Why Your Website Is Repelling Customers (And How to Fix It)

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Have you ever wondered why people visit your website but leave without taking any action? You’ve spent countless hours crafting content, designing pages, and sharing your passion, but your site just isn’t bringing in clients.

The truth is, your website could be actively repelling potential customers—and you might not even know it! In today’s episode, we’ll uncover the top reasons why your website might be pushing people away, how to recognize the signs, and most importantly, how to fix it.

Stick around, because I’ll also share one simple change you can make today to instantly boost your website’s conversion rate. Let’s make sure your site is attracting—not repelling—your ideal clients! 

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Episode Transcript

Carrie Saunders (00:01):
Have you ever wondered why people visit your
website but leave without takingaction?
You spent countless hourscrafting content, designing
pages and sharing your passion,but your site just isn't
bringing in clients.
The truth is, your websitecould be actively repelling
customers, and you might noteven know it.
So in today's episode, we'regoing to cover the top reasons

(00:23):
why your website might bepushing people away, how to
recognize the signs and, mostimportantly, how to fix it.
Welcome to the e-commerce madeeasy podcast.
I'm your host, k Saunders.
When we started this business,all I had was a couch, a laptop
and a nine-month-old.
My main goal To help others.
Now, with over 20 years in thee-commerce building industry,

(00:43):
and even more than that in webdevelopment, I have seen a lot.
I love breaking down the hardtech into easily understandable
bits to help others besuccessful in their online
business.
Whether you're a seasonede-commerce veteran or just
starting out, you've come to theright place, so sit back, relax

(01:03):
and let's dive into the worldof e-commerce together.
Welcome back to the show.
In today's episode, we'retalking about how to fix our
websites and why they might berepelling customers.
So one of the first things wewant to look at is a confusing
or cluttered design.
Really take a step back andlook at your website from an
objective point of view, or havea trusted business friend look
at it too, especially one thatis not really familiar with it.

(01:26):
We want a website that isvisually appealing and calm.
We don't want one that isoverwhelming and makes visitors
feel lost or frustrated.
So having that white space isreally key here.
So some signs to look for thatyou might have a confusing or
cluttered design is high bouncerates.

(01:46):
So that means if you're lookingat Google Analytics, if you see
what they call the bounce rate,where they visited one page and
left high, then that couldindicate a problem.
We also want to look at thetime spent on the page.
If the time spent on the pageis really low, then that also
can mean that they'reoverwhelmed or it's not the
right fit.
So one of the things you can doto fix it is really simplify

(02:11):
your design, and I alreadyalluded to this.
But white space is key.
We want to have white spacestrategically on your website.
You want to focus on clean andclear layouts.
So really think about your home.
Let's take your kitchen, forexample.
So your kitchen, when it'scluttered and you have all the
appliances everywhere, all thesnacks everywhere, maybe even

(02:32):
some dishes everywhere.
It's pretty overwhelming to goin that kitchen and want to cook
dinner, right.
But when it's nice and tidy andclean, you feel welcomed and
invited into that kitchen andyou're more likely to cook
dinner, whether you like cookingor not.
It's kind of similar to and youcan even think about this in
stores that you go shop in.
Whenever you go into a storethat's cluttered maybe they're

(02:55):
restocking the shelves orsomething, and it's really
cluttered and things are allover the place you don't really
want to shop there.
But no, it's nice and clean andthere's white space.
There's a space you know,around you, you feel spacious.
Then you're going to want toshop there a bit more.
So it's very similar to ourwebsites.
We want to create that whitespace and create room for their

(03:17):
places, for their eyes to landfor one, because if there's too
many things to look at, theireyes won't ever stop and land
and read on something.
So let's take a look at yourhomepage after you're listening
to this.
Is it easy to understand at aglance?
If not, make some adjustments,take some things out that maybe
you really would like to have inthere but aren't really that

(03:38):
necessary on especially like thehomepage or something, and put
them somewhere else on your page.
And then we also want to lookfor a vague or inconsistent
messaging.
So if your message isn'tcrystal clear, visitors don't
know why they should stay or whythey should trust you.
So you can look for lack ofengagement in your website, and

(04:00):
this kind of goes along with thebounce rate.
So if people aren't visitingmore than one page on your
website, you may be repellingthem.
It may be unclear what you havethere and they may be leaving
your site quickly.
So this is another reason forthat high bounce rate or the low
time on a page.

(04:20):
So really take a look at it.
We want to be very direct andspecific about what you do and
how you help, because we can'thelp everybody.
You know, with our businesseswe are the right person, the
right fit for specific people.
People are attracted to us ourpersonality, our.

(04:40):
You know, our morals, our goalsand things like that, and so be
really specific about who youare and who you serve, and
that's going to draw in thosecorrect people that are there
for you.
And make sure your language isconsistent across all your pages
.
So make sure there isn't anymismatched messaging across your

(05:02):
pages.
So look at your homepage.
Rewrite your headlines to makethem.
Make sure they're compelling,clearly state your offer or your
value proposition in them.
Make sure that is definitelydialed in if you don't already
have that dialed in.
And if that's dialed in, thenstart going to your body text
and making sure it's very welldialed in to your target

(05:22):
customer.
And then something we talk abouton the podcast a lot is slow
load times and mobile issues.
So people expect quick, easyaccess to websites.
If your site is taking too longto load, they're likely not
going to stick around andconsume the content.
They're just going to leave andfind the next person on their

(05:42):
search result.
So look again for high bouncerates, especially from mobile
users, and look for peopleleaving within seconds, like
really fast.
If they are leaving within, say, five seconds or less, then
that's probably a slow websiteproblem.
We have some resources on how tofix some of this and we'll put
those in the show notes.

(06:02):
One of them is compressing ourimages making sure that our
images are the right size formobile, because our phones and
our cameras take such highquality images now but they're
just too big for the internetand for the website, and I want
you to make sure you're testingyour website on both desktop and
mobile.
This is something that even us,as developers can sometimes

(06:24):
forget, because we're just soused to working on websites on
our PCs and many times you willbe working on your website on
your PC, not on your phone, butmake sure you sit back and look
at it on mobile, too.
That just is one of thosethings we have to put on our
checklist that we make sure wedon't forget, and you can use
tools like Google PageSpeedInsights, which is free, to find

(06:46):
areas to improve.
We will link to that in theshow notes as well.
So I want to challenge you tocheck your site speed today and
notice any red flags and, ifthere are things that you don't
know how to fix, and find atrusted service provider like us
or somebody you already knowthat is already working on your
website, to fix these issues.
And this is something I wouldrecommend checking at least once

(07:07):
a month, if not every otherweek, depending on how often you
update your website information.
And then, speaking of mobile,when you're doing that, google
PageSpeed Insights one of thosetabs in there is going to be
mobile.
So make sure you check both thedesktop and the mobile version
of the speed of your website,and it generally will give you

(07:28):
information on if you have someissues with viewability, too, on
mobile.
So we talked about a few commonmistakes that we can have with
our website and I want to recapsome of those key performance
indicators that there'ssomething wrong.
So when your bounce rate ishigh, that's just indicating
that either the messaging isincorrect, the site is

(07:49):
potentially too slow or thewrong people are landing on your
site.
So are they leaving after justone page?
Also, average time on page arethey spending less than 30
seconds?
If it's even less than five or10 seconds, then you know you
probably have a speed issue.
So if the time on the page islow, then you know there's one
of these issues are probablywrong and all your call to

(08:11):
action is being clicked orignored.
You can actually use some freetools.
There's a Google plugin forGoogle Chrome that you can use
to see what they're clicking onand how they're going through
your website.
So are your call to actionsbeing clicked or ignored?
So if you want to do a simpleassessment without using any of
the technology or using minimaltechnology.

(08:32):
If technology is not yourfriend, you can always have an
actual friend in person orcolleague, navigate your website
and point out anythingconfusing.
This is great.
I want to make sure that youpick somebody that is really
nice and objectionable to andisn't super familiar with your
website.
If they're already familiarwith the website, they're not
going to find the things thatpotential new strangers to your

(08:53):
website are going to find.
So make sure there is somebodythat's great at giving back
honest feedback and that they'renot familiar with your website,
and you're going to get a lotbetter information from them if
you do that.
So there's one simple changeright now that you can do,
besides the ones that I'vealready talked about, that can
help you make better conversionrates on your website.

(09:14):
So if you're feelingoverwhelmed with any of these
fixes I've already talked about,here's one easy change I want
you to look at and make today.
I want you to look at your callto action Really.
Look at it, and we have Mac inthe background.
You might be able to hear him.
He's decided it's time to talkon the podcast.
Yeah, I know, okay.

(09:35):
So let's get back to what we'retalking about.
So I want you to update yourcall to action.
So we want to make sure it'sclear, direct and
action-oriented.
So, instead of learn more, usewords.
Something like start yourjourney now, get your free guide
today, book your freeconsultation Now.
These are, you know, more wordsthan we're used to seeing if
you've been on the internet fora while, but there's just so

(09:59):
much out there.
We want to make sure that thecalls to actions are very clear.
It doesn't bother anybody to seefour words on a button,
especially if it's very clearwhat they're going to do,
instead of the words like clicknow or click here.
You know, we don't know whatthat's going to be, but when you
say start your journey now onthat button, that's so much more
clear, especially if you'vealready painted the picture of

(10:21):
what the journey is via yourheadlines and the content on
your website.
So a really small tweak likethis can drastically increase
clicks and conversions.
So just remember that claritywins every time over being
clever.
So just make sure you're veryclear with your call to actions.

(10:41):
So I love to say that yourwebsite should work for you, not
against you.
So start by fixing these commonmistakes and you'll see more
people sticking around, engagingand even booking your services
or buying your products.
If you found today's episodehelpful, please share it with a
fellow entrepreneur or coursecreator who might be struggling
with their website, and don'tforget to subscribe to the

(11:03):
podcast for more insights tohelp make your business grow and
be easier.
Thanks for tuning in and wewill see you next week.