Increasing web traffic is hard enough. Capturing their attention and enticing them to stay longer, not to mention subscribe, sign up for your newsletters or buy, is even more difficult. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, most users stick around for less than 59 seconds. That means if you don’t get their attention and provide them what they want fast, you lose them permanently.
The question is, what makes them press the back button shortly after visiting your website? Let’s take a look at some of major reasons why users leave a website and what you can do about it.
Poor first impression
Your website is the house of your business. People visit it if they want to learn more about your products and services or want to have an idea about what your business is all about.
If the impression is good, then you might be welcoming a new set of loyal customers. But if you have a crappy site, people might not consider doing business with your company even if you have great products.
Slow loading
The attention span of the modern web surfer is limited. They don’t have time to wait for a slow website to finish loading.
If they are interested or really need to visit your site, they might wait. But if they have just clicked the link on impulse and they’re just curious to see what the site is all about, they are more likely to leave.
Too much distraction
Your website should guide your visitors step-by-step until such time that they are ready to buy. Having lots of information on your homepage will just confuse visitors. Do not bombard your visitors with too many options. You’re just making it difficult for them to know how to proceed.
Too many ads
Suffocating your visitors with ads that flash, pop or fill the entire screen will only serve to enrage them. They are annoying and can drive users into leaving a website and never return. Ads can also kill webpage load time because of all the extra JavaScript files they have to call.
