ArtDriver conducted a survey to determine the top negative factors that turn website visitors off and increase the bounce rate of a given website.
Bounce rate has become a relevant metric in Google algorithm, and the ability to improve website usability as well as decrease the bounce rate are critical in achieving high rankings on SERPs. According to Google,
"Bounce rate is the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance (landing) page. Use this metric to measure visit quality - a high bounce rate generally indicates that site entrance pages aren't relevant to your visitors. The more compelling your landing pages, the more visitors will stay on your site and convert."
The chart below shows each of the ten factors that makes people leave a website:
1. Excessive Use of Advertising
So, the first most negative factor that turns website visitors off is an excessive use of advertising on the site. Most of the respondents pointed out that they are OK with seeing some ads, but having too many ads that interfere with the content and(or) website design worsens the user experience and makes users leave the site.
2. Presence of User Registration Forms
The second most negative usability factor that makes website visitors hesitant to move on exploring a website is the need to register and leave personal information. A good recommendation in this case would be to utilize the functionality of Open-ID by allowing users to use their Facebook/Twitter/Gmail/LinkedIn credentials to login.
3. Broken Links
The third most negative website factor is broken links. There is no need to explain how frustrating it is to not being able to get to the content you are directed to.
4. Slow Loading Speed
The fourth negative factor is the slow loading speed of the website pages.
5. Poor Content
The fifth negative factor is the website's inability to deliver the relevant information via text copy or other media. Oftentimes, people land on the website via a search engine and find out that the content of the site has very little or nothing to do with the search query. Google has been battling cases like this by introducing a number of updates trying to improve the user search experience.
6. Prompting Software Installation
The sixth negative factor is the need to install additional browser plugins or applications to properly display the content of the site. This primarily has to do with flash sites or sites that require specific scripts to deliver the content via a browser.
7. Grammar Mistakes
The seventh negative factor is the grammar mistakes.
8. Poorly Structured Navigation
The eighth most negative factor is the poorly structured navigation and overall website structure/sitemap. We all know how precious our time is and how important it is to know straight way where we need to click in order to get to the information we are looking for.
9. Outdated Design
The ninth negative factor has to do with outdated or poor website design.
We would love to hear what makes you leave a certain website? Please share your thoughts in the comments area.
