7 reasons why website visitors leave without taking any action – here’s how to get them to stay
Summary:
- Visitors don’t always leave because they’re not interested. Often, the website simply makes navigating it too much of a hassle.
- A clear next step, recognising the visitor’s needs and the immediate benefits to be gained lower the threshold for continuing.
- A good website doesn’t just tell you what a company has to offer. It asks questions, responds and helps visitors find their way around.
You’ve managed to spark their interest and they’ve found their way to your website. So, the first step is already behind you.
But then comes the most important question: how many of your visitors actually end up doing something on your website?
The problem isn’t always a lack of traffic. A visitor may be genuinely interested in what you have to offer, but if the next step is unclear, seems too daunting or offers no benefit at that precise moment, they will easily leave.
So it’s not always the case that the visitor isn’t interested. They may simply have to put in too much effort to make any progress.
Here are seven common areas where friction arises – and what you can do about them.
Visitors are given too many options
Services. Solutions. Case studies. Blog. Guides. Company. About us. Team. Customer stories. Frequently asked questions. Pricing. Contact us. Book a demo. Request a quote.
And then there are three more buttons on the same screen.
From your company’s point of view, everything seems important. From the visitor’s point of view, the end result may essentially be:
Which of these should I go to?
When there are too many options, a website doesn’t really help you choose. It leaves the choice up to the visitor. And the less the visitor knows about the company’s services, the harder the decision is.
What to do:
Make the next step as clear as possible. If the user has several needs, you don’t have to try to address everything through the navigation; instead, you can ask, for example: “What do you want to achieve?” and, based on their answer, guide them to the right content or service.
The value proposition remains unclear
A visitor arrives on the page and quickly tries to find out three things:
What do you offer? Is this for me? Why should I be interested?
If it takes a few paragraphs of industry jargon to get to the answer, they might leave before they realise that the service might actually be right for them.
“We help our customers succeed with comprehensive, agile and customer-focused solutions” may sound good within the company. To a visitor, it tells them absolutely nothing.
What to do:
Start with what the customer gets. Explain clearly how your service benefits them. Test your value proposition on people who aren’t already familiar with your company. If they find themselves asking what exactly you do, your value proposition still needs some work.
The CTA is too generic
“Get in touch.”
It’s a classic feature of websites – and that’s precisely why it’s worth taking a moment to consider what you’re actually asking the visitor to do.
In the visitor’s mind, this could mean a sales call, a meeting, an offer or, at the very least, some form of commitment.
That’s quite a big step for someone who may have only heard of your company for the first time two minutes ago.
Not everyone is ready to talk to the sales representative just yet. However, that doesn’t mean they aren’t interested in taking the next step.
What to do:
Suggest a smaller next step that is more appropriate for the situation:
“Find the solution that’s right for you.”
“Get a quote.”
“Tell us what you need.”
“Try out which option suits you best.”
The form asks for too much too soon
Name. Company. Telephone number. Email. Job title. Message. Perhaps also the company’s size and turnover, just to be on the safe side.
For a business, this is valuable information. For a visitor, it’s a chore.
The more you ask for before the user has received anything in return, the easier you make it for them to leave the page.
What to do:
Turn the approach on its head. Start by offering something useful – a recommendation, a review, a calculation or an answer. Only ask for their contact details once the user understands what they’re getting in return.
The form doesn’t seem quite so daunting if there’s something genuinely valuable waiting on the other side.
The visitor’s requirement is not recognised
A traditional website tells you a lot, but asks very little.
The same list of services, the same content and the same CTA are shown to the user, regardless of whether they are looking for information on the topic for the first time or comparing two service providers before making a purchase decision.
From a visitor’s point of view, this means a lot of scrolling and not much help.
What to do:
Ask one or two simple questions. The answers can help you recommend a suitable service, piece of content, product or next step.
At the same time, something interesting is happening from the company’s point of view: you’re starting to gain an insight into what website visitors actually want.
It’s not just about which pages they click on.
The visitor does not derive any immediate benefit
If every path ultimately leads to a “leave your contact details and we’ll get in touch” box, the website is primarily serving the company’s needs rather than those of the customer.
However, a visitor might wonder:
What’s in it for me right now?
What to do:
Give them something straight away: a recommendation, a result, an assessment, a calculation, a tip, a comparison or personalised content.
Good interaction is based on a give-and-take: the user shares something about themselves and gets something useful in return.
That way, the process feels like a service, not data collection.
Everyone is offered the same path
A visitor exploring the subject for the first time and a customer ready to make a purchase do not need the same thing.
Do they need the same web path?
Probably not.
Yet on many websites, both groups are shown exactly the same content, in the same order and with the same call to action.
What to do:
Let the visitor’s needs, goals or circumstances influence what they see next.
Personalisation doesn’t have to mean a complex AI system. Even a single well-chosen question can direct visitors along more relevant paths.
A good website reduces the amount of work for visitors
Ultimately, these seven problems are linked by one rather simple factor:
Visitors end up having to do too much themselves.
At its best, a website doesn’t leave people to browse through dozens of pages on their own. It asks questions, listens, responds and helps them find the next step.
A good website does not leave all the decision-making to the visitor. It does some of the work for them.