Having trouble retaining your website traffic? You have put in the time and effort to promote your blog and drive traffic, but your visitors are not sticking around and you are not seeing conversions.
When you finally are getting some traffic, the last thing you want to see is your visitors taking off within a few seconds.
There are some important reasons why people leave your blog that you should know about. A website that makes these mistakes could be negatively attracting its bounce rate.
Once you are aware of these mistakes, you can identify them and should fix the problems as soon as possible.
Here are 10 reasons why people leave your blog and do not return. Any one of these issues can scare away your visitors and decrease your conversion rate.
Let’s take a look.
1) Slow Loading Website
According to a study from Econsultancy, 47% of visitors expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less.
That means that if your website is taking more than 2 seconds to load, your site is potentially coming off as slow.
Having a fast site is something you shouldn’t overlook and is important in many ways. Not only does a fast site increase conversion rates but it is also good for SEO, which can potentially mean more traffic for you.
Another study shows that a one second delay in the loading time for a page can actually cause a 7% decrease in customer conversions.
The speed of your site can be a determining factor if people stay, or if they get frustrated and leave.
Page speed is also a ranking factor for search engines. The better your speed, the better your ranking will be and your ability to show up in search engine results pages.
Here is the official post from Google announcing their inclusion of site speed as a ranking factor a few years ago.
Load time is one of the most important factors for your site so make sure you choose a good web host and learn how to optimize WordPress or whatever platform you use.
2) Bad Navigation
After searching unsuccessfully for something for your blog for a few minutes, most visitors will likely become frustrated and leave.
It is important to have a clear navigation structure so your visitors can easily do what they are looking for.
Your site should have an organized, hierarchical structure with the most important pages linking to related ones.
Not only will a clear structure help keep your readers satisfied, but it is also good for SEO.
When your blog is structured properly, the ranking power is spread out throughout your blog to all your articles. This means they have more potential to get listed on search pages.
Take the time to plan out and think about your site structure and optimize it if needed.
3) Poor/Outdated Design
Website design can directly affect the perceived value of your blog.
Your visitors will judge the legitimacy of your site based on your design. In this case, first impressions do matter.
The design is one of the trust factors for websites laid out by Jakob Nielsen in 1999. Invest in making sure your site looks modern and professional. The last thing you want is a site that looks outdated.
If you are using WordPress there are many great themes out there that will make it easy to create a good looking design.
4) Annoying Ads
By now you have most likely experienced a site that is crowded with obtrusive ads and popups. These types of site are annoying and give visitors a bad experience.
The last thing you want to do is have this kind of set up for your website. If you are using ads, use them sparingly and in places where they do not cause issues.
Plan out your ads for best design. Google has some useful examples of how you can place ads for different types of pages.
If you are choosing to use ads as a form of website monetization, here are some guidelines to keep in mind:
- Place ads in non-obtrusive locations.
- Do not have annoying pop-up advertisements.
- Avoid having autoplay video ads.
While everyone wants to optimize their ad revenue as much as possible, your visitors should be your priority.
Giving your audience a positive experience so that they will recommend your website and come back is more important and can ultimately result in more success.
5) Non-Responsive Website
With more and more people accessing the web from mobile devices, it is now vital to have a blog that is mobile responsive.
In fact, it is not really an option anymore: every site should be responsive.
In fact, there are now more searches from mobile devices than there are on desktop computers.
It is best to have a site that is responsive rather than two versions of the page. This can cut down design costs and can also be easier for SEO because you only have to deal with one website.
If you are using WordPress, most themes (especially premium themes) are responsive already and taken care of for you. If you are choosing a design template to use for your blog, make sure it is responsive.
6) Hard To Read
The readability of your blog goes hand in hand with your design. Make sure you are structuring your content clearly so your visitors have no problem reading it.
Learn how to write good blog posts and structure your writing with a clear intro, body, and ending.
It is also important that you use HTML header tags properly. If you do not know what header tags (h1, h2, h3, also called h tags) are, you most likely are not structuring your content efficiently.
H tags are to denote the titles and subtitles for your pages. Search engines use h tags to understand how your content is structured.
HTML header tags follow a hierarchical structure, with h1 denoting the main title, h2 the subtitle under it, and so on.
Properly organized content will help make it easy for your visitors to read your posts, and also help search engines understand it.
7) Registration Requirements
Having content that is gated (requires email signup or other action) is a great way to increase leads. However, when overdone, it can do just the opposite of your blog.
If almost everything on your website is gated, the user may leave because the information is not readily available.
If they can not find it easily on your blog, they may be more inclined to try to find it elsewhere rather than try to deal with unlocking it.
There is a fine line between having effectively gated content and restricting your visitors. Provide enough information for them to be satisfied, and have extra useful content in exchange for an action.
8) Boring Content
If your content is dull, it can also be something that is repelling your readers.
Focus on creating content that is useful and full of information. Use pictures regularly in your posts and link to useful pages.
The use of images in your content can actually increase your post engagement. One study of more than one million blog posts shows that the presence of at least one image actually double the number of shares that the post gets.
Quality content that is engaging naturally gets more likes, shares, and links, and also helps keep your readers interested and engaged.
9) Autoplay Video
Although in certain instances autoplay can be useful, it can come across as obtrusive if used in the wrong setting.
Experts say that autoplay can come off as aggressive, can seem pushy, and irritate the user.
They go on to say:
The best is to have a prominent play button displayed on the landing pages.
If you are going to have videos in your posts, know when to use autoplay. Here is more on the argument of when to use autoplay on videos.
10) Not Updated Enough
A blog that has not been updated in a long time can come off as abandoned and not credible.
Updated your blog regularly helps tell your readers that the information is trustworthy and will help give you credibility.
While it is not necessary to post every day, 2 to 3 posts is a good goal to aim for if you have a blog.
Regular, fresh content is not only beneficial for your readers but is also good for your search engine rankings.
According to this article (https://seositecheckup.com/articles/5-reasons-why-fresh-content-is-critical-for-your-website-and-seo), frequent content affects your ability to become an authoritative site for search engines:
The more informative, valuable content you can publish that pertains to your industry, the greater authority potential your website enjoys.
For both your readers and SEO rankings, developing a frequent posting schedule can be beneficial to your blog.
Conclusion
There you have 10 reasons why people leave your blog.
If you think your blog has one of these mistakes, there is a possibility it is affecting your ability to keep your visitors.
No one wants to see that their hard earned traffic is not sticking around, and it is important to identify and fix issues before they do any further damage.
Optimizing your site can lead to positive gains for your website including more email signups, more leads, and more interaction with your site.
A hard to navigate, slow loading blog will most likely not perform as well as one that runs quickly and is easy to use.
Take the time to understand the reasons why people leave your blog. Being aware of these issues can help you increase the success of your site and also prevent them from pulling it down in the future.