Have you ever been abandoned? In life, abandonment never feels good. Feeling the sting of rejection after someone leaves you is not exactly a walk in the park.
Hopefully, this is not something that happens very often in your life, but unfortunately it occurs regularly with websites. Your visitors are the “pickiest” people and the hardest to please. If you give them one reason to leave you, they will hightail out of there before you can even blink twice.
Don’t go running to your shrink. The problem isn’t you…it’s your website.
In some cases, up to 80% of a company’s website visitors are abandoning their websites and finding more suitable alternatives. Whether a full ecommerce site or simply a landing page, abandonment is a major issue for marketers and sometimes a touchy subject.
Step 1 is admitting that your website could be contributing to the problem. Once you realize the need for improvement, you can do something about it.
How can you enhance your visitors’ experience? Here are some tips and tools:
Maximize Load Time
How many seconds will a potential visitor wait for your website to load? If it takes longer than 4 seconds, you will be out of luck. Studies show that most internet users will not wait longer than 4 seconds for a website to load. Whether it is a slow server, too much Flash or an excess of plugins, figuring this out is the first step.
You can use some free external tools to measure load time such as Gomez, Keynote and Pingdom. These companies also offer web performance monitoring tools.
Here is a screenshot of Pingdom:
Readability
Juicy Studio is a free tool that provides readability scores for your site based on popular algorithms. Readability refers to the content on your site and its comprehension, legibility and the overall appreciation you would get from readers. It analyzes elements such as font size, spacing, words, etc.
Colors
The W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) released optimal color contrast algorithms which can test how legible your text is against a background. This tool from Check My Colours will test the contrast of your foreground against your website’s background. Generally, the greater the contrast, the more legible your text, which pleases the reader.
Browser Compatibility
Does your website work correctly in different browsers? Does it look and appear the same?
You can use the tool Browsershots and input your website to see how it looks in various browsers.
Usability Tools
Usability tools were designed to help you understand your visitors’ behaviors. From tracking their line of sight and activity, to listening to testers interact with and use your website, there are many useful tools available that can decrease your abandonment rate considerably.
The below are paid tools and services. They offer detailed analytics and are a good choice if you are seriously concerned about lowering your abandonment rates.
1. User Testing
User Testing is a low-cost usability testing service. It employs testers who visit your site and perform a task or series of tasks as per your instructions. The users vocalize their thoughts while going through your website and follow it up with answers to questions you designate. The test can give you some insight as to why a visitor might abandon your site. You choose the user based on demographics and receive a video of the recorded session.
2. Crazy Egg
Crazy Egg is another low cost tool that offers website owners insight into visitors’ behaviors.
Some of the services are:
- Heatmap – Provides a picture of your website and where people click
- Scroll map tool – This tool shows at what point people abandon the page after scrolling down.
- Overlay tool – Displays what elements are being clicked on
- Confetti tool – This tool will segment the highest number of clicks by referral sources and search terms.
3. ClickTale
ClickTale is a combination of the services offered by User Testing and Crazy Egg. It allows participants to watch videos of users navigating through your website while providing valuable feedback about where they are clicking, scrolling, and moving. ClickTale also includes a limited free plan so you can try before you buy.
4. Feedback Army
For $20, Feedback Army will give you feedback from ten user testers. You can post ten questions and receive answers within hours.
5. Ethnio
Ethnio allows you to recruit participants in live time instead of scheduling testers to review your site. You will screen visitors live and once you decide who you want to use for further usability testing, you can recruit this person to participate in an interview or fill out an online assessment. The user can also be directed to the toolsOptimal Workshop, Usabilla or Usertesting.com or wherever you designate.
Take one of these tools for a spin. Many of them offer low cost or even free trials, so you have nothing to lose.
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