These 7 Issues Can Affect Your Website’s Performance and Conversions

Unbeknownst to many, all websites only have seven seconds to impress their visitors. What would you do if you were to improve your website to wow your audience? Would you improve your navigation? Update the design elements? Or perhaps you’ll create more content?

Websites are expected to improve continuously if they want to keep up with the industry’s ever-changing demands. Doing so will keep them more flexible and make future digital strategies and maintenance easier to handle.

Before hiring an expert in web design services for your Hartford, CT, business, you must first know the seven most prominent issues affecting your website’s performance and conversions, according to Hartford Web Design Pros.

1. Slow Loading Time

Did you know that as page load time increases from one second to 10 seconds, a website’s bounce rate can increase up to 123%? While this figure is undoubtedly jaw-dropping, it’s also an excellent reminder for web admins to emphasize their page’s load speed. Every second counts when it comes to search engine rankings, and consumers have little to no patience for slow pages.

You can say the same for a website’s conversion rate. The same article states that the more a page’s element increases (from 400 to 6,000), the more likely its conversion will drop (up to 95%!). On-page elements such as excessive ads, embedded files, and improperly implemented visual aesthetics can drastically slow down a website.

2. Unresponsive Page Design

Unresponsive design is perhaps the most common reason visitors don’t stick around particular websites. According to StatCounter’s data, this September 2022, the majority of internet website traffic comes from mobile devices (58.72%), with desktops (39.18%) and tablets (2.1%) following the lead.

To say that mobile has surpassed desktop web traffic is a massive understatement. With this in mind, you must understand the importance of a responsive website design. You will face exceedingly high bounce rates if your website can’t respond well to mobile use. Mobile-friendliness is a confirmed Google ranking factor, so if your website is not responsive, don’t expect it to rank optimally.

3. Complicated Navigation Menu

A website’s navigation menu aims to help site visitors navigate around your website. The more unorganized your navigation, the more likely your visitors will bounce off your site. No user will gladly spend extra seconds of their time understanding your navigation system, so making your menu as simple as possible is essential. Doing so will increase the chances of your visitors investing more of their time on your website, thus resulting in lower bounce rates.

4. Broken Links

So imagine this: you’re searching for the term “same-day flower delivery near me.” You saw a thumbnail with the best flower arrangement you’ve ever seen, and you’re willing to buy it ASAP. But once you click on the link, you’re faced with the legendary message “ERROR 404: Page not found!”. Isn’t that annoying?

Broken links won’t only annoy your potential customers, but they can also prevent your visitors from completing their desired goal, which can be highly frustrating. Taking your website’s broken links for granted will significantly hurt your business’s reputation and revenue.

Additionally, broken links such as 404 pages can restrict link juice flow within your website. This phenomenon will negatively affect your rankings because search engines don’t want to recommend websites that provide a poor user experience.

5. Too Much Clutter

There’s nothing wrong with being creative with your web design, but too much clutter can repel potential visitors from using your website. If your website has too much clutter, it can ruin your visitors’ user experience because it prevents them from quickly accessing the content that they want. And in the case of B2B buyers, they’re more likely to dodge unorganized websites since it’s more confusing, even if these websites manage to showcase a few points across. Remember: simplicity is key.

6. Lack of Call-to-Actions

You must incorporate anchor call-to-action in your content to increase your conversion rates. Doing so allowed Hubspot to enjoy an increased conversion rate of 121%. In their case, they’ve placed at least one anchor text and two images CTAs.

You must publish content with a purpose. If your content aims to sell a product, you can incorporate a CTA with a message like “Buy Now” or “Click Here” to reduce your user’s decision fatigue and help them hit the button and purchase your product.

7. Hard-To-Find Contact Details

With the increasing number of fake websites and scammers on the internet, nobody can blame people for getting skeptical. Fake websites posing as legitimate businesses continue to extract sensitive personal information from users, even up to this date. So if you want your website to appear trustworthy and lawful, you need to place your contact information where it’s easy to find, like the top-right corner of your pages.