3 things that will make people leave your website immediately

You want your website to engage existing customers and convert new ones. Unfortunately, it’s never going to do that if people leave your site seconds after landing on it.

If you haven’t already, the first thing you need to do is head over to your website analytics and check out your bounce rate. This tells you how many people click off your website having viewed only one page. This can be a little complicated because someone very well could have picked up the phone or dropped you an email after only looking at one page.

It is however, highly unlikely that everyone who visits your site is going to contact you so if your bounce rate is high, this is often a sign that users are finding your site boring or off-putting in some way. Head to Exposure Ninja (https://exposureninja.com/blog/bounce-rate/) to find out everything from how to check your bounce rate to what it should be.

Another tip is to look at the average time people are spending on your site. If people are leaving your website immediately, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll ever return again let alone convert into paying customers.

If you want to keep visitors engaged for longer, make sure you’re not making these three common mistakes.

Slow load times

Time really is of the essence when it comes to your website. A Google report confirmed that consumers have become rather demanding with 53% saying they will leave a site if it doesn’t load within just three seconds. It also found sites that loaded within five seconds get 70% longer average sessions and enjoy a 35% lower bounce rate. You can read the report by following this link: https://www.marketingdive.com/news/google-53-of-mobile-users-abandon-sites-that-take-over-3-seconds-to-load/426070/

Speed up your website load time:

• Run a compression audit so you can identify any issues
• Minimise HTTP requests
• Make sure you’ve chosen the right hosting for your needs
• Remove unnecessary images or reduce image sizes
• Minify CSS, JavaScript and HTML
• Use a content distribution network
• The above may sound like jargon if you’re not familiar with how websites work. Working with a digital marketing agency can help you get the most out of your website and you don’t even have to do the hard work

You’re trying to sell too quickly

Think how annoying it is when a shop assistant approaches you the second you walk into a store. Just as it’s off-putting in a real-life scenario, it’s also pretty frustrating in a virtual world.

What this means:

• Time your pop-ups. The sooner you show them, the sooner someone is likely to leave your site. If someone has been browsing for a minute or two, now might be the time to ask them to sign up to your newsletter or download your report.
• Don’t prioritise ads over content – even if you’re being paid for them.
• Ditch those immediate registration demands – nobody is going to sign up if you don’t even give them a chance to find out more about you.

You tricked them into getting there

Clickbait may be great for getting people to your website but it’s doing nothing for your conversion rate. If you go to Nissan.com, you’re probably in the market for a brand new car so it’s going to come as a bit of a surprise to learn that unless you’ve got a faulty laptop, this website is of no use to you. Nissan.com is a computer repair website and while we bet it gets a lot of hits, we’d love to see their bounce rate.

Don’t trick people into landing on your website. You’re unlikely to gain anything out of it and it could damage your reputation as well. You’re much better off having fewer high quality visitors that will convert into customers once they realise how fantastic your product or service offering is.