Eye-Opening Website Statistics: Is Your Website Costing You Clients?
It’s 2022—so you’ve probably realized by now that your website has an effect on the perceived credibility and quality of your business.
But very few people know just how colossal this effect actually is.
In fact, many businesses struggle to turn underperforming websites into websites that actually boost credibility and client acquisition.
Today, we’re going to present staggering statistics about websites, and how users interact with them, filling your digital toolbox with strategies on how to change your website from client-repellent to enticing, user-friendly and conversion-driven.
Let’s get started!
Eye-Opening Statistics About User Experience, Website First Impressions, and Website Design That You Should Be Taking Very Seriously
57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile
Ok, so here’s where responsive web design comes into play:
Websites that are not mobile responsive are by nature poorly designed, because they don’t provide an optimal user experience.
No company wants its website visitors to be wary of referring them.
85% of adults think that a company’s website when viewed on a mobile device should be as good or better than its desktop website.
Have a website that users need to pinch and zoom on their mobile devices to view? That user is as good as gone—and they should be able to figure that out in 0.05 seconds.
Nowadays, all website should feature responsive web design. In other words, the display of the website should adjust based on the pixel width of the website upon which it’s being viewed.
If you have a responsive website, aspect ratio becomes less important, because the priority is filling the screen on every device in a way that is legible, compelling and easy to navigate.
As of Q2 2018, smartphones held a 63% share of all retail website visits
If smartphones alone account for 63% of retail website visits, there must be a gap in the quality of retail mobile sites that causes conversion rates to be lower.
Still, 63%—a number primed to be bolstered by retailers putting more effort into their mobile shopping experiences—should be a large enough slice of the pie to drive retailers with poor mobile experiences to action.
38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout are unattractive
Congratulations! You got past the 0.05 seconds of doom. Now what?
Well, you’re not quite out of the weeds yet! In fact, any snag a user hits on your site—whether it’s related to design or navigation—can be fatal to your chances of turning that user into a lead.
How to fix it:
Moral of the story?
Not all websites that look good initially are good at getting the job done and converting users into leads and customers. In fact, if a website slips up at any point, users have made it clear that they won’t tolerate it.
Of course, dropdown menus with oodles of nested content aren’t the only layout and navigation flaw in the book. There are thousands—and the only real way to find them on your website is to understand how users interact with it.
Remember, even books with great covers can get put down halfway through. Make sure your website is well designed and well structured from start to finish.
Speaking of which:
88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience
The internet doesn’t hand out second chances. In fact, everything we’ve learned so far tells us that bad website design, outdated aesthetics and low usability are major credibility killers.
Try to get to the root of the issue.
If your website hasn’t been updated or redesigned in 5 years, the answer is probably pretty simple: Implement some of our design tips from above and create a modern, responsive website.
But what if you recently completed a redesign and find that many users are bouncing, and your conversion rates are lower than expected?
Here’s a helpful guide with tools you can implement to improve your website’s User Experience and conversion rates.
Need more motivation?
77% of agencies believe that a bad website User Experience is a weakness for their clients.
This makes bad UX the most significant weakness agencies identified
It seems as if there may be a pattern here:
User experience and design are not separate concepts. They couldn’t be more connected.
75% of consumers admit to making judgements on a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design
When you think about it, it’s pretty incredible that the credibility of a company is so powerfully linked to the aesthetic quality of its website.
But it’s 2022, and a website serves as a window into the way a company operates. As such, it needs to exude credibility in every sense of the word.
How to fix it:
When it comes to portraying credibility on a company website, step one is to have a modern, updated design that shows your company cares about its digital presence. This includes implementing all of the aspect ratio, image, font and layout information we discussed above.
But credibility is also driven through a website’s content, and content should always go hand in hand with design.
What do I mean?
A website’s content can be anything from images or videos displayed on the site to blocks of text describing your services, or a large headline. The way these pieces of content are integrated with your site’s design is just as important as what they say.
Good design relies on a seamless integration of quality, informative, and credibility-boosting content into the overall fabric of the site.
Make sure that your website’s content—whether in the form of images or text—reinforces its design. This way high quality aesthetics are bolstered with evidence of success, brand-defining statements, and images that keep users interested and engaged.
70% of small business websites lack a Call to Action (CTA) on their homepage
Believe it or not, users want to know what your website wants them to do. They may not always do it, but that’s a different story.
Your website is a great credibility boosting tool that serves to inform users on your products or suite of services—but most importantly, it’s your online point of sale.
If I get locked out of my house and I urgently search Google for “locksmith near me”, I need help right away. If a website lacks a clear way for me to immediately get in contact once I’ve briefly vetted the company, what’s the point?
How to fix it:
A locksmith is an example of a commonly used service that requires immediate action, but even companies with a longer sales cycle can benefit immensely from having some sort of call to action on their homepage.
It tells users what you have to offer while making it as easy as possible to purchase a product or request a service.
The type of CTA you feature will depend on the type of business you run, but if your homepage lacks one, users will choose to go elsewhere.
In 2020, mobile ecommerce revenue accounted for 60% of total U.S. e-commerce revenue
60% of US ecommerce revenue is already happening on mobile devices.
It logically follows that with the projected increase in overall mobile share of internet traffic that this number will go up as well.
In fact many retailers are already known for their great mobile shopping experience and others are making significant improvements to theirs.
Those who are not may cease to exist in the near future.
What does it all mean?
Your website is a magnet for judgement—and this judgement isn’t limited to the website itself—it carries over into the way users perceive the company as a whole.
A bad website can tarnish a company’s credibility significantly—but a quality website can help a company extend its sphere of influence and create leads.
Responsive web design also plays a massive role in this. If a user has to pinch to zoom in and out on your website, there’s a good chance they will just leave instead.
For you, the difference between these two outcomes could be as simple as making adjustments that change the way users perceive your website the first time they interact with it.
Website first impressions matter. Make them count.