1. Lack of a Clear Purpose
Why was your site designed? What is the purpose of your site? Are you selling a product or service? Are you sharing information or serving as a forum to aggregate ideas and comments? Are you providing a social benefit?

If your website doesn't communicate its purpose in 3 seconds or less, you're going to lose visitors. I've seen this on numerous occassions, especially among companies who don't know what they want their site to be or communicate. Make sure your website has a clear purpose and everything else will follow.

2. Making it Long-Winded and Complicated
Today, individuals have less time than ever before. As a result, time is their most precious asset, don't waste it. The majority of people using the internet today still prefer brevity over verse. Try to say what you need to say in as few words as possible. If users have to scroll through 2 screens or more then it's too much.

When writing for your site, highlight things of importance. You can use bulleted lists, short paragraphs, bolded and underlined text. Some of you may be asking about the marketing websites with long copy. If you know what I'm talking about, these are generally marketing pages (squeeze pages) that have been developed to promote a single product or service. This is not what I'm referring to here. For websites, copy should be brief and to the point.

3. Giving Web Visitors Too Many Distractions
As I alluded to before, websites should be designed with the single purpose of directing visitors to the information they want. A real prospect is one that needs the same information you want to provide; the art of sales is directing potential clients to relevant information, and presenting it in a way that visitors see your product or service as fulfilling their needs.

This is the reason why I don't promote Google Adwords on my website. Why? Because it distracts potential buyers from purchasing what I have to offer. Don't get me wrong, I make a nice living promoting affiliate products, but I do so on my own terms and I only promote those products that I haver personally reviewed and approve of.

4. Eroding Your Own Credibility
Does your website give first time visitors plenty of reasons to trust you? Website visitors are constantly looking for reasons why they should abandon your site. Does your site have a number of spelling errors or images that don't display? How easy is it to find your 800 number or other contact information?

If you want to develop trust among your visitors, make sure that the basics are covered, that your site looks and feels the part of a well established company. Present important information in obvious places, have an about section, and make it easy for visitors to contact you via email or phone. This will establish trust and confidence in their buying decisions.

5. Not Giving Web Visitors Enough Options
When offering a product or service, it's a true benefit to offer multiple options, but not too many. You want to make sure that website visitors have more than one item, price point, or model to choose from. When analyzing why people leave websites, I've found that the reasons are much to often simpler than you might think; I didn't want everything in the package, only the trading cards, They had X but didn't offer Y, The price was too high, etc. People like options. Identify the most compelling bundles or most popular products and offer solutions at various price points. This is the most effective way to position your products or services.

6. Giving Web Visitors Too Many Obstacles
Removing obstacles to a purchase is the most important thing you can do to ensure optimal sell through. Do you make people go through the order processing system before they can find out how much something costs, or do you demand potential customers read all of the fine print that only a lawyer could understand? Is your order process long and complicated?

When evaluating the effectiveness of a website's checkout process, I've always found a large drop off rate. In fact, the majority of consumers who click, 'buy now' never finish the purchase. There are a lot of reasons why, and its unrealistic to think that 100% of these individuals will convert, but a major reason is that the purchase process is much too long and complicated. Keep yours simple.

7. Giving Web Visitors Too Many Forms To Fill-in
Do you attract your visitors with special offers or free white papers and then demand that they fill-out complex forms, surveys, and questionnaires before you give them access to what they came for? If you do, you are probably losing a lot of people you attracted. Keep your sign up forms very brief.

Many websites loose a significant number of individuals who are just no longer willing to complete a long form. Keep your questions to a minimum, only collecting the information you need to take the next step with your prospect.

Conclusion
There are a number of ways to keep visitors on your website and improve conversion rates. I just described a number of the most common mistakes that websites are making today. Start with a clear purpose and put yourself in the shoes of a first-time visitor. Is your website clear, authoritative, trustworthy, and easy to navigate? Think like a potential customer and make your user experience second to none!

Michael Fleischner is an Internet marketing expert and Search Eninge Optimization Specialist. He has more than 12 years of marketing experience and has appeared on The TODAY Show, Bloomberg Radio, and other major media.