10 Ways To Lose Potential Customers On Your Website

You have gone through a lot of work and effort to get someone to come to your website, whether it be organically or via paid advertising, so the most important thing you can do once they are there is convince them to stay!  Below are 10 key things that you should definitely NOT be doing if you want your visitors to stick around.

1. Not Having A Mobile Version Of Your Website – This is absolutely key, and with the majority of users now surfing the web from a mobile device it is now even more important than ever. If you don’t have a mobile version (or responsive design) of your website your visitor will see your full site, but on a very small screen meaning they will have to zoom in and out to navigate it. Unless you have no competitors an they don’t have a choice they will simply move on to a competitor.
2. Too Many Popups – Popups can be extremely productive, but at the same time can be extremely annoying.  Use them with caution and test them to make sure they are doing more good than harm.
3. Bad Navigation – Think like a visitor and test your site to make sure it is easy to navigate.  Is the menu clear and easy to access? Is it too complicated? Are there too many or too few options? Are the menu item names clear enough?
4. No Contact Details – Contacting you should be the easiest thing visitors can do on the site, so make sure you contact details are clearly visible throughout the site.
5. Slow Loading Time – Gone are the days when people were willing to wait for a page to load.  If you page is not loading in a few seconds you might be losing that visitor before they have even arrived.  Test your website with a tool like GT Metrix to see how yours performs.
   
6. No Call To Action – When a visitor comes to your website, they don’t want to figure out what they should be doing next, you need to tell them.  So whether it be going to the checkout, filling in a contact form or calling a phone number make sure you have clear call to actions throughout the site to leave the visitor in no doubt.
7. Broken Links – If you have got links on your website that are directed to a page that doesn’t exist, this will bring up a 404 error to the visitor.  This is not just frustrating, but runs the risk of the visitor losing complete confidence in your business and it’s credibility. So avoid at all costs, but just in case it should occur make sure you have a great 404 error page in place!
8. Information Overload! – Content is great for SEO, but we need to make the content relevant to the user and easy to read.  The length of your content is really dependant on the type of business and product or service you provide, so this is why you should always think like a potential customer and what they want to see and read.  For example if you’re selling doormats make sure the image and price are the first things the visitors sees.  Then add your call to action button, and then you can add extra information about material and other interesting doormat facts!
9. Poor Quality Images – The images you use on your website directly reflect the service or product you are offering so use them effectively.  If the image quality is poor then the visitor will assume everything else is of poor quality too. If you don’t have any quality images yourself, invest in some stock images that effectively represent your business.
10. Sound – Never assume that you visitor wants to listen to some music while visiting your website, they don’t! It is annoying and even more frustrating if it is not clear how to turn it off.  Don’t do it…just don’t.