Business owners often put a lot of time and money into their website, and if you were personally involved in the project, then you’ll no doubt be proud of what you’ve helped to build. However, it can be difficult to look at your own site objectively. If you’re experiencing low conversion rates or high abandonment rates, there could well be a design or technical aspect of your site that’s putting people off. Here are some of the main offenders and how to fix them.

1. Slow loading

Visitors to your website will give up very quickly if your pages aren’t loading. In fact, around 30% of customers would abandon a website that took more than six seconds to load. There’s even an incredibly impatient 3% who’ll give up if your website doesn’t load on their mobile in a single second! If your site doesn’t load, it’s likely that people will just click ‘back’ and visit a competitor instead.

Luckily, slow loading is usually easy to fix. If you have a WordPress site, using a hosting platform such as Onyx.io will decrease loading times. A few tweaks such as compressing images, removing unnecessary plug ins and social sharing buttons, and enabling caches can make a big difference.

2. Navigation is difficult

When someone arrives at your website, there need to be clear calls to action (CTAs) to direct them through your site. Or, if they are looking for something specific, they should be able to easily use buttons, menus, and search to find it. If they arrive at a page and simply can’t find what they want, they’ll soon leave, no matter how beautiful your website looks.

3. They’re bombarded with pop-ups

Nothing is more annoying than trying to read text or look at a product image and suddenly being presented with a great big box, taking over the site and begging for your e-mail address or participation in a survey. There are ways to use website pop-ups without annoying your customers. For example, using them sparingly, using the right content, and never using annoying animations or auto-playing videos.

4. People can’t find a way to contact you

Whether it’s a question about a product or a problem with their payment, there are lots of reasons why people may want to contact you. In these cases, they’ll want to be able to easily find your e-mail address or phone number, and generally, people don’t trust online contact forms, as they can’t be sure whether you’ve received their enquiries or if they’ll receive record of their message. While it’s not a legal requirement, you should put your business name and ABN number on your website, as it’ll show you’re a legitimate Australian business, and your site will seem more trustworthy if you include a physical address.

5. Your site is too generic

If you come across a website that’s obviously been built on a template and has stock photos and repetitive content stuffed with SEO keywords, it’s easy to assume it’s a spam or scam site. Make sure your website is personalised, whether it’s with some relevant content, some decent photos, or by simply displaying your phone number in the header so people know they can call you if things go wrong.

Your website is your business’s way of reaching out to the world, so it’s important that you look at it through a critical gaze. Think about your own experiences of using websites and the things that annoy you, as this will help you think more objectively about your own.