Picture this, you’ve got great content, full of information, relevant images, proper keywords and this has resulted in great traffic, but your sales funnel is empty most of the time with only a handful of conversion. Why would this happen even though you’ve got a great mix for success? This happens when you have a high bounce rate. Bounce off is when your site gets a visitor, the visitor takes a look at your landing page and goes in his/her mind, ”Nope, not for me” and leaves your site without making a purchase or doing any other activity.
If you can relate to this scenario, then maybe you’ve been doing a couple of things wrong. Take a look at the top reasons, for high bounce off rate on your site:
Top reasons for high bounce off rate on your site
Still loading after four seconds
Nobody cares for what godforsaken reason your site has slowed down, visitors are not going to wait more than 4 seconds for your site to load. Here are a few probable reasons for why it’s taking so long-
- You use a cheap host
- Using extra large images that take forever to download
- Using custom fonts that will take their own sweet time to download before the visitor can have a look at the content
- Sliders and Java scripts that have to be downloaded first for the site to load
If you are using one of aforementioned genius tricks, get rid of it now.
Let your content breathe (get rid of extra ads)
No one ever said they liked landing pages that bombard them with adverts. It may happen so that you can’t get rid of all the ads on your site. In that case make sure the ads are relevant to your site’s content and to the target consumer. The sum total of space occupied by the ads should not in any way be more than the space occupied by your content. Banner ads are really distracting for customers and actually lead to mistrust. Several surveys show that customers find banner ads on the internet to be misleading, now imagine the impression your site must be having on your visitors.
Misleading headings
Let’s say you create an ad with the title “health choices you must make to look younger” and your landing page content is about weight loss program and meal plans, it’s completely misleading. Live up to your words or you will lose consumers faster than the speed of light, in no time.
Auto-play videos on your site
Nothing makes visitors leave faster than they have arrived like auto-play videos on your site. Why would anyone want to see something irrelevant and wait for it to finish and then look at your content, make a purchase and help you climb the ladder of success? Nobody’s got that much time to waste. If you want a purchase on your site better get rid of that auto-play video.
An ugly landing page
As important as it is to get rid of the irrelevant ads, it’s equally important to get rid of all distracting elements on your landing page. An unskillful design of your site will not only make it hard for the visitor to go through the entire content, but will also chase them away with the lack of visual appeal. The site’s design is what will grab their attention and keep them hooked to go through your content.
Am I going to be scammed?
If for a moment anything on your site makes the viewer feel unsafe and question themselves, “Am I going to be scammed?” you can guarantee that you are going to lose that viewer. This mostly happens because of banner ads (which we dealt with earlier, and you must have planned on getting rid of them by now) and also because of your target visitor has not found anything that speaks of safety, like the content, the page appearance. If the visitors don’t find the site safe and credible for any reason at all, they will bounce off your site.
The unnecessary images
Have you ever seen top ranking sites filled with images and ads? No; hopefully you haven’t (unless it’s one of those sites dealing with images only). All of those stock arts, thumbnails, images in the background that steal the show from your content are the devil behind bounce offs. They are highly distracting. Yes, images are necessary to keep the content looking fresh, attractive and engaging, but they must never be the hero of your site unless you are trying to sell images.
Lack of call to action
One of the fastest ways to lose an almost converted user is to not have a proper call to action. Basically, it’s your site’s ability to let the customer know what to do next. If clear instruction is not available to direct the user to the conversion funnel, your sales rate will decrease. For a great sales rate you need a great conversion rate and for that you need a perfect navigation system with clear instructions.
TMI
You must be aware of TMI (too much information) because of the urban lingo craze. Nobody is going to want to provide you with their home address, mobile no., email id at once (unless you offer home delivery services which require these). You don’t need so many ways to contact a person. As soon as you ask for too much information, you lose credibility. The user is now more inclined not to trust your site for making a purchase.
Your site works only on PC
What could be worse than losing a potential customer willing to make you rich by buying your product just because they tried to find your site with their phones? Most people use smartphones or internet enabled ones, at least to look for sites and purchase items. Your site should be accessible via mobiles.
If you find yourself guilty of these aforementioned mistakes, take necessary steps to correct it today, before you sink your ship forever.
