24 Statistics to Help Improve First Impressions of Your Website (2021)

1. It takes 50 milliseconds for users to form an opinion about your website and decide if they will stay or leave (That's just 0.05 seconds!)

 

According to research by Facebook, a person's digital attention span is only 0.25 seconds (this is how long it takes them to absorb and recall social media content at a significant rate). In a fraction of this time, they can make snap judgements about content, including your website. This statistic may seem severe, but when looked at from an economic perspective, it makes sense.

When a shopper wants to buy an item and there are many options to choose from, the variety on offer makes it easier for them to dismiss lower-quality products. The same is true for an internet user's choices regarding websites. They have thousands of information sources on offer for any search query.

What makes your website the one they choose? They have the luxury of being intolerant and moving on to another website if yours doesn't immediately please them. There are many elements that influence your site visitor's perception, and hitting the spot with all of them can help you rise above the flotsam.

But which is most important? It is the design of your homepage. To heal your site's digital wounds, start by making improvements to your design. Though it may take time and effort, your redesign could help you win visitors past that 0.5 second mark.

3. 85% of adult internet users believe a company’s website should be comparatively good whether used on desktop or mobile. (invisonapp)

Users have moved from using laptops and pcs to using mobile phones to access your website. If your site lacks responsive web design, it will not look good on mobile. If your website is poorly designed, it won't offer a good user experience.

In addition, Google's 2021 User Experience update has made mobile responsiveness a signal in ranking factors. This means your SEO and sales could be impacted by your site's responsiveness! All websites should feature responsive design.

The website's display should adjust based on the pixel width of the device being used to view it. When designing for responsive flows, you can focus on filling the screen with legible, compelling, and easy-to-navigate elements instead of focusing on aspect ratio. Users won't need to pinch or zoom on their iPad or Samsung phone to see your site content if your website is responsive.

2. 69% of retail website traffic comes from mobile devices in 2021. (statista)

These statistics are based on over 500 million shoppers' 1.5 billion site visits to 1045 commerce websites in 37 countries. They also indicate a rise from 63% in 2018 to 67% in 2021. Experts anticipate further increases in mobile's share of internet traffic.

Although almost 70% of traffic to these sites comes from mobile, only 57% results in orders or sales. This is still a significant number. Imagine losing more than half your sales because your website isn't mobile friendly. This puts into perspective how important it is to optimise your site for mobile visitors.

There must be a margin of improvement necessary in the site quality of retail mobile sites that will result in lower conversion rates if smartphones account for so much of retail website visits. Many retailers have already created great mobile shopping experiences, while others are making improvements so they can shrink this gap. Sites who aren't taking steps to better their user experience may not even exist in the future.

4. 38% of users stop engaging with a website if the layout or content is unattractive. (hubspot)

This statistic relates to website who make it past the first crucial 0.05 second mark. Unfortunately, it doesn't automatically mean you're in the safe zone. In fact, users won't tolerate it if a website slips up at any point.

Not all websites with good visual designs can convert a large number of visitors into leads and loyal customers. It comes down to how user-friendly the site is. Are there unexpected pop-ups obstructing buttons? Are there drop-down menus with nested content? Duplications, redundancies, and other site elements all affect your bounce rate.

If you want snap-judgements of your website to lead to a visitor who stays and buys, you will need to optimise your website based on how users experience it. Even books with great covers can be put down halfway through the book.

5. After a bad experience, 88% of users are unlikely to visit it again. (invisionapp)

It's important to try to root out issues on your website to remove credibility killers like bad website design, low usability, and outdated aesthetics. Your site should ideally be updated or redesigned every few years with the goal of keeping it relevant and functioning well.

If you recently upgraded your site and users are still bouncing, you can get design tips online or hire an expert technician and designer to dig out the issues. Designers can improve visual elements, while technicians can identify problems in your site's SEO credibility.

6. A bad user experience is seen as a weakness by up to 77% of agencies. (slideshare)

Bad UX might just be your biggest weakness. Agencies can identify this, since they work on your site's backend. It's best to think of user experience and design as separate issues, since both are intrinsically tied together.

7. If images on your website take too long to load or don't load, 39% of people stop engaging with it. (hubspot)

Everything happening on your website implies something about your company. If you have many broken links and images, it indicates to visitors that your company doesn't pay attention to details. Images on your site can also influence its loading speed, which is tied to user abandonment. An inappropriate image can have disastrous effects, as much as poor design.‍

8. 47% of internet users expect your website to load within a maximum of 2 seconds. (curatti)

Is your site loading in more than 2 seconds? It's easy to fix. Simply identify and reduce large file sizes (usually videos and images). High-resolution images may look wonderful, but they can actually have a negative impact on your site's success.

Not only is load speed a ranking signal, a slow speed is also a great visitor deterrent. You can check your site's loading speed with a FREE tool from Google to ensure visitors don't click the back button.There are also tools available online that optimise the size of your images for web use, such as webcompressor.

9. Retailers lose 2.6 Billion dollars in sales each year to slow-loading websites. (invisionapp)

This statistic should emphasise that your page speed is an important role player in winning new customers through your website.

10. 75% of consumers say they make judgements about a company's credibility based on its website design. (kinesisinc)

If you want to portray credibility on your company website, you will need a modern design and content that shows visitors you care about your digital presence. Content includes pictures, text, videos, headings, and more. For a creative design aesthetic that appeals to visitors, imagery, copy, and other site elements must display seamless integration.

The content itself should be high quality to boost your site credibility. The design and content should complement one another.

11. 2.6 seconds is all it takes for your site visitor's eyes to land on the part of the website that influences their first impression the most. (conversionxl)

If your site passes snap judgments in the first fifth of a second, the next hurdle is the user's conscious impression. Their impression is based on the area of your landing page (or home page) that gives them a perception of quality. It takes less than 3 seconds, so your content needs to be engaging fast.

Ask yourself where you want a user's eyes to land when they visit your page. You can then use eye-tracking data to predict how users will visually consume your site. The data shows users view your site in a similar way to what they do for a book. They start at the top section and move left to right, then move downward, reading smaller amounts of text left to right.

Whatever you want to most influence the first impression of your brand or company should appear at the top of the home page, towards the left. It's also important to ensure moving this element doesn't disrupt your site's aesthetic and structure.

12. Users typically leave your home page after an average of 5.94 seconds.

When you consider how long it takes for users to make judgments about your company and brand, this seems like a significant amount of time. It proves that site visitors do actually pay attention to the focal imagery on your webpage.

It's important not to go overboard. Imagery should be relevant to your product and should reinforce your brand messaging. Statistics say that an image slider negatively impacts conversions and user opinion, so avoid those at the focal point of your site.

This is because they distract users from their original intent in visiting your site. Plus, if they're only spending 5.94 seconds on the page, they usually only see the first image in the slider. This graph shows us the difference in click-through rate for slide 1 compared to slides 2, 3, 4, and 5.

source: Instapage

13. Users only spend 5.59 seconds looking at the written content on your main page, on average. (conversionxl)

If the average reader reads at 200 words per minute, that equates to a mere 20 words! Is it possible to impact your site visitors with so little? This highlights why effective content that portrays your company in a positive light is so important.

Design factors and copy on the main page shouldn't be overwhelming and shouldn't bombard viewers with information. It also shouldn't be confusing. Focus on improving clarity and following a structure that makes sense.

14. A call to action is absent on up to 70% of small business websites. (business2community)

Every site needs a call to action on its main page. The CTA informs users about what your site wants them to do. And yes, they do actually care about that, even if they don't take the steps you want them to. You may want them to shop your e-commerce products or fill in a lead form.

Whatever your call to action is, it needs to be clear, focal, and easy to do. Without a CTA, visitors often leave your site and go somewhere else to find what they need. Although you want your site to boost your company's credibility, its most important role is as a conversion tool.

15. Two-thirds of people would rather read something that is beautifully designed than something plain, if they're forced to spend 15 minutes on it. (hubspot)

Unless you're a serial reader, this makes sense. Nobody wants to spend their time looking at chunks of text. Searchers won't always land on your home page from Google SERPs. In fact, if your SEO is done right, they can often end up on one of your blog pages that relate better to their search query.

This is why each page on your site needs to be equally amazing. Remember, people browsing the internet are most often not searching for lengthy, boring articles. Try to make your content as exciting as possible, while remaining relevant to your target audience.

The easiest way to ensure your content is optimal for achieving your goals is to create every single section with your customer in mind. For example, it's good to provide some detail and educate your users, but don't provide so much that they get bored or confused.

You can make content easier to consume by writing for a lower reading grade and using lots of subheadings, shorter sentences, and smaller paragraph sizes. It's also important to include imagery and video on these pages to give them depth.

16. Design influences 94% of first impressions. (researchgate)

What makes a good or bad design? The participants in this study highlighted the following:

• Websites are too complex or difficult to navigate.
• There are not enough navigation aids.
• The design is boring.
• Terrible use of color. Color schemes and accent colors are important.
• There are too many pop-up ads.
• The introductory content is not up to snuff.
• The print is small.
• Too much text.
• The look and feel is too corporate.
• The search box or function needs improvement.

17. In 2017, mobile traffic's share of the total global online traffic was 52.46%. (statista)

This means if you aren't currently mobile-friendly, you can actually increase your traffic by more than 50%! The opposite is true, too. If your site isn't responsive, you will be losing progressively more of your audience as the years go by.

18. Mobile devices were projected to comprise 63% of global internet use by the end of 2019. As of January 2021, 92.6% of internet users access the internet via mobile phone devices. (statista)

Internet use via mobile device has skyrocketed. Maybe this statistic is one of the reasons why Google has made mobile-friendliness a big signal. In fact, google now crawls the mobile version of your website first.

19. A study in the book "The Real Business of Design" found that 94% of negative website feedback was related to its design.

Since design plays such a pivotal role in first impressions on your website and converting a visitor into a sale, it makes sense to focus on improving it as a priority. Try a cool-looking design that doesn't look like it comes from 2005, and fonts that are timeless or trending.

Also ensure your aspect ratio is a modern one. Websites that are 3:4 are often old and disregarded. Instead, use 16:9 or 4:3.

20. Almost 80% of customers stop engaging with content that doesn't display well on their device. (ironpaper)

If a website isn't ready to give visitors what they're looking for, all the traffic in the world won't matter. Online consumers don't just view the need to pinch and zoom as a mere convenience. Now, it's an automatic put off that sends them elsewhere to find what they need.

21. 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site on a mobile device if they had issues accessing it initially. 40% visit a competitor site instead! (impactbnd)

The reason why responsive and user-friendly design matters is because it makes it easy for users to access information and the resources they need. When updating your site, aim at accessibility and ease-of-use.

22. A seamless experience across devices is important to 83% of users. (impactbnd)

A seamless experience across devices doesn't equate to "the same experience". It means a users should be able to start browsing your site on PC and then move to a mobile device and continue where they left off without confusion. The layout doesn't have to look the same. In fact, it should look different and optimised for ease-of-use on the device.

23. Compared to desktop conversion rates, smartphone conversion rates are up by 64%. (socpub)

Although desktop conversion rates are higher when compared to mobile, it seems that mobile conversion rates are growing, while PC conversion rates are stagnating. this indicates that mobile is likely to overtake PC in the future. An interesting detail that makes this data even more significant is that many users visit a site on mobile first, then return on PC to complete a conversion!

24. 88% of consumers who search for a type of business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours. (nectafy)

The mobile experience is even more powerful in the local business scene. Businesses in the area have a lot of potential for traffic from people on the go.

Takeaways to Consider in Your Digital Strategy

Based on these statistics, it is clear that internet users judge not only your website, but your company too, based on your digital presence. If you want to influence how people perceive your company, the best place to start in 2021 is with your website.

A bad website can stain your reputation and tank your credibility. On the other hand, a quality site can increase your influence and sales. Making your website responsive is a massive role-player in the success of your site.