Here’s Why Your Website Visitors Leave

Have you ever walked into a shop, looked around, and walked straight back out?

Your website visitors might be doing the exact same thing.

I want to help you understand why and what to do about it.

As a marketing professional, you’ve likely put a lot of time and effort into your company’s website.

It can be deeply frustrating when a new visitor reaches your website but leaves without taking action.

You’re not alone in your frustration.

This is a common problem, and thankfully, there are some simple solutions.

Here are some common reasons why a visitor may leave your website without taking action:

#1: Your visitors can’t find what they’re looking for

Imagine how confusing it would be to walk into a shop where nothing is labelled — no product names, prices, or weights.

Your website needs clear navigation and obvious ways for visitors to find information.

Your most important content should be visible immediately, clearly labelled and easy to understand.

Action steps:

• Simplify your main menu, putting your most popular offers at the start
• Ensure every page has a clear heading
• Reword any unclear headings for simplicity and clarity

#2: Your website doesn’t look trustworthy

Trust is a vital part of the customer journey.

People are more careful than ever about trusting online businesses, filling in forms and making online purchases.

If your website appears outdated or unprofessional, your visitors will not feel safe sharing their information or making a purchase.

Action steps:

• Ensure your website is using a valid SSL certificate
• Use third-party trust signals, such as associations you’re a part of and recognisable logos of organisations you work with
• Acquire at least 10 5-start reviews from sources such as Google Business, Truspilot or Clutch

#3: Your website is too slow

If your website takes more than 2 seconds to load, they will give up and start looking elsewhere.

A slow website is one of the easiest ways to frustrate your audience and move them over to your competitors’ website instead of your own.

Action steps:

• Check your website speed in GT Metrix
• As your web development team to optimise your website
• Move your website to high performance, cloud hosting

#4: Your visitors are unsure what to do next

Every page on your website should clearly indicate the next step for your visitors.

Whether you’re asking someone to “Buy Now,” “Request A Quote,” or “Contact Us,” you need to ensure your visitors know exactly what action to take.

Action steps:

• Add a clear call to action to every page of your website
• Use a compelling call to action (do not write “Click here” as a call to action)
• Offer a secondary call to action, such as a free PDF download or resource to add value to your target audience

#5: Your visitors experience problems on mobile devices

If your site is difficult to use on a mobile device, you risk losing these visitors immediately.

More than half of your website’s visitors are likely browsing on their phones (you can see the exact number by looking at your Google Analytics data).

Action steps:

• View your website from a mobile device and complete the primary actions you want your website visitors to take
• Make note of any issues and send these to your web development team to fix
• Optimise your website for speed on mobile devices

How to fix common website issues

The good news for marketing teams is that the website issues I’ve described above are simple to resolve.

You need to imagine yourself as a potential customer and look at your website through their eyes.

Look for areas where your message may be confusing or information isn’t easy to find.

Does everything make sense, and is there a clear next step for your visitors to take?

The most likely changes you’ll make are to your website’s content and overall design.

This will improve the clarity of your message and user experience.

If your website is slow, it will usually need to be optimised or migrated to a faster web hosting provider.

Sometimes, the smallest changes can make the biggest difference to your bottom line.

If you’d like help reviewing your website or implementing changes to improve the experience of your visitors, you can book a free call with me here.