53% of visitors leave if the site loads >3 seconds. We break down 7 critical mistakes that kill your conversion.
Google Analytics shows: 1000 visitors per day. Great! But...
Average time on site: 8 seconds. Bounce rate: 78%. Out of 1000 visitors, only 3 bought.
Sound familiar? You have traffic, but no sales. You spend money on ads, customers come — and immediately leave.
Why? We analyzed 40+ client sites and found 7 critical mistakes.
**Mistake #1: Site Loads Slowly**
The statistics are brutal:
- 1 second delay = -7% conversion
- 3 seconds loading = 53% of users leave
- 5 seconds = 90% leave
Real example: furniture store. Homepage loaded in 8 seconds. Why? Sofa photos at 5MB each. Designer made it beautiful, developer didn't optimize.
We compressed photos, added lazy loading (images load only when visible), connected CDN. Speed: 1.8 seconds. Conversion: +40%.
**How to check speed:**
- PageSpeed Insights (Google)
- GTmetrix
- WebPageTest
If score below 80/100 — need to optimize.
**Mistake #2: Unclear What You're Selling**
You enter the site. See:
"We are a team of professionals with an innovative approach to solving your challenges in the field of..."
Stop. What are you selling? Unclear.
Correct:
"Building materials with delivery in 24 hours. Kyiv and region"
3 seconds — and it's clear: what, where, how fast.
One client sold LED lamps. Homepage had a slider with 5 beautiful photos, but nowhere did it say: "We sell lamps". People entered and didn't understand what kind of site this was.
We put a big headline: "LED lamps. 30,000 hours of operation. 3-year warranty". Conversion +25%.
**Mistake #3: No Mobile Version (or it's terrible)**
60-70% of traffic — from mobile. If your site on phone looks like a 2005 business card — customers leave.
Typical mobile version problems:
- Text is small (need to zoom)
- Buttons are tiny (can't hit with finger)
- Menu doesn't open
- Form doesn't fit on screen
- Images go beyond borders
We tested an auto service site. On computer — okay. On iPhone — booking form didn't work at all. Client was losing 60% of requests.
Rebuilt for mobile. Requests doubled.
**How to check:**
Open site on phone. Try to order product / leave request. If it's inconvenient for you — it's inconvenient for customers.
**Mistake #4: Too Many Form Fields**
Order form:
- First name
- Last name
- Patronymic
- Phone
- City
- Street
- Building
- Apartment
- Postal code
- Comment
- "How did you hear about us?"
12 fields! Customer sees this — and closes the tab. It'll take 5 minutes to fill out.
Minimum for online store:
- Name
- Phone
- Delivery method
That's it. You'll clarify the rest by call or next step.
Shoe store reduced form from 10 fields to 3. Conversion: +55%.
**Mistake #5: No Price**
"Call us, we'll tell you about prices"
"Price negotiable"
"Send request for calculation"
Customer wants to know the price NOW. Not tomorrow, not an hour after manager's call. Now.
If price depends on volume / configuration — make a calculator. Customer selects options, sees approximate price.
Apartment renovation studio hid prices. "Each project is individual". Conversion — 0.8%. Added calculator: selected area, number of rooms, renovation type — saw price range (from $X to $Y). Conversion: 3.2%.
**Mistake #6: No Reviews / Cases**
You write: "We're the best!". Customer thinks: "Sure, everyone says that".
Customer review: "Ordered windows here, installed in 3 days, everything's great". That's more serious.
Case with numbers: "Made a site for company X, conversion grew from 1.2% to 3.8%". That's already convincing.
Photos of real projects, client names, company logos — all this adds trust.
Children's furniture store added 20 photo reviews (customers photographed furniture at home). Sales increased by 30%.
**Mistake #7: Intrusive Advertising**
Just entered the site — pops up:
- Popup "Subscribe to newsletter"
- Banner "Discount -20%, hurry up!"
- Widget "Write us in Viber"
- Message "Allow notifications"
Customer didn't even have time to see what's sold here. Closes tab.
Popups — possible, but:
- Not immediately (after 10-15 seconds)
- No more than one
- With "Close" button (big!)
Cosmetics online store removed all popups, left one — after 30 seconds or when trying to close tab. Conversion: +18%.
**How to Fix This**
**Step 1: Check speed**
PageSpeed Insights → if <80 → optimize (compress photos, remove unnecessary scripts).
**Step 2: First screen**
Open site. Is it clear in 3 seconds what you're selling? No — rewrite headline.
**Step 3: Mobile version**
Open on phone. Try to order. Inconvenient — fix.
**Step 4: Forms**
Reduce to minimum. Only what's really needed.
**Step 5: Add prices**
At least a range. At least "from $X".
**Step 6: Reviews**
Minimum 5-10 real reviews with photos.
**Step 7: Remove excess**
Popups, banners that cover everything — delete or reduce.
**Conclusion**
Customer decides "to buy or not" in the first 3-5 seconds. If site loads slowly, unclear what you're selling, no prices, form has 12 fields — they just leave.
You spend money on ads to bring the customer. And then the site pushes them away.
Our client Dmytro spent $500/month on ads. Conversion: 0.9%. Fixed 7 mistakes. Conversion: 2.7%. Same budget, three times more sales.
Check your site. Write to us — we'll conduct free audit, show what to fix.
