Why do people leave a website?

We fight hard to win a customer. Planning, analysis, design, execution...the whole nine yards. But still, the customer chooses to leave your page. Just like page visits have some solid reasons behind them, page exits too, have some underlying commonalities. We look at some of them in this article.

1. Bad navigation

This is the foremost among the reasons that cause user frustration. Complex or inconsistent navigation can cause users to feel confused, helpless, or worse, angry- something you do not want potential customers to be feeling.

The things to keep in mind are

• To not provide visual elements that are not clear in defining where the user is and what they’re supposed to do next

• Don’t scatter your main navigation links around your site. Your website navigation should be logical, intuitive and easy to understand. For this, you could try grouping navigation elements in a central area. For larger websites, you could add a sitemap.

• Finally, don’t make your link text hard to understand. “Other links” is generally not a good choice for link text.

2. Too many ads

Firstly, ensure that ads are not the first thing that a visitor sees. It is important that ads do not cover up the content that attracted the visitors in the first place. Managing space is very important as there are ads that take up more space than the website content.

3. Bad content structure

Bad content structure can destroy your conversion and retention rates. Here, it’s important not to complicate things by distributing content across multiple pages that could be easily communicated on one page. Outlining and grouping content so that users don’t have to fish around, bold headings, highlighting keywords- these are some of the things that go a long way in adding to the usability quotient of your website.

4. Obtrusive use of Audio and Video

Most people value their ability to choose what content to absorb. Having a video or audio that loads automatically can potentially drive visitors away. Which means it is important not to force users to view a particular content. Because sometimes, even a simple paragraph can convey the content of a video.

5. Poor legibility

Excessive typos, abrasive colours, bad typography choices- all of this make up a poor user experience. Do not use typefaces that are unnecessarily elaborated, pixelated or have poor contrast. Also, excessive use of bright, fluorescent colours can be distracting and abrasive.

If you could ensure this and some pun on the way, the user would be all yours.