These 5 Issues Can Kill Your Website Engagement

Websites are like flowers. You need to feed them with good content and water them with clean design. Make sure your structure allows for it to grow properly and that you’re carefully curating who can handle it. However, there are always weeds in the flower garden – sometimes accidentally planted by us. Here are 5 of the biggest issues that kill website engagement.

Overly excited chat bots

Chat bots can be a massive benefit to your website, particularly if there’s a lot of information through which to navigate. However, nothing scares visitors away faster than a chat box popping up as soon as they reach your website. They can turn on faster than an improperly timed sprinkler system as you’re walking through a nice park. You don’t expect them, you can’t escape them, and you’re left annoyed. Chat bots should be well-placed and in areas where a visitor might need a bit more assistance – not as an attention-grabbing attempt at ‘customer service.’

Not snagging information

You can spend hours crafting an effective footer. You can A/B test landing pages for weeks. But if your website doesn’t lead people to capture information, it’s all for naught. Make sure your pages ultimately circle back to engagement. For tips on making enticing information bars, check out this article.

Underestimating traffic

Not everyone’s website needs the ability to handle hundreds of thousands of people at one time. In keeping with the gardening analogy, some people are growing cacti, others grow peonies, and others have a rose bush. Each type need different sized pots to live without getting choked out. Underestimating your traffic, however, is often more devastating than overestimating. Make sure you’re hosting for the busiest times. At Solodev, we prepare websites for spikes and droughts in traffic thanks to the AWS Cloud.

Not optimizing for mobile

Smart devices are practically glued to the hands of millions. Having a website that doesn’t look good on an iPhone won’t just frustrate the user; it implies that you’re still stuck in an era where bag phones and high-volume hair still reign supreme. Don’t get stuck.

Make sure your website is attractive when read on a smartphone or tablet. Don’t forget responsive images and seamless design to make it appear that you planned for mobile all along. At Solodev, we understand the mobile-first mentality. Check out our strategies to optimize for smart devices for more help. 

Relying too much on plugins

It's tempting to look to yet another plugin as the savior for your website. However, plugin after plugin often lead to sluggish websites. Sluggish websites lead to slow loads, and slow loading websites normally spell out disaster for maintaining engaged visitors. Less than 30 percent of website visitors are willing to wait longer than 10 seconds for a website to load. 

Solodev offers smart and functional designs with the support of talented web developers – all while maintaining an affordable price.