Things Customers Hate About Your Website

July 12, 2018

Finding out what people like and dislike about your website is not always an easy task. You can’t monitor exactly what they are feeling at the time, and customers are not always the most willing to give feedback. In fact, a pop-up with a survey may actually be one of the most annoying features of a website!
But you there are certainly some common themes which crop up time and time again when people are asked about their pet hates on websites. The last thing that you want to do is to make people leave your site before they have found out about your business or made a purchase. Here is a list of some of the most common things which frustrate people about websites.
Your Loading Time is Too Slow
In the modern world of superfast WiFi, customers have become extremely impatient when it comes to waiting for websites to load. The best time to optimise your site is when it is being build (check out html5 templates if you are in the process of doing this at the moment) but you can do it afterwards as well. There are a number of different ways in which you can make your site slicker including resizing the images, keeping your video content hosted elsewhere, and limiting your site sliders.
It’s Hard to Navigate
Customers want to be able to find what they are looking for in the shortest possible time rather than clicking endlessly through tabs. So, you should make your site headings clear, and you should always make the option to go back to important parts of your site like the homepage or checkout straightforward. It is worth running some tests beforehand and giving some people who have never seen your site before some things to find, before measuring exactly how long it takes for them to do so.
It Doesn’t Work Well on Phones and Tablets
You need to be prepared for the fact that more and more web searches are being done through smartphones and tablets these days. Sure, your site may look fantastic when viewed from a laptop, but you need to keep up with the modern consumer and what they are doing. The first and most obvious step that you can take is to make your website responsive. Make sure that you view your website through a wide range of different devices to check that it works well through all of them.
The Information is Outdated or Incorrect
While fresh content makes your business look like it has its finger on the pulse, information which is outdated and incorrect makes it look like you are behind the times. As well as updating your blog page on a regular basis, you also need to be checking back through the other parts of your site and refreshing them as needed. When people see things which are incorrect on one part of your site, they are inevitably going to start wondering what else you have got wrong, and whether your business can be relied upon at all.
Contact Info Which is Difficult to Locate
Of course, you want to make sure that your website conveys a wide range of information, but you also want to make it easier for your customers to get in touch with you whenever they would like to. A general contact form can seem impersonal, and you need to accept that some customers are always going to prefer the more direct approach that you can only get from a phone call. Even if you run an online business, you should still make sure that you have an address listed as this makes your company look more genuine and professional.
Too Many Pop-Ups
There is no doubt that pop-ups can be a useful tool to the average website owner, but you also need to consider the fact that many people find them to be annoying and disruptive to their overall experience. If you are going to use them, it is worth doing so sparingly. You don’t want to provide too many interruptions to the experience of using your website. And you should also consider what you are trying to get your customers to do in the first place by using this tool.
In an ideal world, everyone would love your website, but you can’t assume that this is going to be the case. However, you can avoid the common pitfalls and traps which turn people off and make them leave your site.

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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