I see a lot of great websites out there, but there are just as many bad ones lurking from the dark Geocity ages with content that’s scaring off customers. You need to build your website for your customers, not for you! A website shouldn’t be hard to use or navigate.
Don’t make these common website mistakes!
Here are 6 things people hate about your website: Autoplay Media You know when you jump onto a website and music or a video just starts automatically playing? Believe it or not, it’s not 1994 and people are frantically scurrying around your website to find the ‘Stop’ button. No one wants to hear your elevator music or get force-fed a video.
Bad Text Formatting
Text colour on websites are another thing most people get wrong. Using contrasting colours such as red font on a dark blue background… bad idea! Yellow font is also extremely hard to read. Don’t make your customers go cross-eyed while they try to make out what you’re saying. Same goes for your text formatting. Do you really need three typed pages to tell the life story of your business? Break the large text up into paragraphs, or use bullet points and good punctuation. The last thing you want to do is scare people off your website.
Flash
Even Adobe has given up on Flash now. Surrender to the times, people! Flash is completely old school and not at all user-friendly. Google can’t read Flash websites either, so if you’re hoping to rank in Google with your Flash website, forget about it. Flash also doesn’t work on any Apple mobile device… that’s right. Your iPhone or iPad won’t bring up any Flash if you go into the internet. So give up the Flash!
Bad Navigation
User-friendly websites, people! This is what you should always be thinking. Make sure your customers don’t have to go through any more than 3 clicks to get somewhere on your site, otherwise you’ll lose their interest, and more importantly, their business! Keep in mind how easy it is or isn’t for customers to get back to your homepage from any given point on a website. Is your logo linked to your homepage? Don’t make your visitors have to rely on the “Back” button to get around your site.
Pop-up Ads
his is a big NO-NO. Ignore whatever “guru” it is that’s telling you they increase conversions and that “everyone is doing it”. You’re just pissing people off. They came to your website to see your content – don’t make them do backflips to see it.
Hard to Find Details
Where are you? Who are you? Stop hiding behind your website! Customers should be able to get in touch with you easily. Stick a big phone number at the top of your website so as soon as someone lands on any page they know how to contact you. It’ll actually increase your conversions if you do! Having a good website shouldn’t be hard, if you consider these six things people hate and you ‘don’t’ do them, then you’ll be fine! If you are doing any of these things we suggest, stop it straight away! You’ll be surprised how much better your website will perform!
