues you face, as these can be fixed. It’s not every site that will attract this amount of mobile visitors though, I recently pulled my own numbers from Google Analytics for our website and we have more like 12% mobile visitors. I then compared this with a customers site from Sydney who sells fruit and veg a massive 65% mobile visitors.

Get Leads Mobile Traffic VS. Sydney based fruit and veg shop.

At Get Leads we’re always looking to improve, not only do we do our own research into new metrics and balancing the divide between design, development and SEO skills but we also love results. Over the next few weeks we’ll be looking at ROI for websites and why it matters. We have a case study we will use that will show you that it’s worthwhile using a professional with your next website project. Regardless if you’re in Cairns, Wagga or Sydney we can help you. Contact us for your website quote.