This is a contributed post.
Did you know that 42% of people will turn off a website due to its poor functionality? Your website is your digital storefront, regardless of what you sell. If you view your website as the window and doorway to your store, that is nearly half of people leaving because the entrance to your store does not facilitate a good shopping experience.
Now, what people like when shopping can vary from person to person, but when it comes to web functionality, the standards are unanimous; it simply needs to be easy to use. So, what exactly will turn people off your website, and what do you need to avoid?
Too Many Pop Ups
Let’s face it: too much of anything is never a good thing, and if your visitors are bombarded with pop-ups constantly from the moment they arrive and need to spend some time clicking close on them, or you have the same one comes up on each and every page they will close the tab to your website and look elsewhere. You need to put yourself in your customer’s shoes regarding pop-ups. Sure, they can be helpful for sales, but they can also be the reason why you aren’t getting any sales. Use one pop-up that is relevant with a clear CTA. Stick to unobtrusive pop-ups that are limited to the side of the page and don’t cover the whole screen. Floating bars and slide-ins are good options to use and will be more effective.
Professional website developers know the key to effective pop-up usage is using them sparingly and strategically, without impacting website performance or visitor satisfaction. Cost to company – it might be worthwhile investing in professional assistance when it comes to designing and implementing pop-ups on your website, since pop-ups can become an enormous turn off for visitors as well as slowing loading speed and compromising SEO ranking. Experienced web developers possess both skills and knowledge required to optimise pop-ups for user experience without jeopardizing the performance of your website’s performance or user engagement goals.
Not Being Able To Contact Anyone
If a visitor has a query, they will want the answer right there and then. If you cannot provide it, chances are they won’t hang around, and they will look elsewhere. You need to have contact points or detailed FAQ pages to help people find the answer to what they need.Â
While you cannot physically be online at all times, you can use chat features that connect to an auto-response bot to reply to queries or connect to a third-party customer service representative who can handle any issues in real-time. So whether you add live chat to website, add FAQs, or have round-the-clock human customer support, you need to have an option for people to contact someone to avoid losing sales.
Unclear Navigation
How easy is it to find your way around your website? While it might make sense to you, to someone without knowledge of your website and business, your layout might be confusing. You need to have easy-to-navigate pages, categories and sections that are easy to find. A menu bar with clear categories and products or services allocated as you would in a real-life brick-and-mortar store is the optimal way to design your navigation.
Let’s say you sell denim products. You can divide your categories into different types of denim wear, e.g. shorts, jeans, jackets, shirts, skirts, and dresses. You can add men’s, women’s and unisex categories and allow them to be sorted by collections. You also need a search bar so people can skip this and simply type in what they’re looking for. Clear, simple menu parts, search functions and designated categories are what you need to avoid people being confused and clicking off your website.
If your website isn’t designed with the user experience in mind, then chances are you are losing leads, sales and visibility, as people won’t stick around to do what they want to do or what you want them to do. Avoid clutter, don’t use too many pop-ups and make sure you have clear navigation so your website is more enticing to all visitors.