5 Reasons Why Your Website Visitors Are Leaving So Fast And How To Fix It
Congratulations!
You're getting a lot of new traffic to your website!
Your website is running at full speed. You’ve ramped up posts on social media and are being found on search.
This is great!
But when you check your Squarespace analytics, you notice people aren't clicking through to your call-to-action or viewing any of your other pages.
Your viewers aren't experiencing your entire website and all you have to offer.
Over time this could mean a loss of potential connections and conversions. And this could also hurt your search engine rankings.
So where do we start? How do we keep visitors on your website longer?
In this blog post, I've outlined 5 potential reasons why your website viewers are leaving so fast. We'll start with how to check the health of your website, the key metric to look out for when determining whether or not people are engaging with your site, and ways we can improve this.
Start with your Squarespace analytics
Your Squarespace website has a powerful built-in analytics tool that tracks and analyzes the performance of your website. It provides insights into who's visiting your site, what content they're engaging with, and how you can improve the performance of your website. This critical information can be used to make informed decisions about how to grow your business.
As a designer and engineer, I 100% believe that strategy and data should drive your design. Becoming familiar with your Squarespace Analytics is essential in determining what's working or not working on your website.
Your Squarespace Analytics dashboard will give you an overview of your traffic and access to specific sections such as your traffic, commerce, and acquisition to get a more detailed look at how people engage with your website.
So, what metric will tell us how visitors engage with our site?
Check your bounce rate!
What is bounce rate?
Gif: Chloe Krammel
Squarespace defines the bounce rate for a page as
"the percentage of visitors who entered your site on that page, then exited your site from the same page without visiting any other pages on your site.
In other words, of all the visits that started on a given page, what percentage were single page visits?"
Think of it like this…
Do visitors come to your website and stick or do they bounce once and leave?
If they navigate away from the site after viewing only one page, we can use this as an indication our website may not be effective in engaging visitors and keeping them on the site.
This metric prompts us to ask questions about our site…
How well is your design engaging your audience?
Are your copy and messaging captivating your website visitors?
Are you speaking to the right audience?
So based on this data, we know that a high bounce rate indicates that website visitors aren’t finding what they want and/or not engaging with the content. And on the flip side, the lower the number, the more pages your website visitors engage with.
But there’s a caveat…
Sales pages, high-converting landing pages, and single call-to-action pages are the exception. Those sites have a sole mission to convert for a specific purpose.
In some cases, blog post pages are allowed to have high bounce rates as your audience finds the information they’re looking for and leave, but I believe there’s room for improvement to engage blog visitors in more of your content.
What is a good bounce rate?
Several factors help determines a good bounce rate. Bounce rates can differ by industry, page type, traffic source, and device type.
According to Hubspot,
“The average bounce rate is somewhere between 26% and 70%, with the optimal range being between 26% and 40%.”
But keep in mind that different industries have different standards for what’s considered a good bounce rate, so it is important to research the standards in your industry and use that as a benchmark when assessing your site’s performance.
So, what’s a good bounce rate for a B2B service-based business website?
Coaching, consulting, and service-based business websites are generally informational and may include sales, blog, and landing pages.
Here are benchmark bounce rates by website type from cxl.com:
B2B websites: 25 - 55%
Landing pages: 60 - 90%
Blogs: 65 - 90%
Most website visitors will engage with your informational pages, such as your home, about, and services pages. When it comes to sales pages and blog pages, many visitors will find everything they’re looking for on that one page and leave, which may contribute to a higher bounce rate.
With at in mind, you want visitors to stick around and browse your informational pages as much as possible to create connection and develop rapport. We want them to engage in your core pages.
The bottom line is…
A high bounce rate means your website visitors aren’t engaging with your website.
So let’s explore potential reasons why your bounce rate is high and what you can do about it.
5 reasons why your bounce rate is high and website visitors are leaving so quickly
Reason #1: Slow Loading Time
Have you been to your site and tested how long it takes your pages to load? A slow-loading website can drive your audience away without them having a chance to get to know you. This can hurt your conversion rates, damage your user experience, and reduce your chances of connecting.
The Fix: Ensure your website is optimized for speed.
According to a study done by Google and Deloitte,
“Improving your load time by 0.1s can boost conversion rates by 8%.”
The easiest way to increase your page speed is by reducing the size of your images. Optimize your images by reducing the size to 500 KB or less. You can use online image compressors before loading your image to your site. This simple change can mean big rewards in the long run.
Reason #2: Not Mobile-Friendly
Having a mobile-friendly website is a requirement for a quality customer experience.
As mobile devices make it easier and more accessible for people to access the internet, your website must be optimized to support this traffic. If not, you run the risk of a subpar user experience, which could lead to fewer conversions and less website traffic.
On top of that, search engines such as Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their search results, so having a website that isn't optimized for mobile devices could mean your website isn’t appearing in search engine results.
The Fix: Check your website across all devices and fine-tune the user experience.
Make sure images and content are visible. See if any element overlap. Make sure all buttons are clear and easy to read.
One of the reasons why I recommend Squarespace for web design is that the platform's user dashboard allows you to design and optimize your site layout for mobile view from the beginning. This takes the guesswork out of ensuring your content is easy to view across all device types.
Reason #3: Your Brand Story & Messaging are Off
What resonated with your ideal client in the past might need to be updated. There may be a mismatch between what the audience expects and what you’re saying. If your website visitors don’t connect with your brand story and message, they will likely leave.
Our ideal clients are busy, so capturing their attention in the first few seconds is essential.
This is an excellent time to check in with your messaging. Keep in mind your brand messaging is an extension of your brand story. Your messaging tells aspects of your brand story through each of your touchpoints, such as your website, social media, blog, collateral, etc.
Maybe your ideal client has evolved, and your current marketing efforts aren’t targeting the right people. Or perhaps you’re targeting the right audience, but your message is too broad and doesn’t motivate them to take action.
The Fix: Update your brand story and message by first understanding your ideal client.
When you’re messaging is specific and targeted, your ideal client will feel like you genuinely understand them. This is how the connection is made when your audience.
Consider these questions:
Are you using words that resonate with your audience?
Are you speaking the language that will capture their attention?
What words do they use to describe their pain points and what they want?
You want your brand story and messaging to feel authentic. Your copywriting should sound and feel like you. You want to show your ideal client why you’re the right person to guide them to success.
Also, take a look at the source and quality of your traffic. Are you marketing in places your ideal client hangs out? Are you visible in their networks? Again, are you speaking their language?
A few key tweaks to your messaging can significantly affect how your website visitors engage with your site. If you’re ready to dive deeper into developing your foundational brand story, I have a few blog posts here to get you started:
Reason #4: Confusing Navigation and Content
As we outlined in this article: 5 Mistakes You’re Making on Your Website and How to Fix Them, having confusing navigation can ruin your user experience and lead to poor user experience, low conversion rates, and reduced search engine rankings.
Even beyond the navigation bar, if your copy and content are cluttered and unreadable, this can create the perception that your business is untrustworthy or lacks attention to detail.
Our ideal clients are constantly bombarded with images online, so create an organized layout that encourages your audience to stick around and get to know you.
The Fix, Part #1: First, create straightforward navigation so visitors can easily click through your web pages.
Label each page with a simple, easy-to-read title that explains that page's content. Avoid fancy, personalized titles for standard pages such as about and services. Our goal here is to reduce confusion and make it easy for our visitors to find what they want.
The Fix, Part #2: Next, use each web page to tell a story your audience can follow.
Developing a powerful and compelling brand story can create an emotional connection with your audience and make them want to stay around longer.
Reason #5: No clear call-to-action
This is one of the quickest ways to send your visitors away… not telling them what to do next!
A clear call to action on your website is crucial because it helps visitors understand the purpose of your website and how they can interact with it. Without it, visitors can become confused or frustrated or might simply leave without taking any action.
Your call to action helps visitors understand what they should do next, whether signing up for a newsletter, scheduling a call, or downloading a resource. Taking the time to lay out a clear path to the next step can help you increase conversions and improve the overall user experience on your website.
The Fix: Create a clear call to action section at the bottom of each page.
This should be the overall goal of the page’s content. And make the button label plain and straightforward with phrases such as “Book a Call,” “Subscribe,” and “Buy Now.”
This is your chance to make the connection! Ask for the sale! Invite them in! Be direct about the next step they should take!
Get Your Website Visitors to Stick, Not Bounce
That’s the goal!
If your bounce rate is high, it’s worth looking into these five underlying reasons why your website visitors leave. Implementing the tasks to improve the user experience by ensuring your pages are loading quickly, creating a mobile-friendly site, improving the navigation, developing targeted messaging, and having a clear call to action.
If you’re ready to improve your overall Squarespace SEO strategy, I’ve created a FREE CHECKLIST highlighting the key areas to address so you can be found on search engines and increase your rankings.
