Joseph Mugo

Reasons Why Users Leave a Website How long do user’s stay on your website before running away or going back to the search bar? A normal user tends to stick around for not more than 15 seconds. If your site doesn’t capture their attention within that time frame, then you’ve lost them. The percentage of visitors who navigate away after viewing one page is called Bounce Rate. When asked about the bounce rate, Jon Lister from Elite SEM encouraged people to focus on how long visitors spend on their content (dwell time). Quality content helps people stay for longer on your site. If they go deeper, it shows Google that they have found the information they are looking for. How to Interpret Bounce Rate A high bounce rate is usually a sign that something is wrong. It’s an indication of a poorly constructed site. A slightly high bounce rate, however, is not entirely a bad thing. According to Yoast, bounce rate has three interpretations: • The quality of your page is low, so there’s nothing for the visitor to engage in. • The audience doesn’t match the purpose of the page • Visitors have found the information they were looking for. A lower bounce rate, on the other hand, means things are running smoothly. How to Know Your Bounce Rate Your google analytics dashboard will show your bounce rate. You can either check the individual or site-wide bounce rates. The individual bounce rate is more detailed since it shows you how each page is performing. This is helpful in determining whether your visitors are getting what they want out of your site. Different industries have different bounce rates. For instance, a simple landing page with one call-to-action such as ‘add-to-cart’ will have a higher bounce rate compared to a health site where users visit to look for information. So, your entrepreneur friends in different niches will have different bounce rates and that is okay. The best practice is to always aim to keep your bounce rate low. Remember, as I’d mentioned earlier a high bounce rate is usually a sign that something is wrong or not working. This post aims to help you keep your bounce rate low and make visitors stay on your site longer. You have to figure out why visitors leave your website. That’s exactly what I want to talk to you about. 5 Reasons Why Visitors Leave Your Website 1. They Don’t Get What They Expect When you want to go to popular sites such as youtube.com or facebook.com, you may occasionally mistype the name of the website. This will lead you to a different site from the one you wanted: e.g. yuotube.com or faecbook.com Owners of sites like yuotube.com and faecbook.com, intentionally create these misspelled domain names to anticipate popular misspellings of high traffic websites. Open the links above and you’ll see that those sites are totally different from what a user was expecting. They do this to siphon a small percentage of web traffic from the actual sites. Their bounce rate is usually very high. Users stay on these sites for less than 30 seconds or less, simply because that’s not what they were looking for. To make your user stay you have to put an effort into making the user experience pleasant and then some more. There’s more to keeping a visitor to your website in Singapore other than not being misleading. One way is by addressing design. Poor web design drives visitors away. A site that has too many options will significantly lower your sales and increase your bounce rate. When given many options, users find it hard to make a decision. The ideal site is simple, such that by just scanning it, users will easily figure out how to navigate the site. The layout matters too, people expect your site to look a certain way. It should be consistent all through to create familiarity. The worst thing that could happen is your site loading slowly. It will drive up your bounce rate. Your visitor will leave before they even see your content or offer. A good site has neat colouring, clean navigation and is easy to browse. It also has real, engaging content that connects with the user. Your content should be spiced up with good visuals too. However, always let your site be what it is and advertise it as such. Stay authentic, create good content, improve on the design and gradually your efforts will begin paying off. 2. Your Site Isn’t Usable Your site should always be accessible and available to the users. People need to be able to use your website not just experience it. A good example of a site that is always available and accessible is Facebook. It can be accessed on any device and has never gone down. Facebook is always up. You also don’t want to overload the people who visit your site with too much information. Users should be able to focus on one thing at a time. A user will leave if they don’t immediately find what they want, or a hint that leads to what they want. It could be an item they intend to buy, a post description etc. It all depends on your audience’s needs. Make sure the user is not distracted by going straight to the point depending on what your goal is. Use pictures that users can relate to. If for instance, you are selling kitchen appliances, use a picture of the appliance in a beautiful kitchen. It’s a simple nudge that helps users feel more at home on your site. In short, your site should be intuitive and easy to use. Last but not least, establish credibility by creating an about us page or putting customer reviews on your homepage. You need to answer this question: Can you really fulfil your offer? Is your product worth it? 3. They Don’t Know What to Do on Your Site “A confused mind never buys” -John Childers Don’t make the mistake of giving users too much information. Too much information leads to bad navigation which creates a frustrating experience for your users. Think through your site’s set up as if you were a customer visiting for the first time, this will help you anticipate anything that might bother the user. Our goal is to make users stay on your Singapore business site – or any other site - longer. To do this, the user has to definitely go through more than one page on your website. You can achieve this by internal linking, these are links that link one page in your website to another. They push viewers to check out your additional content. Next is the call to action (CTA). This is the value proposition that removes the doubt from your users and convinces them to either buy something, try out your service or subscribe. It should be well designed and show a well-researched proposition that appeals to your audience. A good example is Amazon’s ‘Buy now with 1-click’ . It helps the user buy what they want directly without having to go through a lot of steps. Remember, a confused mind never buys. Always keep it simple and guide users through your site. 4. They Don’t Trust Your Site Anyone can create a website, even criminals. So, trust is definitely critical online. Your users want proof that your website is legitimate and trustworthy. You should prove to them that it is. Are you communicating this fact to your audience and helping them know you better? If not, then you don’t have significant brand recognition. Social media links play a major role here. When links to your Facebook, Twitter and Google accounts are posted on your website. They demonstrate that your website has nothing to hide. Because a public website that is active on social media is trustworthy. Posting your contacts in case the user needs help, shows that the person behind the website is willing to help the user. In e-commerce, customer reviews are an excellent way to build trust fast. Your website should also be built around a personality. Consider a brand like Beats by Dre, their brand focuses on creating stories around successful athletes and young, trendy, rugged types. Finally, you should also avoid ads, and if that’s your source of revenues, minimize them. Obtrusive use of sound should be avoided at all costs. No one wants to be in a silent room, only to open your site and have a video starting blasting at full volume. 5. Your Site Fails to Inspire Your first impression matters most. No one comes to your site to please you. They are there to find relevant information or a relevant product. If you don’t get that right in the first 15 seconds, they’ll leave. It all starts with the audience. You’ve got everything right so far. But you need to know whom you’re speaking to/selling to and what they need. It’s called psychographics. They are elements that tell you why your customer is buying and not just how old they are. They include personality, lifestyle, behaviour, values, and attitudes. If you know whom you’re selling to, you then address them with a unique voice. Your brand will be more compelling if you find and stick to your unique voice. Conclusion Now you’ve understood what affects the bounce rate. You can use any of these tools to make improvements: Heat maps to show the most popular places on your website, scroll maps to show you how far down people are scrolling on your page before they bounce or AB testing, where you publish two versions of the same web page to see which one has a lower bounce rate than the other. Remember 15 seconds is all you have. If you keep it real, intuitive, simple, appealing and secure you’ll see results and improve on your bounce rate.