7 reasons people leave your website

7 Reasons People Leave Your Website

Why people leave your website

There are countless reasons as to why a person could decide to leave any given website, however there are certain major common reasons that most people can agree on, which are in your control, that you can change and have fixed right away. So without any further delay here is SF Technologies 7 reasons people leave your website.

1. Speed

If you have ever visited a slow website then you fully understand the frustration a user will go through whilst waiting for content to load. In today’s world of obtaining virtually anything instantaneously, visitors will simply abandon your website and search for another more responsive site. Building a fast site that can load quickly is beyond the scope of this post, some improvements could be to compress images, have a hosting server closer to the intended audience etc. For more information read our article How To Speed Up Your Website.

Speed up your website so people will not leave your website
Speed up your website so people will not leave your website

If you have ever visited a slow website then you fully understand the frustration a user will go through whilst waiting for content to load. In today’s world of obtaining virtually anything instantaneously, visitors will simply abandon your website and search for another more responsive site. Building a fast site that can load quickly is beyond the scope of this post, some improvements could be to compress images, have a hosting server closer to the intended audience etc. For more information read our article How To Speed Up Your Website.

Speed up your website so people will not leave your website

If you have ever visited a slow website then you fully understand the frustration a user will go through whilst waiting for content to load. In today’s world of obtaining virtually anything instantaneously, visitors will simply abandon your website and search for another more responsive site. Building a fast site that can load quickly is beyond the scope of this post, some improvements could be to compress images, have a hosting server closer to the intended audience etc. For more information read our article How To Speed Up Your Website.

2. Design

Improve your website design to make sure people will not leave your website

Before people even engage with your content it will need to be laid out and designed in an inviting format. Now what “designed in an inviting format” means will be dependent on the target audience and should be built in an intuitive and simple to navigate style for them. For example a hotel site will prioritise making the process of booking and viewing room option listings a priority. Whereas an art design studio may prioritise displaying their best works upfront. Check out our 6 Ways to Improve Your Website Design article.

Improve your website design to make sure people will not leave your website

Before people even engage with your content it will need to be laid out and designed in an inviting format. Now what “designed in an inviting format” means will be dependent on the target audience and should be built in an intuitive and simple to navigate style for them. For example a hotel site will prioritise making the process of booking and viewing room option listings a priority. Whereas an art design studio may prioritise displaying their best works upfront. Check out our 6 Ways to Improve Your Website Design article.

Improve your website design to make sure people will not leave your website

Before people even engage with your content it will need to be laid out and designed in an inviting format. Now what “designed in an inviting format” means will be dependent on the target audience and should be built in an intuitive and simple to navigate style for them. For example a hotel site will prioritise making the process of booking and viewing room option listings a priority. Whereas an art design studio may prioritise displaying their best works upfront. Check out our 6 Ways to Improve Your Website Design article.

3. Content

Improve your website content to make sure people will not leave your website

Now probably the most important reason people leave your website is that the content is of poor quality, or the content is great but simply the wrong content. This ties into SEO (Search Engine Optimization). If people search for information regarding recipes for the best hot pot but receive information about construction cement (Yes this is an extreme example), they will simply leave the website in favour of one that addresses their actual request. What constitutes as poor quality content is somewhat subjective however if your site is a blog post and the content is generic information anybody would know this is usually regarded as poor, the content needs to have some uniqueness or insight that wouldn’t be easily available.

4. Broken Plugins

Many websites are built with purchased plugins that add functionality to the site to enhance the user experience. However what happens in many cases is that the site builder for example WordPress will update its framework which renders the plugin outdated and none functional. Your website will now have gaps, non-animated objects, un-rendered images or a whole host of other broken functional items.

Broken plugins will cause people to leave your website
Broken plugins will cause people to leave your website

Many websites are built with purchased plugins that add functionality to the site to enhance the user experience. However what happens in many cases is that the site builder for example WordPress will update its framework which renders the plugin outdated and none functional. Your website will now have gaps, non-animated objects, un-rendered images or a whole host of other broken functional items.

Broken plugins will cause people to leave your website

Many websites are built with purchased plugins that add functionality to the site to enhance the user experience. However what happens in many cases is that the site builder for example WordPress will update its framework which renders the plugin outdated and none functional. Your website will now have gaps, non-animated objects, un-rendered images or a whole host of other broken functional items.

5. Mobile Optimization

Mobile optimization will not make people leave your website

At this point it is common knowledge that many people use mobile devices for browsing quite heavily and in some cases exclusively. Yet after reviewing literally thousands of websites many are still not optimized for these devices with dynamic form factors and screen ratios. Desktop navigation does not translate well to mobile and touch sensitive inputs, the legibility of the content also becomes difficult on smaller screens.

Mobile optimization will not make people leave your website

At this point it is common knowledge that many people use mobile devices for browsing quite heavily and in some cases exclusively. Yet after reviewing literally thousands of websites many are still not optimized for these devices with dynamic form factors and screen ratios. Desktop navigation does not translate well to mobile and touch sensitive inputs, the legibility of the content also becomes difficult on smaller screens.

Mobile optimization will not make people leave your website

At this point it is common knowledge that many people use mobile devices for browsing quite heavily and in some cases exclusively. Yet after reviewing literally thousands of websites many are still not optimized for these devices with dynamic form factors and screen ratios. Desktop navigation does not translate well to mobile and touch sensitive inputs, the legibility of the content also becomes difficult on smaller screens.

6. No SSL Encryption

Cyber security is one of the most important aspects to a website and the consumer is becoming more and more attuned to the requirements of a safe website as well as their data protection rights. Browsers are also beginning to take matters into their own hands by flagging and in some cases blocking sites without SSL encryption, branding them  as unsafe or potentially malicious, causing people to leave your website without having even viewed it. It is especially crucial to have SSL certificates on websites that gather visitors personal information such as emails and contact details as well as credit card details.

SSL encryption gain people's trust so that they will not leave your website
SSL encryption gain people's trust so that they will not leave your website

Cyber security is one of the most important aspects to a website and the consumer is becoming more and more attuned to the requirements of a safe website as well as their data protection rights. Browsers are also beginning to take matters into their own hands by flagging and in some cases blocking sites without SSL encryption, branding them  as unsafe or potentially malicious, causing people to leave your website without having even viewed it. It is especially crucial to have SSL certificates on websites that gather visitors personal information such as emails and contact details as well as credit card details.

SSL encryption gain people's trust so that they will not leave your website

Cyber security is one of the most important aspects to a website and the consumer is becoming more and more attuned to the requirements of a safe website as well as their data protection rights. Browsers are also beginning to take matters into their own hands by flagging and in some cases blocking sites without SSL encryption, branding them  as unsafe or potentially malicious, causing people to leave your website without having even viewed it. It is especially crucial to have SSL certificates on websites that gather visitors personal information such as emails and contact details as well as credit card details.

7. Building a wall around your site

Using cache will speed up website, and people will not leave your website

In some cases we have reviewed websites in which the landing page itself is behind a subscription banner or paywall of some sort. Asking your traffic to pay for/buy into your website without even being able to see what sort of content is on offer is a big turn off for people visiting your site for the first time who have no idea who or what your brand represents, and will cause them to simply move on to the next website that freely provides the information or has an established name such as Bloomberg.

Conclusion

As you should now be aware building and maintaining a website that can work as an asset for you, your brand or organisation is quite the undertaking to do individually. Among others if you implement the 7 points above you will be well on your way. Alternatively you can have experienced personnel handle the task and rest assured that the best quality can be achieved. SF Technologies offers a host of services that tackle the above points, do have a look at what is on offer.

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