One of my favorite hobbies is looking at a website and telling you everything that’s wrong with it! It’s my super power. So I thought I’d use this platform to tell you everything you shouldn’t put on your website, to help you proactively create a website that your visitors will love.
Things to avoid on your website
Sliders – Of course this is the first item on my “must not do” list. Sliders are bad for conversions. First off, very few people are going to see past slide two. Nobody is getting to slide three. Your slideshow has 20 slides? Congratulations on wasting your time adding all those slides that nobody is going to see but you.
Automatically starting video or audio – There is almost nothing that makes someone hit the ‘back’ button faster than video that starts automatically. Why? First off, it’s startling. You’re just browsing along, looking at things, and bam, sound you weren’t expecting! It’s an intrusion into the user’s experience. Trust me, if they want to watch your video, they’ll click the button to watch it. Your website isn’t MySpace.
Flash – I remember a day when everyone wanted Flash. It was cool and neat and fun and adding a cool Flash intro to your site was the trend. Guess what? That trend is dead. Most smartphones can’t open Flash. Apple effectively killed flash, I think because Steve Jobs didn’t like it. It’s bad for user experience.
Video Backgrounds – This trend is gaining in popularity but studies have shown that having a video background is bad for conversions because it distracts the user from their purpose when they land on your site. Even Netflix doesn’t have video backgrounds on their site.
Splash Pages – Having a page that’s only function is to hit “enter” is a bad idea. Nobody is coming to your website to see your “welcome” image. It’s bad for usability and bad for SEO. Just take them straight to your content.
Avoid CAPTCHAS – Man, I hate these. They are hard to get right for me, without any vision or other disabilities. I can’t imagine trying to complete one of these with impaired vision or a screen reader. There are other ways to verify humanity than a captcha. There is a special kind of hatred I reserve for the captcha that makes you click on images until you eliminate all the ones with a car, sign, road, etc.
Ads – Ok, you can have ads. If your site’s goal is to generate traffic and ad clicks, then you need ads. But maybe cool it with the ads and not have so many.You don’t need 10 different ad boxes on your site. And don’t even bother until you’ve garnered enough traffic to make them worthwhile. They slow down your site and distract your user. My least favorite thing is when I go to a site and see five ad boxes, several of them identical. I get it! You have ads! If I want to click one, I will.
Pop Ups – Guess what? Pop ups are annoying. Unless you have a really, really compelling reason to use one, avoid them. There is nothing more irritating then getting ready to click on a link or navigation item and to have a pop up bounce up and interfere with your next step.
Cheesy Stock Photos – Yes, sometimes you need stock photos, but take care and consideration when selecting them. I once took over a website for a dentist that had the WORST stock photos on it. One had a woman wrapped in a towel, smiling and holding an apple. Because after I go to the dentist and take a shower, I like to eat an apple before I get dressed? It was ridiculous. Choose your stock photos with care, make sure they fit with your website. Better yet? Have your own photos professionally taken.
Thin Content – This means having pages and blog posts with very little content. It’s definitely okay to have a page that’s dedicated as a photo gallery. It’s not okay to have 10 pages that each have 2-3 sentences on them. Content drives people to your website. It’s what drives your search engine placement. It’s why people come to your website. Don’t be afraid to use your words.
Testimonial Sliders – This is just a rehash of the first item, but I’m seeing a lot of testimonial sliders lately and I wanted to tell you this is a bad idea. Why? Because any testimonial after #2 will never get seen. Have one great testimonial, or even randomly show different testimonials, and link to where people can see them all on a page, rather than having to click to scroll through. Otherwise, you’re missing the point. People want to read your testimonials, not watch them scroll by.
Forgetting Analytics – If you don’t know who is visiting your website, what’s the point? Learning from your traffic allows you to make your website better and get more conversions.
Give your customers what they are looking for and avoid the bells and whistles. Your users don’t really care about that stuff, they just want to find the information they need.
Amy Masson
Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.