Top 10 turnoffs that keep visitors from your website

If you are an online marketer, then you appreciate the importance of attracting visitors to your website. The website is virtually non-existent if there are no people coming to assess your services or products. Worse still, if it doesn’t rank highly for your targeted keywords, things get even worse.

If your website is not doing well, it is highly likely that you are turning away potential visitors. Your site’s usability is the most important factor when it comes to attracting visitors to your website.

If you have noticed increasing bouncing rates and low visitor-to-lead conversion ratios, it is highly likely that your website is failing in either attracting or retaining the potential audience. While design matters when it comes to promoting your website, it is important to appreciate the place of functionality in enhancing visibility and also attracting more users.

Here are some turnoffs that are keeping people away from your website:

1) Poor loading speed

With more websites to choose from and a lot of information to go through, the attention span of an internet user is getting shorter. Worse still, their tempers are shorter than ever. If your website experiences slow speeds, you will definitely be looking at angry and impatient visitors. They will immediately turn back and look for another alternative.

You should appreciate that there are thousands of competitors offering similar services and products. If people are turning away from your website, it is highly likely it is taking forever to load. It is time to talk to a search engine optimisation (SEO) expert on how to optimise speeds.

2) Excess popup ads

Before you start luring visitors with popup ads, you better realise how irritating they are to the ordinary user. They might eventually get you a few email subscribers but in the process, you will have turned away thousands of leads.

Popups interfere with the reading experience and when there is a guilt trip in betwixt the ad, it makes things worse. These ads should be used in moderation and tracked keenly to assess their effectiveness.

3) Auto play content

Assume someone wants to get something from your website while in the classroom or an office environment. If you have auto play ads, you can bet they will immediately close your website and vow never to return. It is important to give the user the right to choose how they want to experience your content. Never force your visitors to listen to your ads because they will never return.

4) Poor navigation

How would you love to navigate through a new country without a map or any guide book? This is the same problem your site visitors experience if it is poorly navigable. A poorly designed website leads to problems right from the moment a visitor lands on your site. They don’t know where to go and there is no call to action anywhere. When this happens, users get angry and immediately go back to SERPs i.e. search engine result pages and look for a more maneuverable website in your niche.

5) Lack of mobile optimisation

Most Internet users today are accessing websites through mobile devices. From smartphones, tablets to wearables, everyone wants to enjoy access while on the go. If your website has not leveraged a responsive design, you are in big trouble.

Internet users have no time to log into a laptop or a PC while they need the information instantly and on the go. What’s more, Google has already updated its mobile algorithms meaning websites that are not mobile-friendly will be penalised; talk of double tragedy.

6) Stock photography

This is a complete no-no if you are serious about marketing your website. The modern consumer is very conscious and if you try fooling them using stock photography culled from the Internet, they will instantly know it.

Avoid using images that are not representative of your business. Get real images, however simple they look, because authenticity is what the modern shopper is after. Don’t go for those Hollywood smiles because they are not real and users want to interact with real people just like themselves.

7) No blog

If you don’t have a blog, then your visitors will quickly be turned off. This platform is important as it offers a chance to interact with your readers and give them more information about your services and products.

A blog is a creative way to supplement what you already have on other pages. It has more personalised information and you can engage with visitors. Blogs also allow you to analyse users’ views regarding what you are offering.

8) No content sharing buttons

The role of social media in marketing cannot be gainsaid. If you are not leveraging the power of social media in sharing your content, you are not only irritating visitors but also losing out greatly on better ranking and increased conversion rates.

If users can’t find that Facebook or Twitter sharing button, the first thing that will come to mind is doubts about your credibility. Who is not sharing their web content today, they will wonder. With such doubts in mind, the potential lead will move on to the competition leaving you high and dry.

9) Title and content mismatch

A title is supposed to give a hint of what you have written on the page. If it is misleading, you are in big trouble with the readers. They will not only berate you for it on social media but they will also feel cheated, meaning you have probably lost them forever. Your title and the content it represents must be congruous lest you turn away potential leads.

10)Poor internal linking

You might not know it but internal links greatly improve users’ experience on your site. They can move from one page to the other augmenting what they are reading at the moment. However, internal linking is only effective if done professionally.

Broken links or links to irrelevant pages are risky as they imply you are trying to fool the reader. Always make sure you check the links regularly or have a web design expert test them to guarantee they are effective.

There are other important factors to consider. Which local SEO ranking factor is more important? Do you focus on content or site architecture in SEO? Is offline SEO more important than online SEO? Luckily, you can now find a local SEO expert to work with you in order to attract and retain the target audience while also improving your ranking.

(Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of YourStory.)