Google Analytics can help give you the reasons why people are leaving your website. Attracting people to your website and making your website visible in search engines is no easy feat, but the hard work doesn’t end there, keeping potential customers on your site is where it can get really tricky. It is important to understand the reason why people may be leaving your site and ways in which you can improve the overall user experience and ultimately convert users into customers.
How do you know people are leaving?
Google Analytics is a fantastic tool and one we recommend you use to track the activity that takes place on your website and by using Google Analytics you will be able to determine the number of visitors that are leaving your site. The most important metrics for measuring this are:
- Pages/sessions – the average number of pages viewed during a session.
- session duration – The average length of a Session.
- Bounce rate – the percentage of single-page visits (i.e. visits in which the person left your site from the entrance page without interacting with the page).
These metrics can be found in the audience overview section of Google Analytics, see screenshot below.
A good indicator that people are leaving your site immediately is your bounce rate, the higher this percentage is a sign that people are leaving your website on the same page they entered.
As a result a high bounce rate will typically lead to a low number of pages/sessions and average session duration. If you are finding these statistics for your website it is an indicator that your visitors are not engaged with your content or design and as a result are leaving your website.
It is pretty safe to assume that they already have an interest in your products or services; otherwise they wouldn’t have visited your website in the first place. But why did they leave so soon? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons people are leaving your website.
Website Design
Outdated websites are one of the biggest reasons people leave websites, your website is potentially the first thing a potential customer sees make that first impression count! If your site is outdated consider a new design that is inline with your brand and a good representation of your business.
With the rise in use of mobile devices it is also worth mentioning responsive design to ensure that your website is usable and optimised for mobile users. Consider the navigation of your site, is the information easy to find and understand? A cluttered site full of adverts and intrusive auto play videos is a sure fire way to make visitors leave.
Content
Equally as important as web design is content, is your content clear, concise and informative? Does it engage the audience and portray the brand and tone of voice?
Design isn’t just about colours, images and graphics; it also incorporates the fonts you use, as well as the colours of your text and background. Colours and fonts can determine how easily people can read and digest the content on your website. If it can’t be easily read, it’s simply not going to convert very well.
Slow Site Load Speed
In a world where information is available at our fingertips and at the touch of a button we have become an impatient lot! Consumers want information and they want it now, consider reviewing your site load speed and making improvements to reduce the time it takes for your site to load.
These are three of the most common reasons people are leaving your website, we always recommend reviewing these areas first and implementing improvements along with regular monthly reviews of the website stats to record the success of your efforts and identify future improvements.
If you are concerned about your website’s performance, get in touch. You can call us on 01527 517309 or email us via the contact form.