Do you know that almost 90% of online users won’t visit a website again if their initial experience isn’t good?
Or that nearly half gauge the credibility of a business by how well its website is designed?
If your response to one or both of these questions is ‘no’, then you’re not alone.
Poor website design
Judging by the number of websites I see that are poorly designed, many business owners think that simply launching a website is ‘job done’ and that they can move on to other things.
Yet if your website is slow to load, hard to navigate, out of date, short on information and/or difficult to read, what purpose does it serve?
You might be running a great business but, if findings recently revealed by Forbes Advisor in its Top Website Statistics For 2023 are accurate, prospective customers might be put off because you’re not treating your website as the valuable asset it should be.
Slow sites lose customers
With both internet speeds and people’s expectations rising, a slow website can be a real turn-off, with – notes Forbes Advisor – 47% of users not prepared to wait for longer than two seconds for a website to load and 40% leaving a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.
Mobile website users are also getting more impatient, ‘with many citing less than three seconds as their threshold for an acceptable load time’ says Forbes.
Those users who do stay are likely to form an opinion about a website in an incredibly short time: your site might have just 0.05 seconds to make a good impression and keep someone engaged.
Even so, almost two thirds (61%) will move on if they don’t find what they’re looking for within about five seconds.
Videos increase engagement
In terms of engaging visitors’ interest, the average user spends more time watching videos (six minutes) than looking at written content (5.59 seconds). But videos need to be managed carefully if they’re not to slow your site down to the point at which people give up and try elsewhere.
Interestingly, users spend an average of 6.44 seconds looking at the main navigation menu, which suggests that too many menus are difficult – and therefore time-consuming – to navigate.
Other statistics that caught my eye are that 42.4% of websites are created with WordPress, and that it takes an average of three months to design a basic website. That three-month period is supposedly due to factors such as complexity and availability of the design team – though in my own experience, one of the biggest causes of delay is clients’ failing to provide content in a timely manner.
What is your users’ experience?
To return to where we started …
The design of a website can have a significant influence on how someone perceives the business behind it. According to surveys, 57% of users ‘won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website’ and 38% ‘won’t engage with a website if its layout is unattractive’.
That suggests that large proportions of prospective customers might see a website and just think ‘no way’.
Don’t let your site be one of those. Take some time to think about how a visitor might experience your website. Does it load quickly, is it visually appealing, straightforward to navigate, and have content that people can easily read and understand?
If your site isn’t ticking these boxes, then it might be giving people a poor impression of your business.
Not confident checking your site yourself? Then ask me for a free, no-obligation, website assessment – or learn more about my website hosting and design services.
