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Do your visitors spend hours on your website, happily absorbing the content, placing your merchandise in their shopping carts and enjoying your elegant design? Or are they being turned off and clicking on to the next website? We've put together some top reasons why visitors leave web sites.
This article complements Principles of Good Website Design which covers actual design steps to make your visitors stay, whereas here we name and shame the top turn offs.
Here is a list of the main reasons why visitors leave websites :
•Unclear or lack of navigation, especially how to proceed from the homepage.
•Inconsistent navigation. Visitors expect navigation features such as a navigation bar to have a similar style from page to page.
•No feature for searching the site. There are several good search resources available. We can recommend  Ksearch which is implemented on our search page, and it's free.
•Busy pages. Too much information, images, varying colors, fonts and intricate detail (especially on the home page) puts many visitors off.
•Poor legibility such as using a small font or placing light text on a dark back-ground. When in doubt, use black text on a white back-ground.
•Splash pages. These are commonly a turn-off, though they may be warranted for an artistic web site aimed for an audience who visit specifically to view graphic design or art-work. Fancy gimmicks and animation should be used with discretion or avoided altogether.
•Audio. More and more visitors are listening to CDs or tuned into Internet Radio while surfing the web. If they aren't, they enjoy their peace and quiet. The last thing they want is audio layered on top of what they are already listening to (or not listening to). If you feel it is justified, then it should be turned off when visitors enter the page, but with a clear way of turning it on.
•Websites designed for only one browser. Not all HTML works for all browsers, and you'd be surprised how many visitors are using browsers such as Lynx and Mosaic. An example of proprietary HTML is Netscape's <BLINK>. Blinking text is anyway a feature that annoys many visitors in the same way that strobing effects on television make for uncomfortable viewing.
•Broken links. Users are just not impressed by 'page not found' errors, or any errors which result from any lack of integrity. Broken links are akin to selling goods which malfunction.
•Linking off to the competition. Visitors will appreciate useful links off to other sites and will come back to find out what else you recommend. But a common mistake is to lead visitors off to your competitors. So you should be careful who you link to.
•Pages take too long to download. There are several factors which can lead to slow pages and these are covered in the article - Principles of Good Web design.
•Spelling mistakes. You are advised to pass your text through a spelling checker. E.g. you could prepare all your documentation in MS Windows Word which has a built-in spelling checker. Macromedia's Dreamweaver includes a spell-checker. The best way (because you can validate all your HTML code at the same time) is to use the CSE HTML Validator i.e. it includes a spelling check.
•Visitors are asked to register on their first visit. A better approach is to allow them to look over the site without registering. They can be encouraged to register in their own time e.g. by promising them a free newsletter  .
•Visitors being asked for extensive personal information. If possible, keep it to just a few details such as their name and their email address.
•Inconsistent or ambiguous naming conventions. For example, do not name a link "about us" on one page and "company information" or "about Acme Ltd." on others. If they are all intended for the same purpose and lead to the same page, then use the same text.
•Difficulty determining what text is a link. Links should be underlined or change colorwhen the mouse is rolled over them to be sure that they will stand out for your visitors.
•Pages under construction. You are best advised to leave these pages off altogether. More acceptable is a page dedicated to announcing plans for future improvements and additions to the website.
•Poor legibility or too much text to absorb.
•Lack of quality product descriptions.
•Visitors being asked to enter credit card details before they have had the chance to fully view product descriptions and prices.
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