How to Keep Visitors from Leaving Your Site

What compels a person to enter a store? How can you apply the answer to your website? (Image by JimmyHarris)

Summary: How is your homepage like the window of the store in the picture above? 60-80% of visitors will leave from your homepage without ever "entering" your website. Why? Nicholas Grant, discusses the answer and solution below.

Lots of people put stuff on a website just to fill space. If you are one of those people, you could very well be chasing away customers.

A homepage is like a storefront. When you walk into a store or market, or any place of business, what is the first thing you check out when you arrive? “The sales”, you might say. That’s true in a way, but why did you even walk into the store? What you’re really checking out is the atmosphere. If a place doesn’t appeal, you won’t even walk in the door.

Is your website like that store that no one wants to enter? If you feel the answer may be “Yes”, that’s okay because we’re about to fix this problem.

Your Audience is Deciding Whether to "Enter"

Whether your audience is kids, teens, adults or everybody you have to appeal to their viewpoint. For instance, if you are trying to appeal to teens, you must think like a teen. You can’t be putting articles about life insurance coverage on a teen website. After all, what teen is really concerned about that! Or, let’s say that your audience is kids. Would it really make sense to put an article about Job applications on a site that is for kids 5-11? If your homepage doesn't connect with your audience, like window shoppers, they will quickly move on to the next "storefront."

Mentioning your audience's problems is a sure way to get their attention. They'll see that you get their viewpoint.

This brings us back to the atmosphere. Like that storefront, if the atmosphere is not appropriate and appealing, no one will "enter" deeper into your website. So, on your website, be sure to make prominent mention of your audience's problems and avoid irrelevant content.

[Video] Site Review: Online Bargain Hunting Website

Summary: A good homepage is one that gets straight to the point. In today's review of DealJuggler.com, we see a website that does this well. This is probably why DealJuggler.com is a consistent money maker. However, as with any website, DealJuggler.com can make improvements. Most importantly, the quality of some images on this website is poor. Poor quality images immediately make your website look amateurish. By improving this aspect of DealJuggler.com the website would look that much more professional. However, changes like this won't drastically change DealJuggler.com's earnings. This is a good website, without too many bad points. The best way for this website to grow sales is to keep finding shopping bargains. Watch the video to see the entire review.

[Video] Site Review: Family Discount Shopping Website

Summary: Today we review, Frugal Parents Online, a website that helps parents save money online by offering shopping tips. This website does a good job of using pictures to set the right tone. For a small mom-and-pop website like this, the About us is effective. It is written in the form of a letter to the reader. However, Google advertisements play too dominate a role on the homepage. It hides the quality content the owner has made available to readers. We have to always be careful not to focus so much on the revenue driving potential of our website that we obscure the focus of the website, which is to help others.

[Video] Site Review: Conversion Rate Success for a Skating, Surfing, and Active Wear Website

Summary: Today I review a skating, surfing, and active wear website to look at what they do well and what they can improve on. As always, the goal of this review is to look for lessons business owners and executives can use as they think about how to improve their site conversion rate. This website does a very good job of using a black background to target the young skater demographic. Also, a large prominent picture on the home page draws in the shopper. Watch the video to learn more.

[Video] Site Review: What contributes to a successful e-commerce website?

Summary: A good e-commerce website should have large, quality pictures, clear pricing, and a professional clutter-free design. In this video we analyze the website of a hardware tools e-commerce site and see how it rates on each of these factors. As you watch this video, think about what you are doing well and what you can improve on your website.

[Video] A relevant homepage keeps the customer browsing your website.

Your website's homepage must tell the visitor exactly what product or service you provide. Otherwise he will leave. The visitor will not investigate. This video looks at a packaging container company's homepage to see how they do this well, and what they do poorly.

Is the first page your customer sees the correct one?

It’s easy to always point your customer to your home page. However, is that what your customer wants to see? If you point your customer to the wrong page on your website he may leave before he finds what he is looking for. Thus, you won’t get the sale.

This is especially a problem if your customer is visiting your website after viewing one of your advertisements. For example, if your Google ad says that you have a 50% off sale, clicking the ad should take the customer directly to your sale and not to your homepage.

Problems like this can make the difference between getting a sale and not getting a sale. Make sure your ads point the customer to the correct page.

This article, on NetMechanic.com, explains what makes a landing page profitable.