First impressions are lasting impressions.

And on the internet, first impressions begin with web design.

Good web design is hard. But bad web design is unforgivable.

The way people perceive your website will have a direct affect on how successful you are.

Each bounce (visitor only viewing one page before leaving) is a lost sale. And those lost sales add up.

Here are 8 examples of bad web design that makes your visitors leave.

What Makes People Leave a Website?

Source: What Makes Someone Leave A Website?

Marketing Takeaways

Do a quick audit of your website. How does it measure up?

1. Navigation: Are you main pages highlighted and grouped? Is it easy to find them?
2. Ad Placement: Is your ad layout tasteful? Or do you have them crammed in to fit as many as possible? If you have a corporate or business website, then are ads really necessary?
3. Structure: How easy is it to find your main content? Your site architecture should be as flat as possible.
4. Audio & Video: Are you using audio and video effectively? If you are, then make sure the user can control when they want to hear or see it!
5. User Registration: Does you user really need to sign up to view everything? What (value) can you provide them to make it worth their time, effort, and privacy?
6. Boring: Is your website boring? (And there’s a difference between minimal and boring.) Is your copy boring? Does it sound like corporate jargon and nonsense?
7. Poor Legibility: How is your typography and color scheme choice? Are they complimentary?
8. Frequency: When was your site last updated? It should be weekly at the very least! The best way to accomplish this is to start blogging. But not about you. Blog about your customers, and what they’re interested in.

These 8 reasons literally push people away from your website.

But good web design isn’t just a color scheme and layout. You need to make sure your site is easy to navigate, and people find what they want.

This means focusing on usability.

The organization of your web pages affects your search engine optimization, and conversion rates.

And these affect the goals of your website.

Ask yourself these questions today.

See if changes in design and usability improve your performance metrics.

I bet they will.