Most website visitors come to a site/webpage and leave flat-out annoyed because of a few design and content delivery flaws which impact their ability to derive value from the site. As such, webmasters and SEO experts must work hard to prove true value to consumers by implementing useful design choices and strategic content delivery, which works to improve a customer’s experience while on your site.
This relies on these three main factors:
1. Confusing content
Effect: deceptive session duration data
While you may be after building traffic, it’s in your best interest to have high quality, value-adding and relevant content. Giving confusing or shallow content only serves to discredit your site as a potential source within your niche. Verbose explanations will peeve consumers out in search of concise, actionable content.
This applies whether you are a B2B or B2C website, especially as relates to your publishing about your products and/or services. Even though verbose content will likely mean that an user spends a longer time on your site, it will most often not lead to conversions, whether as email opt-ins or actual sales.
2. Slow site speed
Effect: Lower conversions, high bounce rate
The average consumer today is very impatient, and having slow-loading pages will not only lead to lower conversions, but it will also increase your bounce rates. Approximately, 40% of visitors will terminate a website that doesn’t load in three seconds or less. Depending on the site speed, these visits may not even be captured by Google Analytics, meaning that you could be losing visitors without even knowing it.
Google will penalize sites that have high bounce rates, which is a direct effect of slow-loading pages. You can use Google PageSpeed tools to determine the cause of delays in loading time and optimize your site accordingly.
3. Low quality photos/images
Effect: Lower referrals, lower rates of return traffic
The advancements in technology have left users less tolerant of bad imagery in websites. People are now exposed to high quality photos, which means that phony stock images and low-resolution images will threaten your authority in a consumer’s eyes. Do not settle for reduced referral and return traffic when you can invest in professional photography to improve your photos. Alternatively, use leverage tools like Canva which allow you to create custom images.