If your website is getting hits but your visitors are leaving straight away, there is a reason for it. Web design is all about engagement. It needs to keep people interested with great content and good features. But first and foremost you need to make sure you add the right features so that your website isn’t annoying and makes people want to leave it prematurely. Here are the main reasons why your website is driving potential customers away.
Its hard to navigate
OK picture the scenario. I want to go out for food, I have a restaurant in mind that I noticed last week, I want to see the menu, so I naturally go to their website. But…where is the menu? I cant find it…Maybe its under this link…No, hmm…Oh there it is. Man that was hard work, too much like hard work…maybe I’ll just get a takeaway instead. Nice.
So the lesson to learn from this is? Well, make sure you main products or services that you are selling are easy to find. Ideally a user should be able to find this info within 5-10 seconds of arriving to your website.
Scrolling Ads
Is there anything worse? I came to your site to read the article but this darn ad is right over the top of it. Maybe if I just scroll past the first paragraph, its just the intro anyway. Wait a minute…this ad is literally following me down there screen, laughing at me all the while. And where is the ‘X’ to remove this ad? Hidden somewhere on the screen. I can only see one ‘X’ and its in the top corner of my browser and it seems like a good option. Website closed.
Auto Playing Music
There is nothing more annoying than arriving to a website and being greeted with noise. It’s even worse if you are already listening to iTunes or Spotify on your computer and the website music adds a terrible remix version to your favourite song. Music on websites is bad, so dont do it. If, and this is a big if, you want music on your site have a link to turn the music ON as an option.
The same applies for auto playing video. Again by all means have a video on your website, but allow the user??? to watch the video if they want, dont force it down their throats. If a user is forced to watch something they dont want to watch, they will simply close the window.
Being Anti Social
Theres 2 types of anti social people when it comes to websites. Firstly we have the people who just dont talk to anyone. You arrive at their website and want to know more about their brand presence, but where is their Twitter feed, even a Twitter page link, and no Facebook link? What respectable business doesn’t have a Facebook account in this day and age!? These anti social business’ are just downright rude and thus should be IGNORED.
The second type of anti social people on the web at least try to talk to you but they don’t have anything good to say. On the plus side, the Facebook, Twitter, Google+ etc links are all present and correct. However, when I click the Facebook icon I am not transported to their Facebook page, no no, I am instead asked if I want to share their ‘About’ page on Facebook. Um, no thanks. I wanted to find out more about your business, maybe even ‘like’ you Facebook page and get notifications about what you’re doing.
Not having social media icons only shows that you don’t understand the importance of social networks when it comes to business nowadays, and I’m going to judge you for it, so there.
Failing To Go Responsive
OK so you have designed your website and it’s looking great…on your desktop. However, the same can’t be said for mobile and tablet. Failure to take the time to optimise your website on all screen sizes means that potential customers coming to your site are going to have to suffer the annoying task of zooming and scrolling. Maybe they can handle that, but there is one thing that is certain to drive them away. Trying to hit the tiny navigation links with the tip of your finger is an impossible task, often resulting in the wrong link being pressed, and thus being taken to the wrong page, then having to return to the home page for the trials and tribulations to repeat once again. In this day and age it is essential to ensure your website caters for all internet devices.
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