You’ve pulled out all the stops and have a great website. It is a work of art. Your products and services are industry-leading, and you believe your deals and promotions are too irresistible to ignore. So why are users leaving your dealership’s website in droves? What’s causing this mini stampede in the opposite direction?

According to the Nielsen Norman Group, the average page visit lasts less than a minute. Users typically don’t hang around for very long, so your pages have to work hard to keep them there. If not, they’re gone, leaving a trail of internet dust in their wake. Here are three of the most common reasons why people abandon websites before the minute is up.

Poor Content

Content is king and the key to a successful website. Your words must engage, inform, and educate your audience who have come to your site looking for answers and solutions to their problems. So before uploading your content, consider the following:

  • Is it grammatically correct?
  • Are the statistics up to date?
  • Is it well written and easy to understand?
  • Is it well organized?

If you answer “no” to any of these questions, apply the appropriate fixes before pressing the publish button.

Too Many Ads and Pop-Ups

Face facts: too many ads and pop-ups on a website are irritating beyond belief and a huge turnoff. No one ever said, “I really enjoyed seeing all those pop-ups while I was trying to read a company’s services page.” You know that when you’re a website visitor, you wouldn’t stand for a barrage of pop-ups, redirects, and advertisements, so don’t litter your website with them. Running a small number of these items discreetly can serve you well. Just don’t go overboard. Therefore, bear in mind the following tips:

  • Try not to make ads the first thing a visitor sees when landing on one of your pages.
  • Make sure ads don’t take up too much real estate on your pages.
  • Ensure your pop-ups don’t obscure the valuable content someone is trying to read.

Burdensome Registration Requirements

When visitors arrive at your website, don’t make them wait. They have come there for a purpose, and that purpose is not to fill out a registration form. Your website must be accessible and welcoming to your clients and potential clients; therefore, remove anything that acts as a barrier between you and your audience. If they must register, at least offer them something first, so they know what they’re signing up for. This could be a piece of content or even a demo video.

Conclusion

In the end, it all boils down to this: if you want visitors to stay on your dealership’s website, give them some pretty good reasons to do so. Focus your attention on improving the user experience. That way you’ll see longer visits, fewer bounce rates, and happier customers.