With Halloween upon us, we felt that a spooky blog was in order. So we decided to help you understand why your page views are down and your bounce rates are up! Read on for 5 reasons your website might be scaring customers away.
1. It is Not Mobile-Friendly
One of the most common reasons people bounce off of your website is because it is not mobile-friendly and they are trying to access it from a mobile device. This can be frustrating for users causing them to leave your site without a second thought. So many people are now accessing the internet from their smartphone and tablets making it more important than ever before to have a responsive website. If you don't want to scare off on-the-go users, it is time to go responsive.
2. There is Too Much Content
In addition to avoiding frustration, you also want to keep your users from feeling overwhelmed. This can occur when there is too much content on a webpage and not enough images , interactivity, or formatting to break apart the large paragraphs. Search engines do expect at least 200 words on a given page, but long pages of content are no longer necessary. Get your point across in fewer words and customers will be more likely to stick around and read!
3. The Sitemap is too Complicated
Like a haunted corn maze, your users may be getting lost in your website. Having too many content pages in your sitemap or more than three levels in your site navigation can confuse visitors. When redesigning your website, determine how you can condense your sitemap into 3-5 main navigation points. From there, try not to go deeper than 3 levels of navigation to avoid burying content or making it difficult for users to navigate.
4. It Takes Forever to Load
If your website takes forever to load, you will need to take a few steps to speed things up. Users expect websites to load almost instantaneously. You can help make this happen by removing any add-ons you do not use, optimizing your onsite images and videos and minimizing redirects. You can test your site speed here.
5. The Design is Outdated
Believe it or not, users can tell when your website is outdated just by glancing at the homepage design. Small images, clutter and Adobe Flash are all signs that your website has not been updated in awhile. When users see outdated websites, they assume that the company is either inactive or not up with the trends and will exit in order to look for a more current company. Don’t let this happen to you!
If your website is guilty of scaring customers away for any of the above reasons, it is time for a redesign. Contact Informatics for information on how you can bring your website up to date.
