For some businesses, nothing can be more stressful than noticing a considerable drop in their website traffic. With most organisations today relying on their websites to drive up sales, a drop in website traffic can be very problematic.
Websites take a lot of time and effort to create and once they’re launched, they can generate leads and increase conversions for many years to come. However, losing traffic is a sure sign that something isn’t quite right with your website.
Even if you’ve done all the preliminary arrangements that are needed for a successful website, like optimising your content for SEO, there may have been a few things you might have overlooked, leading to a drop in traffic over time. Here are six possible reasons why you’re losing website traffic.
1. Your keywords are just not strong enough
Keywords play a huge role in Search Engine Optimisation, but if you don’t have the right keywords for your website, your SEO strategy might not be strong enough to retain traffic.
Many people assume that the right keywords are simply those that directly reference their business, for example, keywords like “blue jeans” or “summer dress” used on the website of a clothing store. But these are too generic and weak.
Google algorithms are more complex than you think, so more sophisticated keywords, like those referencing the location of the store, such as “clothing stores in Melbourne” would be more effective at retaining or bringing back your traffic.
Experiment with more sophisticated long-tailed keywords using a good keyword research tool and try to create the website’s content around the keywords. This way you can optimise your website better for the keywords you’ve chosen and retain your website traffic.
2. Your website isn’t user friendly
Nobody likes clunky websites, and that’s a fact. Even if your website has good keyword optimisation, your website will lose visitors if it isn’t user-friendly.
If your website is too cluttered, visitors will find it difficult to navigate your website or find what they’re looking for. Here are a few other things that can make a website non-user-friendly:
- Too much content
Having a lot of content is good, but too much content in unnecessary places will just make your web pages look overcrowded, making it hard for visitors to find CTAs and the information they want. Visitors want sharp and concise content that tells them exactly what they need to hear in as little time as possible.
- Difficult-to-read font
Using text that’s too small, difficult to read or in a colour that blends into the background can make for a poor user experience. If the visitors can’t read what you’re talking about, they won’t know what you’re all about.
- Poor organisation
If the contents and structure of your website are poorly organised, for example, setting buttons and search boxes in difficult-to-see spots or having popups that appear in an intrusive manner, it can make it hard for visitors to navigate through.
Also, having an incoherent flow of information,talking too much about you instead of what you can do for your customers can make visitors lose interest in your website very quickly.
- Too many visuals
Having too many pictures, gifs and videos can create visual overload and make it difficult for visitors to concentrate on the website content.
Fortunately, there are a few easy things you can do to declutter your website, such as:
- Removing “fluff” from content and only focusing on information that is relevant to your visitors.
- Using a colour scheme that is visually appealing and doesn’t clash with the website’s font.
- Using negative space to give the website a more minimalist style helps reduce visual noise.
Sometimes, simplicity is the best way to attract visitors to your website. For example, Apple uses a simple but very intuitive design that makes great use of negative space for its website. Also, It keeps text short but concise and doesn’t have unnecessary visuals.
3. Your website is too slow
No one has the time for a slow website. 53% of website visitors are likely to leave if a website takes more than three seconds to load even with high internet speed.
Your website may have become slower over the years, and this may happen due to several reasons, like:
- High-resolution images
If the images you use on your website have a large file size, they could cause slowdowns. Fortunately, most images can be compressed without losing their quality using applications like Photoshop.
- Too many videos and animations
Animations and videos can make your website look lively, but they can slow down your website too. It’s alright to keep a few videos, as they can help retain website traffic and increase engagement rates, but cutting down on unnecessary animations can help speed up your website.
- JavaScript issues
JavaScript plugins help make content on your website more dynamic, but if they’re poorly coded and have errors and inconsistencies, they can affect your website’s performance. To prevent this, carry out regular JavaScript audits to help you see if your plugins are working as they should.
4. Your content has errors and poor structuring
Many people visit websites hoping to find quality content, so if your website’s content isn’t up to standard, you’re likely to lose visitors.
Spelling errors, grammatical issues and generic content can make people lose interest in your website’s content. Also, the quality of your content should reflect the quality of your brand—poor content could impact your brand’s reputation.
Errors in content can be avoided easily by using tools like Grammarly and Hemmingway to make sure your content is free of any mistakes.
Also, the content needs to be properly structured. The flow of content should be perfect and sensible without having any randomly placed information.
5. Your brand doesn’t have enough social presence
If you want your website to continue getting a lot of visitors, you have to get your brand noticed. Today, social media is arguably the most effective way to get your brand into the spotlight.
Most internet users have social media accounts, and many of them use social media to look for products and services. This makes social media platforms a powerful tool for increasing a website and brand’s popularity.
By sharing the latest news, articles with valuable information, launching promotion campaigns and making regular posts about your website and brand on social media, you can make more people aware of what you have to offer. This will bolster interest in your brand and encourage people to visit your website to learn more about it.
6. Your site isn’t optimised for mobile
With nearly everyone owning a smartphone, having a website that’s not mobile-friendly is just inexcusable.
For many people, using the internet on their phones is more convenient than on their computers. Due to this, it’s imperative that your website needs to be optimised for mobile phones if you want to retain website traffic.
A few ways to make your website mobile-friendly include:
- Using a font that is large and clear enough to be read without needing to zoom in.
- Use buttons instead of links for easy clicking.
- Keep the content short and to the point.
With a website that’s well optimised for mobile, you’ll see traffic from both computer and smartphone users.
Keep your website buzzing with activity
Maintaining traffic isn’t just for famous websites like Forbes—every website needs to find ways to get people to visit them and keep its brand relevant.
While it can be difficult to do, with a bit of experimentation, like changing up your content and your SEO game, you can start winning back your website traffic, allowing you to generate more leads and conversions.