What Are The Main Reasons Visitors Leave a Website?
Most people use the internet for information-gathering of some sort. They want to be able to access the information quickly and with little to no distractions. Based on responses in a number of forums and online surveys, here’s what I’ve found to be the top reasons a visitor will leave a website:
- The site is an obvious ad farm
- Poor navigation
- Sites with “best viewed in…”
- Background music or sounds
- Flash-only sites
- Page loads slowly
- Too many pop-up or pop-under ads
- User required to register unnecessarily
- Too many animated gifs
- Poor spelling or grammar
- font size is too small
- white or red text on black background
- the content is not what was expected
Of the reasons above, nothing annoys me more than going to site that says “best viewed in Internet Explorer”, since I really don’t use IE except to test my web designs. I also don’t like to have to re-size text to view a site properly, nor do I like a Flash-only website, unless it’s a gaming or entertainment site where I expect to encounter more of a visual impact.
Another turn-off for me is a site that has improper grammar and bad spelling. I can’t count how many times I’ve seen this: “Comming Soon” and it makes me cringe. Then I leave.
Everyone has their likes and dislikes and no two people are alike. However, most web users regard the following as the most important features of a good website:
- quality content
- good site navigation
- speed - site loads quickly
I think if the above 3 features are present in a site I can overlook other flaws.
RSS Entries
June 4th, 2006 at 12:14 pm
I read your comments on why people leave websites and I must say that I concur. Your insight into the eMarketing world is both realistic and practical. So much focus is built on bringing people to a website but that is only (less than) half the battle. Once a prospect enters into your site, your goal is to KEEP THEM THERE! … at least long enough to get your point across, sell your product/service, or gather the information you require. Not only will your direct marketing bring people to your website but there are also the ones who hit by accident or through a search. There are literally thousands of prospects out there that you placed no initial investment in yet can still benefit from their visit. If you approach your website with the thought that your customer is thinking “ok, so what’s in it for me?”, and show them in a quick, simple, easy to find way, then you’re sure to have a sure-fire hit! And following the advice you outlined is a step in the right direction.
June 4th, 2006 at 11:27 pm
Thanks a lot for your input, Sally. I’m so glad you stopped in, my friend
November 15th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
One of the first thing my website says “..best viewed in IE or Firefox..” Only reason really is because IE is the only one that can ’see’ my colored scroll bars and Firefox ’sees’ the galleries better due to the javascripts.
I have sort of a slow moving site mostly because of the galleries. I am an artist and people should expect lots of imagery. I do try to keep the image file sizes down for quicker viewing.
I am not a web developer or any kind programmer.
So, consider going easy on us every day people who are trying our best at this stuff that is basically greek.
Thanks!
November 16th, 2006 at 1:33 am
Hi Rachael,
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
You mentioned you are an artist. When I visit an artist’s site, I expect the site to load slower because of imagery. In fact, I expect to be taken into another world…the artist’s world…and you just don’t care if the artist has broken some basic web design rules because they are so good.
So yes, I would be less inclined to judge an artistic site harshly and some latitude would be in order.