There are many websites where you know the webmaster and developer don’t have a clue as to the things that they’re doing on their site that cause visitors like you pain. No, not physical pain, but mental pain and anguish as you try to navigate around their site to find the information you need, only to find yourself clicking away in frustration.
Where have you gone? Over to that site’s competitors probably, so you can actually find what it is you are looking for without being driven to complete agony!
So what is it and where have these horrible sites failed at delivering a good experience to their visitors? There are several areas that are offensive, and listed are some key offenses that are usually committed that make these sites No1 web design criminals.
Cluttered Pages
This includes pages where there is no clear direction as to what the site is even about. While the domain name may say www.chocolatecookies.com, yet it sells lawn and garden tools. Visitors will become frustrated and annoyed at the attempt made by the website owner to get their click. Too many things (products, images, clip art etc.) on a page at once is also annoying. This is visually overwhelming for your visitors, at best. Clicks will likely not occur, since it’s not clear what they need to actually click on.
Keep your website pages clean and clear of too much activity. Insert categories with drop-down menus where visitors can go to look at more products, images and descriptions. Don’t try to put everything on the front page, or group everything together.
Advertisements
(Image via Evolution of Web Monetization)
Visitors do not like being bombarded with an abundance of advertisements. They’ve subconsciously trained their eyes to avoid and dart away from anything that appears to “sell” them.
Link Colors
When visitors click on a link, it should change colors. Why? That helps them remember that the link has been visited, so for the remainder of the time they’re on the site, they’ll be productive. If the links don’t change colors, they’ll waste time possibly re-visiting and re-clicking links they’ve already seen.
Maybe you don’t know that your site visitors have questions because there’s nowhere for them to ask their questions. To improve a site, especially one that’s customer-driven, it’s important to capture visitor feedback and responses. How? By using survey software that visitors can use to do just that. Don’t allow your visitors to click off your site because they couldn’t find what they were seeking. Create a venue for them to ask, and be sure to answer them right away.
Make sure your site isn’t guilty of any of these offenses as you’re building it, or take the time to go back and correct those areas. As you make sure you don’t commit any of these website offenses, you’ll increase your traffic, and your visitors will thank you for it.
Jennifer Moline writes for the PsPrint Blog and has been covering small-business and freelance news for a number of years. PsPrint is a high-quality calendar printing company.