10 Ways Your Website Is Driving Customers Away

There’s no such thing as a perfect website. Personal preference will always mean that no matter what you do, some people may not like it. There are certain bad habits when it comes to web design that represent massive turn-offs for most. So if you’re falling foul of any of the following, chances are it’s doing your business no good whatsoever:

1. Auto-Music or Video

A big no-no. Feel free to give your visitors the option of playing media on your site, but don’t force it on them. Bear in mind that a lot of people will visit your website while they are at work, so music and video that starts blaring automatically never fails to prompt immediate exits.

2. Pop-Up Adverts

They’re on your site, they’re interested in what you do. Don’t go for the hard sell with an annoying pop-up.

3. An Odd Layout

Trying to reinvent the wheel when it comes to navigation and site layout may be a recipe for disaster. Consumers for the most part appreciate and respond well to familiarity – not the kind of layout or navigation system that confuses them.

4. Poor Mobile Responsiveness

Poor mobile responsiveness is just as bad as no mobile responsiveness at all. If your mobile customers get the impression you couldn’t be bothered to make the effort, neither will they.

5. Stale Content

There’s nothing more dissatisfying than entering a blog, a website or a social media page and seeing that the most recent entry is dated 25/07/2013. It just smacks of a business that either can’t be bothered or is no longer in business.

6. Poor Content

The same also goes for content of little to no value, spelling mistakes, poor use of language and so on. Poor quality content can actually be more harmful than no content at all.

7. Sluggish Performance

If it takes more than a few seconds for any of your pages to load, you can forget about it. Research has shown that the upper-limit in terms of consumer patience is no more than about three seconds, meaning page loading times really are the be all and end all.

8. Cluttered Landing Pages

When your visitors arrive, it’s for a specific reason and with a specific purpose in mind. Which means they expect to be able to do what they want to do and find what they need to find quickly. Cluttered landing pages make for hard work and wasted time, which mean they may leave your site quickly.

9. Missing Contact Information

Even if they don’t actually intend to get in touch with you, contact information is of paramount importance to instill a sense of trust and professionalism. It should be complete and visible – anything less doesn’t breed consumer confidence.

10. Too Much Marketing

Lastly, if your website or any of its pages come across as little more than digital classifieds with thousands of ads, links and banners, chances are your visitors won’t take you seriously. Focus on what you do and what they came for – paid advertising should take a distant backseat.