High Bounce Rate? 6 Web Design Mistakes Driving Visitors Away in 2025

When customers arrive on your website, they make a snap judgment on whether it's worth staying on the page. They consider your design, page load speed, and navigation — if anything seems untrustworthy or frustrating, they'll probably click away, leading to a high bounce rate.

In fact, 87% of consumers said they have left a website immediately because it looked untrustworthy. If your website makes people the least bit suspicious, it's that much harder to drive conversions and sales. 

There's good news, though: By understanding what customers are looking for and addressing technical issues on your site, you can fix a high bounce rate. Discover the top reasons why users leave websites and how to fix them to keep your bounce rate down. 

Key Takeaways: Make a Strong First Impression on Web Visitors

• Design your website pages to be appealing and trustworthy at a glance. Time matters, and 83% of shoppers judge a website’s credibility in under 20 seconds.
• Solve site navigation issues to improve the bounce rate. Around one-fifth of users notice navigation issues when first visiting a website, so make your site navigation clear and user-friendly.
• Good website design builds trust, and poor design breaks it. About 84% of consumers say website design influences their decision to shop, and 80% will leave a site they don’t like, even if they want the product.

1. Outdated Web Design or Layout

A common issue that drives customers away from websites is an outdated design. Around one in three users (30%) notice the design and layout when first visiting a website, and 84% say that design influences their shopping decisions.

Think of it this way: Which company would the average person rather do business with — one with sleek, modern web design or one with webpages that look like they haven’t been updated since 2005? 

Outdated web design makes your business seem less trustworthy and professional. The user experience on these sites may also suffer, leading customers to click away. 

How To Fix It

A website refresh or redesign might be the best solution if this is an issue for your site. Stick to these key design principles:

• Clean, modern layout with whitespace
• Consistent branding (fonts, colors, buttons)
• Up-to-date visuals and assets

But how do you choose between a refresh and a redesign? 

Muzammil K, Marketing Manager at Aalpha Information Systems, suggests, “A website refresh is ideal when the core functionality and structure remain strong but the design, performance, or user experience (UX) need enhancement.” A refresh every one to two years can help you stay visually modern and technically optimized.

If your web design hasn’t changed in a while, it may be time for a full redesign. Muzammil K advises, “A complete redesign is necessary when the website no longer supports business goals or provides a poor user experience.” That will probably be “every three to five years or when branding, technology, or user expectations shift significantly.” 

2. Confusing Navigation

Have you ever visited a website and not known how to find the next page you want? That website needed better navigation. 

When customers get lost on a site or can’t figure out how to navigate to the information they want to see, they often click away. 

As Temelko Dechev, CEO of ExpandX, says, “A visually appealing website that lacks intuitive navigation may deter potential customers.” 

Around one-fifth of users (19%) notice navigation first when visiting a new website, and about half of web users (49%) say poor navigation causes them to distrust the site.

How To Fix It

If your website has confusing navigation, fixing it starts with understanding your customers. As Dechev says, "Design navigation based on user intent and buyer journey stages... Use analytics and heatmaps to learn what users actually look for, and create a hierarchy that guides them efficiently."

Once you know what your site visitors are looking for, streamline the navigation with these strategies:

• Clear, limited menu items: A new customer should be able to understand at a glance what your menu items mean. Try to keep the list short so website visitors don’t get confused or overwhelmed.
• Logical page structure: Make your website homepage the central hub of your site, with categories, subcategories, and individual pages branching out in a hierarchy. This structure will make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for.
• Mobile and desktop user testing: Test your site on various devices, both desktop and mobile, to make sure it’s easy to navigate on all of them. Over 60% of web traffic now comes from mobile devices, so your site needs to be mobile-friendly.
• Enhanced search functionality: Include a search bar at the top of the page or in the menu, and make sure it returns relevant results for each search. 

3. Broken Features or Missing Content

Even when you’re working on things behind the scenes, your website should appear complete and totally functional. Sixty-five percent (65%) of consumers don’t trust sites with typos or placeholder text. 

Broken links concern customers, too. Nearly half of the customers surveyed (46%) say broken links or 404s are a red flag. A piece of placeholder text or a broken link could drive interested customers away from your site before they have the chance to really engage with it. 

How To Fix It

Make sure nothing on your site falls through the cracks with these strategies:

• Audit your site every quarter for broken links, typos, and outdated pages.
• Use redirects and helpful custom 404 pages to get customers back where they need to be on your site.
• Remove “lorem ipsum” or incomplete sections. Only update when your new content is completely ready. 

4. Slow Page Speed and Loading Times

Half of web users (48%) wait 10 seconds or less before leaving, and many won’t even wait that long. 

Modern internet users expect things right away—website content is no exception. The longer your pages take to load, the more likely visitors are to click away. 

Heral, Managing Director at a Woocommerce Agency, explains why it is essential to reduce your loading times: “Page speed isn’t just a performance metric — it affects conversions, user experience, and overall business health.”

Heral continues, “We’ve seen slow load times tank engagement for e-commerce brands that rely on their site to perform every single day.” 

How To Fix It

To get started with reducing your page speed, you can: 

• Compress images and optimize any media on your site for faster loading.
• Use a content delivery network, which distributes web content across multiple servers. When users click on your site, they’ll access the content from the server closest to them, making pages load faster.
• Implement lazy loading so that your site only loads non-essential resources, like images, when the user scrolls down to them.
• Audit your site with PageSpeed Insights or Core Web Vitals to figure out how you can improve your loading speed. 

However, don't expect an instant fix to your page speed problems. 

Heral explains that, “Most speed problems don’t get solved with a magic plugin — they get solved by cleaning up what’s underneath.”

The cause of page speed issues depends on your site. You may need to “ditch bloated themes, cut unnecessary plugins, optimize media, and move to a high-performance hosting environment,” according to Heral.

5. Missing Trust Signals

Customers won’t stick around on a site they don’t trust. In fact, 87% of consumers reported leaving a website right away because it didn't seem trustworthy. But how do they decide which sites are trustworthy and which aren’t? 

Consider these stats:

• One in three shoppers (33%) say having a lock icon in the address bar (from an SSL certificate) is the strongest trust signal that makes them feel a website is secure.
• 42% of web users distrust sites with no visible contact information.
• Other key trust signals that users look for to determine a website’s security include security badges (14%), a clean design (23%), and two-factor authentication (11%).

Since 83% of shoppers judge a website’s credibility in under 20 seconds, you need to make those trust symbols immediately obvious.

How To Fix It

If you want to know how to reduce your bounce rate, the answer could be as simple as adding more trust signals. Try these steps:

• Make sure your website’s SSL certificate is valid and visible.
• Add trust badges to the checkout and customer login pages.
• Include your business’s contact information, return policies, and clear site policies.

Valentina Chiriacescu, Chief Commercial Officer of eCommerce Today, also recommends displaying “strong visual trust signals like SSL badges, credit card icons, and reviews right near the checkout button.” 

6. Intrusive Pop-Ups and Ads

While pop-ups on your site help direct users’ attention to important details, they can also damage your website’s credibility. Nearly one in four users (39%) report that pop-ups hurt trust.

Pop-ups and ads are especially harmful when they appear too fast or block content. Boyd Roberts, Group Director of Emote Digital, explains, “Pop-ups asking for newsletter signups at the wrong moment, forcing account creation before checkout, or showing irrelevant offers at the cart stage all break the flow.” 

How To Fix It

• Delay pop-ups to appear 30–60 seconds after the visitor arrives on the page or when they scroll halfway down the page.
• Make pop-ups minimal and useful, such as a discount or lead magnet.
• Avoid pop-ups or ads that autoplay audio or video, as these can be especially disruptive. 

What’s a Normal Bounce Rate in 2025?

Before you can accurately interpret your own website’s bounce rate, it’s important to understand what’s normal. 

It’s not as simple as a bounce rate percentage under 10% being good and over 10% being bad. The average bounce rate varies by industry and the type of webpage customers are visiting. 

Weigh your page bounce rate against the benchmarks by industry and website type:

• E-commerce and retail websites: Between 20% and 45%
• Lead generation websites: Between 30 and 55%
• Blogs and informational content: Between 35 and 60%
• Single-page landing pages: Between 60 and 90%

Ultimately, a bounce rate that seems “high” might not be bad at all. You have to consider the page intent when trying to understand the meaning behind your bounce rate. 

If you’re trying to decrease bounce percentage, focus first on conversion-critical pages, as these will have the greatest impact on your business. 

Final Thoughts: A High Bounce Rate Signals a Broken Website Experience

Anything that frustrates users or makes them mistrust your business could lead to a high bounce rate. Focus on simple fixes, like improving your page load speed, sharing trust signals, and eliminating annoying pop-ups. 

Getting your website design right is crucial, too. Upgrade your design and reduce bounce rate by working with a web design expert. Find your ideal partner today by browsing through Clutch's list of top-rated web design companies today. 
 

About the Author

Jeanette Godreau Senior Content Marketing Specialist at Clutch

Jeanette Godreau crafts in-depth content on web design, graphic design, and branding to help B2B buyers make confident decisions on Clutch.  

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