12 Top Reasons Why Prospects Leave Your Site
One of the easiest ways to increase your coaching income is by turning more of your existing website visitors into leads and clients. After all, you may have excellent ranking in the search engines or run a brilliant email campaign. But if website visitors don’t take action once they get to your web page, you haven’t accomplished anything.
In this article, I’ll share with you the top 12 reasons why people leave your site without opting in for something, making a purchase, or contacting you.
Fix these problems on your site, and you’ll see an immediate increase in leads and sales.
Reason #1 - Not Using Consistent Branding
A prospect came to your site for a reason. They saw something they liked - your branding message - in an email, search engine result, ad, or social media post. And they clicked a link to find out more. But if they don’t see the same message when they get to your site, they’ll probably leave.
So invite prospects to your site with an irresistible message or offer - your branding message. Then be certain to deliver on your promise when they get there.
Reason #2 - Including Ads on Your Site
How do ads sabotage your site? Let me count the ways…
First, if you don’t control what ads appear on your webpage, your visitors could be subjected to really annoying ads, like the ones that flash and move.
Second, having ads on your site that are better than your own web content is just asking people to leave and buy from someone else. If you’ve ever clicked on an ad and left a site, you know what I mean.
Third, some ad images carry viruses that get transferred to the viewer’s computer as the image loads on the page. If you have no control over what ads show up on your site, you could be inadvertently passing viruses through your site.
Our small office has been hit three times in the past year with these cyber bugs. It’s that common. We have firewalls and various anti-virus programs, and they still got through.
Reason #3 - Page Loads Too Slow
With almost everyone using high-speed Internet, slow page loading rarely happens. And when it does, it is rarely caused by normal text and images on a page.
However, it is caused by viruses trying to download themselves onto your visitor’s computer. (See reason #2 above.) It is also caused by large video files and slow web servers.
Any of these reasons could cause your visitors to leave your site.
Reason #4 - Error Pages
Test your site to see if you have any bad links. You don’t want visitors to encounter 404 error pages that say “Page not found.” While most people will be tolerant with one error page, they will probably leave if they see two or more.
Reason #5 - Security Pop-ups and Lack of Secured Check Out Pages
This one is really tough to overcome because the security pop-ups are triggered by settings in the visitor’s browser. You don’t have any control over that.
But make sure your site is as secure as it can be and have secure pages with “https:” on all your checkout and shopping cart pages. Otherwise, people may feel insecure about the purchase and leave.
Reason #6 - Using Video or Audio without Text
Statistics have shown that adding video will increase the time people spend on your site and increase lead generation and sales. However, it has to be done correctly.
Some people do not like video. They prefer text because they can read quickly and skip any parts they aren’t interested in. So if you’re going to use video, be sure to include some text as well that covers the basics of whatever is in the video or audio.
Reason #7 - Using the Wrong Video Player
If a long video gets stuck during playing, chances are they’ll leave your site - unless you provide a convenient way for them to keep watching.
So if you have a video that is longer than 3 min., it’s critical to include a fast forward and rewind button. That way if the video gets stuck 10 or 20 minutes through, your prospects can easily reload the video and fast forward to where they left off - instead of having to watch the entire video again from the beginning.
Reason #8 - Using a Squeeze Page Instead of an Opt-in Page
A squeeze page demands that someone supply their name and email address before they see any other pages on a site.
An opt-in page merely requests that someone leave their name and email address. It lets the visitor continue to other pages, whether they choose to opt-in or not.
While I believe that squeeze pages have their place in marketing, I don’t believe coaches and consultants should use them for their main information site. It’s likely to seem rude and chase people away from your site.
Reason #9 - Using Unpleasant Colors, Font Sizes, Images, or Language
Ever been to a site where the background burned your eyes or the font was too small to read? Be careful that your page look and feel doesn’t chase people away from your site.
Reason #10 - Using Shopping Cart “Coupon Codes”
Studies have shown that having a “Coupon Code” area on your shopping cart page can increase abandoned shopping carts.
Why? Because people get to the check out page and see that you offer discounts - only they don’t have one. So they abandon the cart to search online to see if they can find one of your coupons to use. And in the process they instead find your competitors and their coupons.
Reason #11 - Site is Hard to Navigate
How many times have you left a site because you couldn’t find what you were looking for?
In addition to bad navigation, make sure you haven’t mislabeled pages and that the most viewed pages on your site are easy for people to find.
Reason #12 - Unclear and Disorganized Content
Unclear and disorganized content is the #1 reason people leave your site without opting in or contacting you.
Blogs are especially bad in this area because most people do not know how to organize them well. When organized correctly, blogs are great.
Your website visitor should be able to determine in 15 seconds or less:
- What you have to offer
- Who the offer is for
- What’s in it for them (results/benefits)
If those things are not clear, they will leave. Other mistakes to avoid include content that seems to have no purpose, is too basic, or seems amateurish.
If your content is valuable, website visitors will overlook many flaws, including ALL of the 11 reasons above.
Spend a few minutes today looking over your site and see if you can improve on any of the above areas so you, too, can get more clients and more sales more often.
And remember that content is king. If you want one top area to work on first, work on creating great content.
