Why People Won't Stay On Your Website
There are several reasons to open a website. For a vast majority, it is to make money, adding value comes later. But how do you make money on a website that can not even keep it's readers? You may have tried your best, paid for ads, spammed several pages and tried every means necessary, but it's not working.
Visitors judge a website within their first few seconds of being on it and if it's not appealing, they'll be out the door before you can say Jack. Aesthetics matter a whole lot, but you need more than a cool design to keep a visitor. Here are somethings you need to consider.
Your Homepage :
They say charity begins at home, and in most cases, your homepage is the first page people see. Here's the thing about homepages, some people make their homepages so choked up and chaotic, you'll think an earthquake passed through it. Unfortunately, they actually think it's cool. Sure, it's different strokes for different folks but I really don't believe anybody likes a stroke of chaos.
As far as pages are concerned, speed matters. Having a fast and responsive page that can easily adapt to mobile or PC is what you should go for.
You know all those fancy lighting speed sliders and animated gifs that take the concentration of people away, they are cool right? Wrong. They add to the chaos. You should do away with them.
Navigation
The second most important factor is your page navigation. I as well as most other people won't stay on a website I find hard to navigate.
Ideally, the website navigation bar should be placed at the top of the page and should always contain a link back to the homepage. The contents should be represented in the menu and the pages should be titled in as clear a manner as possible.
Navigation bars with hard to understand item placement that hide primary pages in sub-menus , broken links and hard to find contact pages are doing your website more harm than you know.
Originality
There's a popular saying with bloggers and website owners : "content is King ". Most people will not go to a little known website to view content they can get on a well known website.
Authenticity goes a long way with potential visitors and customers. This authenticity covers everything, from photos to posts. Invest in professional photos, if you can't invest, learn to design.
In the world we live in, options open to users are almost unlimited. The key to keeping your customers is to offer a unique value.
Hidden Social Media Buttons
Perhaps you finally find a visitor that likes what you post, and that visitor chooses to share that post on facebook or to tweet about it. If your social media buttons are not immediately available, I doubt that visitor will take the pains of copying and pasting the link to the page and you can kiss goodbye to the audience that the post may have reached with social media.
You should also engage your users by making sure every page on your website contains a link to your social media platforms (facebook, twitter, YouTube etc) .
You should NEVER put your social media links in the footer or contact page.
No calls-to-action
You may be wondering why you still have a high bounce rate ( percentage of people that leave the site after visiting only one page) despite the influx of visitors. The reason is simple, you do not guide your visitors enough. Are sure your visitors know what to do? Guide your audience with simple instructions like "call us", "click here", "subscribe to our newsletter" etc.
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| Internet |
Visitors judge a website within their first few seconds of being on it and if it's not appealing, they'll be out the door before you can say Jack. Aesthetics matter a whole lot, but you need more than a cool design to keep a visitor. Here are somethings you need to consider.
Your Homepage :
They say charity begins at home, and in most cases, your homepage is the first page people see. Here's the thing about homepages, some people make their homepages so choked up and chaotic, you'll think an earthquake passed through it. Unfortunately, they actually think it's cool. Sure, it's different strokes for different folks but I really don't believe anybody likes a stroke of chaos.
As far as pages are concerned, speed matters. Having a fast and responsive page that can easily adapt to mobile or PC is what you should go for.
You know all those fancy lighting speed sliders and animated gifs that take the concentration of people away, they are cool right? Wrong. They add to the chaos. You should do away with them.
Navigation
The second most important factor is your page navigation. I as well as most other people won't stay on a website I find hard to navigate.
Ideally, the website navigation bar should be placed at the top of the page and should always contain a link back to the homepage. The contents should be represented in the menu and the pages should be titled in as clear a manner as possible.
Navigation bars with hard to understand item placement that hide primary pages in sub-menus , broken links and hard to find contact pages are doing your website more harm than you know.
Originality
There's a popular saying with bloggers and website owners : "content is King ". Most people will not go to a little known website to view content they can get on a well known website.
Authenticity goes a long way with potential visitors and customers. This authenticity covers everything, from photos to posts. Invest in professional photos, if you can't invest, learn to design.
In the world we live in, options open to users are almost unlimited. The key to keeping your customers is to offer a unique value.
Hidden Social Media Buttons
Perhaps you finally find a visitor that likes what you post, and that visitor chooses to share that post on facebook or to tweet about it. If your social media buttons are not immediately available, I doubt that visitor will take the pains of copying and pasting the link to the page and you can kiss goodbye to the audience that the post may have reached with social media.
You should also engage your users by making sure every page on your website contains a link to your social media platforms (facebook, twitter, YouTube etc) .
You should NEVER put your social media links in the footer or contact page.
No calls-to-action
You may be wondering why you still have a high bounce rate ( percentage of people that leave the site after visiting only one page) despite the influx of visitors. The reason is simple, you do not guide your visitors enough. Are sure your visitors know what to do? Guide your audience with simple instructions like "call us", "click here", "subscribe to our newsletter" etc.
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