Here at Orange County Website Design, we know the pain of seeing your bounce rate climb while your ROI stays stagnant. You’ve put in the effort, but now you’re wondering, why isn’t your website sticking to your visitors like you expected?

Well, my friend, the answer might be simpler than you think. Check out some of the top reasons people might be clicking out of your site and the easy ways to make them stay!

Your website is slow

Sometimes, the largest problem is also the simplest. In the dawning age of 5G, LTE, and other fun acronyms of the speed variety, every second counts. According to a study done by Akamai, a even a three second loading period translates to 53% of of visitors bidding adieu to your business. Letting your large files bog down the speed of your site just isn't worth the risk anymore. With so many other options on the Internet, customers can and likely will take their business elsewhere if your site doesn't deliver.

Thankfully, the fix is as simple as the problem. Optimize your website to run at peak potential by:

• Improving your images: Know the four image file extensions you're likely to use in web design (JPEG, PNG, SVG, and GIF), and target their use so you don't needlessly waste data. Does your image need transparency (PNG)? Is it a graphic (SVG)? Aim to keep the dpi no higher than 72, and run your big ticket images through an online compressor to save space while keeping that crisp look.
• Paying in Cache: Caching essentially stores information from your website onto the users computer, making subsequent processing faster since it's derived from a local source and not a bottomless void that is the Internet. Learn in-depth info on caching here.

You might have the coolest website in town, but it'll all be for naught if people can't even see it. So make sure your loading speed is at tip-top shape!

Your website has too much info

Yes, there is such a thing as too much information in the eyes of your visitor, especially when it comes to web design. Colors, images, and fonts are all extra pieces of data that your visitor must process, so if you have nonessential elements cluttering your page, it means your customer has more to process. Not only will you be delaying your customer's understanding of your value proposition, the overwhelming amount of useless information can sometimes send them packing instead. To avoid deserters, here are some items you'd be better off without:

• Irrelevant elements: This one's typically a no brainer, but before you put anything on your page, ask yourself if it serves a purpose to your customer and to your brand. If it isn't directly related to your company, take it out or save it for your blog.
• Overdone decorations: Minimalism isn't a trend anymore; it's now a design principle. Embrace white space over a crowded layout so your important features can breathe.
• Stale visuals: Say goodbye to stock photos and generic vector graphics that don't reflect your brand. Replace them with images that give insight on your company's culture and personality. Has your company shown graph-able progress? Use it. Do you have a sleek conference room? Use it. Are you a dog-friendly workspace? Use it.

Your website lacks calls to action

It's not that you don't have any calls to action. If you're a business, conversions are already your foremost concern, so you probably already have them. The problem is that your calls to action don't call attention by themselves; they need help. If your customer can't easily and quickly find your purchase button, they'll likely leave your site empty handed. You can prevent this by:

• Designing around your important features: Arrange your elements around your call to actions, making sure to direct the focus towards them with ample white space and a pop of color that will stand out from the rest of your website.
• Softening the blow: If you're selling a big ticket item or long-time subscription, sometimes the risk is too high for a customer to make a commitment. By offering free trial periods or email newsletter subscriptions instead of charging a steep price, you can make the first yes easier, which in turn will make the subsequent yeses a walk in the park.

Your website is too niche

It's good to have a target audience, especially if your product is hyper-specific. But while you become invested in designing a website made to display a health tracker for dogs, sometimes your design might leave people out of the picture. If your design isn't easily and instantly digestible, you risk alienating your brand to potential markets you might have never discovered. To prevent this, make sure to:

• Design for the lowest common denominator: The concept "think global act local" applies here. Instead of filling your website with jargon that the average user might not understand, find ways to design with your target customer in mind, but in a way that is accessible to the general mass.

Conclusion

Making a website is a lot like rocket science; it takes time, energy, and a commitment to taking care of the minute details. But small changes can lead to big impacts, and changing up a few key aspects of your design could lead to higher turnovers. At the very least, it's certainly worth a try.