I guess you don’t have to be a developer in order to understand that no matter how hard you try to promote your business and no matter you time or money you spend on Adwords, you have to maintain an effective website. Even if you don’t already have it you have to make it. Effective websites are the key to marketers and the best starting point to take some marketing actions! Here are some features that people actually don’t like about your website, and they are not going to tell you! Here are some basic requirements you have to fulfil or how you can try to avoid them.
1. Pop ups
Off course people hate pop up ads or pop up windows on your website. From my experience I can tell that it is very annoying and can prevent me from visiting the website again. I agree that pop ups could probably get you some customer information of that can build some of your newsletter base but in general it is annoying to most users. You can actually succeed your goals by writing great copy and compelling calls to action.
2. General photos from the web
Ok, we understand, you have a lot of work to do and this might be the quickest solution and the easy part when building your website but let’s think about it. If you want to create a memorable website there is no easy path than working hard. Generic photos might be the easy road but imagine how many websites are using the same photos. What about seeing one or more of your photos on your competitor’s website? This would be a disaster. Plus, what your customers need is to learn about you and your company. By providing generic photos you can’t build a trust relationship. Try to upload some real photos or your company, your people and your products and you will be rewarded.
3. No social media sharing buttons
You are totally ruining your community manager’s or social media manager’s work! What is the point of having a company Facebook page or a Twitter profile without even making it clear on your company website. What is the point of having some great company news without helping people to share your news with others. Plus, you are making it easy for the users. Imagine how many people would copy and paste an ulr to share something on Facebook.
4. Multimedia with sound
I think this is the most annoying on a website. Imagine you are on your office, it is 10 o’clock in the morning and you are having your breakfast coffee while surfing around the web. You visit a website and then automatically a multimedia is on with sound when entering the site. Well, you know the next part of the story. The whole office knows you are not working and you where not supposed to surf through web but finishing a report. The best thing you have to do is let your users choose whether they will watch or hear the multimedia by clicking on. Don’t just force them to do it.
5. Ineffective ‘About us’ page
This is the page you have to pay a lot of attention when editing and building. Remember that it is the page that most of potential customer are visiting in order to meet you and get to know about your company. Write down some key questions that you have to answer when editing your ‘about us’ page. What does your company do? Why someone must choose you and what make you so special? Avoid writing big stuff and untruthful facts about your company. Keep your message clean and to the point.
6. No company blog
Ok, maybe this outcome is a little biased but I believe that a decent company that is doing a good job must have and maintain a company blog. Think of it as a next step after your ‘about us’ page. Don’t underestimate the power of company blogs. After my experience of reading a lot of company blogs I ended up with the assumption that I trust more the ones that have blog. Moreover, it is a way of inviting users to visit your site over and over again and get to know you through your posts.
7. Confusing navigation
Keep in mind that a user has to find whatever he wants and not keep wondering ‘Where am I’. This will probably force him to leave the page and it is more likely that he will never visit your website again. Do you actually want this? Think about it is as you are in a big shopping center, a mall. Most of the times it is very confusing but in some they always have directions and sings to help you find your way. Ensure that your website visitors feel the same. Building a user friendly website is a key factor to a website success.
8. Confusing colors
This might sound not so important however it is crucial to a website to have harmonised colors. Choosing the write colors will probably determine how long will the user stay at your website. Try to keep it classy and relevant to your brands colors. Don’t forget to test whether the letters on your website are readable and you provide enough contrast on your text.
What are the things you find annoying on websites? Let me know about your experiences
