Have you ever encountered a web site that is just annoying? Colors for the text and/or background in such a combination that plays tricks with your eyes or makes you squint? Such horrible web site techniques can make a perfectly good web site a bad one. Scrolling this way and that, images and objects that flash and jump, or pop-up windows, frames, and silly music that freezes up your computer, are all the makings of a web bomb and can totally ruin your visitor's experience.
The following will help you identify things not to do on your web site, things will really annoy your site's visitors, or get them to leave altogether.
1. Aaaah - Flash! (not Gordon)
What I can stand the least, is when I have to wait 5 minutes for a Flash effect intro screen to load when I first encounter your web site. I can't even bear to think how the experience is heightened (not) for a person on a dial-up connection! No one wants sit through your fancy Flash movie or silly cartoon, just to get inside to view the site. They will likely hit the 'back' button or leave and go somewhere else.
2. Pop-Up Windows and Getting Page-Jacked
The minute the site loads, two others do, too. Then four more. Soon there are about a dozen, and if that's not enough, when you close one, another pops up in your face. This is a sure-fire way to get people to click the back button or close the window in a heartbeat. One on top of the other, more windows pop open faster than you can close them, like an attack on your computer, or what I like to call getting "page-jacked". Why do people do this? Do they think that the quicker they can throw 50 pop up ads at someone, that it will increase their odds of making a sale? Not on their life!
3. Scrollin', Scrollin', Scrollin' on the River!
No, Ike & Tina Turner are not back on tour (Ike's dead anyway!). It's your browser that's doing the scrolling. Not only does it suck when you are having to scroll forever on a page full of stuff, it sucks worse when when a web site has you scrolling left, right and center so that you can read the text. Web sites should only scroll vertically, and then should FIT the screen to 100% or less, so there is no scrolling left or right.
4. LikeMolassesInJanuary.com
Slow-loading web sites are a major annoyance, a number of things can be the root cause, including: free web hosting (which usually has many ads and/or goofy-loading code), too many graphics, or graphics which have not been properly optimized (file size is cut down for loading on web sites), or just plain too much coding. Visitors who find that your site is as fast as a tortoise, will only leave to find a site that is much faster, and then buy from that site.
5. Muzak that Even an Elevator Would Be Ashamed Of
A sure-fire way to get people at work in trouble, and also annoy the crap out of someone, is having muzak on your site... making users hit the 'back' arrow button in no time, flat. Especially if it's loud or useless. Don't scare your visitors off with music on your web site. Unless your web site is for the band you are in, you don't need it on there anyway, and even if you did have a band, such a site should display areas for people to click and listen to the music at their own free will, not force it on them. The fact is that many people surf the Internet while at work, but you'll only annoy them or drive them away for good, if "Candle In The Wind" is playing over and over again every time someone visits your page.
6. Hay theirs sum kool thingz on may sight, yo
Why no one seems to use such a thing called spell checkers, when many--if not all--modern computers come with one, is beyond my grasp. By having bad spelling and grammar on your web site, you are showing the entire world how dumb you are. Spell check programs are easy to use and fix errors on your site so you won't look like an idiot!
7. Too Much Action, Jackson
Whoever decided that having a rainbow glitter background that's jumpy and flashy, the Dancing Baby [1] and an image of Homer Simpson with a cartoon bubble floating over his head flashing "D'oh!" was a good idea? Unfortunately this only gave many people license to have moving annoyances on their pages, across the Internet. Flashy banners, twirling-whirling icons, jumping, blinking, or scrolling words, snowflakes chasing your mouse around the page as you surf, etc...the list goes on. Then trying to read the text on the page, while this is all going on, is not easy. If you must insist on such things, a good idea is to just have one moving or flashing object on your site's page.
8. Too Many Commercials!
Just like cable TV, some web sites are really overloaded with too much advertising. I once saw an e-commerce web site featuring about two dozen (sometimes more) web banners flashing hither and yon about the page. Banner ads can be effective, but if your site has 10 ads for Poker Palace and Games Galore, along with a couple banners for Lucy's Lace Attic & Polly's Yarn Barn when your site is supposed to be about computer hardware, then you will only confuse and dismay your visitors.
9. I Can't Get A Hold Of You!
Don't make your site visitors search all over to find out how they can call or e-mail you. Many times a visitor just wants to buy a product you are offering on the site, but they can't contact anyone for information. How can your visitors buy from you or get a hold of you to ask questions about your product or service if there is no way to do so? You need to ALWAYS include contact information, or at least an easy path to the contact information, on every page. This way your visitors can get in touch with you if they want to buy something or make an inquiry.
10. Pages Full Of Lots of Words But Little To Offer
I hate when people do this. They register Google AdSense [2] accounts and paste 40 ads all over their site, making you believe they have what you want on their site. Then you spend an hour digging through the pages only to find they don't have what you are after. Don't they know this is only going to tick people off, not sell anything? I'm fairly certain people are not going to be buying whatever you peddle, if you tick them off.
Do you need to get your business online?
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Bobbi Jo Woods, CEO/Fanatic
B. Woods Design - Steering Professional Managed Websites for Business
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