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Top Reasons Why Visitors Leave a Website Grammatical errors, lack of reviews and no social media activities, among others are major reasons why users do not make a purchase on a website, shows a report

By Shipra Singh

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For any website, retaining a visitor for more than one minute is a major challenge. Among the many reasons why people leave a website, distrust is the key problem. What makes a visitor distrust a website?

A survey report by Reboot SEO, a digital marketing agency, showed that a variety of factors ranging from social media activities of the website to the language used on it determines how likely visitors are to trust the website.

For almost 47 percent of the 1,322 surveyed participants, a company with consistent social media activity is the top feature that makes a website trustworthy. About 45 per cent respondents reported that they will not use a website that does not have an active social media page.

Naomi Aharony, Managing Director of Reboot Online SEO commenting on social media being a top marker for trustworthiness when visiting a site said, "Findings confirm that it's very common practice for a searcher who lands on a website to double checks its authenticity. And what better way of checking than to jump on their social media channels and check recent activity? A site with lot of buzz and followers can easily seem more authentic than the one that has no such activity."

Payment Methods a Big Concern

Unfamiliar payment methods are the biggest deterrent for users to make a purchase from a website. As much as 92 per cent respondents said that they would not trust or purchase from a website that uses unfamiliar payment methods.

Related Read: Setting up Your Business to Receive Payments

According to the report, familiar payments methods, such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, American Express is the sixth most important feature on a website, with Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate and recognized trust seals being the other top factors that help determine authenticity and payment security of a site.

Most trustworthy features of a website

Source: Reboot SEO Agency. Percentages will not add up to 100 because of multiple responses.

Apart from payment methods, pop-up advertisements is another major factor that make users distrust a website.

Grammar Matters

Security apart, incorrect grammar and wording on a website is a red flag for about 56 per cent respondents. 79 per cent of respondent shoppers in the report said that they would not use or trust a website with grammatical or spelling errors.

Features that create distrust among users


Source: Reboot SEO Agency. Percentages will not add up to 100 because of multiple responses.

Of the top features that make users distrust a website, excessive advertisements, big discounts and poor quality pictures score high after grammar errors and pop up ads.

Shipra Singh

Entrepreneur Staff

Freelance Journalist

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