There are a million things you can put on your website these days. And it’s fun to play with new features and try new things. But when it comes to your website, especially your business website, there are a number of website features that just aren’t doing you any favors and can even hinder your website’s succes. Here are some of the top things you can safely do without on your website.
Social Sharing Icons
Social share icons, also known as social media icons or social sharing buttons, are small graphical symbols or logos representing various social media platforms. These icons are typically displayed on websites, blogs, or digital content to encourage users to share the content on their social media profiles. The icons serve as clickable buttons that, when activated, allow users to easily share the content on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and others. Here’s an example of how they might look on your website.
These were all the rage and everyone wanted them. Because everyone wants their content shared. Having your content shared on social, having it shared via text or email, that’s all good stuff. It helps build brand visibility, helps with SEO, and builds trust with your audience. But it turns out, people just don’t use these. In fact, studies have shown that around 98% of people never use these.
People want to share their content in their own way. You can ditch these icons. The script for sharing the content can slow down your page load – which is more detrimental than not giving the 2% of people that icon to click on.
Social Media Feeds
An embedded social media feed on a website refers to the integration of live or dynamic content from social media platforms directly into a webpage. Instead of just displaying static links or social share buttons, an embedded social media feed allows website visitors to see real-time updates, posts, or media content directly from a specific social media account or hashtag.
It became pretty trendy for a while to put your Twitter or Facebook feeds right on your homepage, either in the sidebar or footer. Here’s an example with the Sumy feed.
But the truth is, people don’t come to your website to see what you are writing on social media. If they want to see what you are writing, they’ll go to your socials. You are wasting your website real estate by adding in the feeds, and likely slowing your page load down too. Instead of adding in the feeds, just make sure somewhere on your site that you have your socials linked, and people who want to see what you are doing on social media will find you there.
Sliders
A website slider is a web design element that displays a series of images or content in a rotating or sliding manner. It is typically placed prominently on a webpage, often near the top, and it automatically cycles through a set of slides, showcasing different pieces of content. Users may also have the option to manually navigate through the slides using navigation arrows or other controls.
Here’s a slider example:
Fun, you can just click the button and slide right through. Unfortunately, most people will never get past slide two. In fact, studies show more than 80% of people will never see more than 1 or 2 slides. So anything you have in slide 3 or beyond? It’s basically hidden. Don’t hide your content from your users. Most people just won’t scroll through your slider.
Parallax
In web design, parallax is a website feature that refers to a scrolling effect where background images move at a different rate than the foreground content as a user scrolls down or up a webpage. This creates an illusion of depth and adds a dynamic element to the visual experience of the site. The term “parallax scrolling” is commonly used to describe this technique.
Parallax effects on websites can present challenges for individuals with certain visual issues or sensitivities. Those prone to motion sickness may find the differential movement of background and foreground elements unsettling, leading to discomfort. Users with visual impairments relying on assistive technologies like screen readers may encounter difficulties as parallax effects may interfere with the accessibility features. Additionally, individuals with cognitive conditions affecting spatial perception could face challenges processing the visual information presented through parallax scrolling. The reduced readability of text against contrasting backgrounds may pose problems for users with visual impairments or dyslexia.
Parallax rose to popularity more or less as a shiny new thing, but not having parallax has never killed a conversion. My recommendation is to skip it.
Autoplaying Video
No one likes to land on a website and have a video start playing without warning. It’s startling, can interfere with other things the user may be doing on their computer, like listening to their own music or podcasts. Avoid this website feature and let your users choose whether to watch your video or not.
Disorienting or excessive animations
It can be fun to add a little motion on your website. But heed my warning and make it a little. You have 3 seconds to keep your user when they click through to your site, and if you have too much blinky moving things, they are much more likely to hit the back button. Any animations should be eye-catching, but not distracting. They should highlight, but not disorient. Unless you are selling animation, then it’s not a good idea to make animation the most prominent thing on the website.
Your website is your sales page, and you need to make sure it’s doing its job. Avoid distracting website features, get the point, keep it easy to read and navigate, and avoid being flashy for flashy’s sake.
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.