What are some website errors that you can solve to increase traffic?

Alycia Gordan -

People demand a seamless online experience. From swift page loading time to payment security, customers now expect an ‘in and out’ experience. No one wants a 404 error or an unresponsive landing page. It not only ruins user experience, but it also damages the website’s reputation.

There’s no way to bring back a dissatisfied customer who has abandoned your site. While an outdated web page or a damaged link are bigger causes of concern, minor aspects such as spelling and grammar mistakes can also result in disgruntled customers.

The devastating impact of website issues

Website issues negatively affect your brand image and Return on Investment (ROI). Akamai states that 79% of online shoppers who have an unpleasant experience are less likely to revisit the website.

Besides that, poor page loading speed can also reduce traffic. Hosting Tribunal quotes that 1-3 seconds in loading time see a very low bounce rate of about 32%. Add one more second, and the bounce rate almost triples, reaching 90%.

Other factors that irk customers are crashed, frozen, or unresponsive sites. Additionally, 38% of customers stop engaging with a brand if they don’t find the layout attractive.

Unclear navigation within the website also leads to poor engagement and a higher bounce rate. Poor user experience or UX tarnishes brand reputation, discouraging people from engaging with your site in the future. So you’re losing customers to your competitors.

If you’re an owner of a website riddled with faults, your worries won’t just stop at the loss of business. Be prepared to see your website’s visibility diminish from Google SERPs. Reduced visibility means less traffic.

In other words, you lost business, and now no one knows that you even exist because even Google has forgotten you.

Mistakes you should avoid to increase traffic to your website

There are various types of website errors that you need to be aware of. By monitoring your website’s uptime, you have the opportunity to minimize costly downtime. So let’s look into some of the most common ones:

1. Typos and grammatical errors

While it may not seem like a big deal to many, these mistakes give off an unprofessional vibe. For visitors, a site that hasn’t spent adequate time to check spelling and grammar can instantly become unreliable.

2. Slow loading pages

Search engines closely monitor the speed with which each page of your website loads. Slow loading time not only impacts SERPs negatively but also UX. Who waits more than a couple of seconds for a page to upload? There are tons of quicker loading sites on the internet.

There are multiple reasons why this happens, ranging from unoptimized images to heavy codes to poorly-written JavaScripts. Often, it comes down to issues such as using too many ads or bad hosting.

Taking the time to identify the cause can make a significant impact on overall performance.

3. ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT

This type of error is common and usually means that there is a problem communicating with the local network connection. However, it can also appear when the website is trying to do more than the server can manage, a common occurrence for shared hosting where memory is limited.

But different web browsers, operating systems, and servers can present the same error in many different ways. For instance, in Google Chrome, it might be displayed as this site can’t be reached or “Domain.com took too long to respond.”

Users can solve these issues with the troubleshooting steps mentioned below:   

1. Check the internet connection

  • Restart the router
  • Check to see if you’re on a bad or slow Wi-Fi connection

2. Disable the firewall and antivirus software temporarily

3. Disable proxy settings

4. Change DNS servers

4. Broken links

This happens when a web page can’t be reached or no longer exists. It also means that visitors cannot access the desired resource or information. It could indicate that:

  • A link has an incorrect URL.
  • The destination website was permanently moved or no longer exists.
  • The user has antivirus software or a firewall that blocks access to the destination website.
  • The website is linked to another site that is behind a firewall and doesn’t permit outside access.

Therefore it is important to check your website frequently and filter the broken links so that no customer lands on a “dead end” page. You can even ask your SEO service to do this for you.

5. HTTP errors

We’ve all experienced them, and yes, they’re very annoying. What happens after an HTTP error? The customer leaves your website and goes to your competitor’s.

Any – or all – errors ring a bell?

  • 401 (Unauthorized)
  • 403 (Forbidden)
  • 404 (Not Found)
  • 503 (Service Unavailable)
  • 504 (Gateway timeout)

Each error has a different underlying cause. However, resolving the problem is not entirely impossible. With the right techniques, it doesn’t take much to fix it and get your website up and working once again.

6. Long forms

A customer has come to your site, and now you want them to keep coming. What would you do? You’ll ask them to sign up. You’ll need to gather just enough data to qualify leads and get in touch with them later.

But even if a customer wants to become regular, they don’t want lengthy forms asking every minor detail. If you want people to continue using your website, provide them with a sweet and simple form that can be filled as quickly as possible.

  • Minimize typing
  • Maximize clickable options
  • Keep your questions limited to the bare essentials, such as name, email address, etc. Save the in-depth questions for later.

7. Unclear metadata

Meta descriptions provide a brief description of the content on your website. If you exceed the limit (155 characters), extra words are replaced with “…” leaving viewers uncertain about what to expect.

Similarly, the page titles are useful in that they help inform people what the page is about. But if it exceeds 70 characters, the title will get cut off by most search engines and web browsers.

Moreover, a URL that uses a string of letters and numbers is hard to remember or share on social networks. Utilizing titles and descriptions that are rich in keywords as well as clearly state a synopsis can help drive traffic to your site.

Final thoughts

No one wants to see their hard work going down the drain. But it can happen to the best of us. Constantly revisiting your website to update content and check for issues is a sure way to stay on top of things.

By doing so, you’ll be able to learn why your website traffic is going down and what issues you have to fix. With the right insights and tools, you can increase traffic to your site.