What do you expect your website to do for your business? If you’re like me – and I bet you are – the ultimate goal of your website is to drive more business through your door. Whether it’s an e-commerce site, an outbound marketing site used to generate leads, or an inbound marketing site designed to establish your authority, the real reason to have a website is to promote your business. Did you ever consider your website might be losing business for you?
Poor website design will drive your customers away. While it might seem odd to hear a copywriter talk about the importance of design, I know a poorly conceived and implemented website will pretty much guarantee no one will ever read the web copy. It’s in my own best interest to share some of the more annoying attributes that could be losing you customers.
Music
When I took to Twitter complaining about websites with automatic music on them, I immediately received eight replies confirming it was a bad idea. Every person said they immediately leave a site with music. Me too.
Automatic Video
Nearly as annoying as music, websites that automatically download and play a video also raised the ire of the Twitterverse. Video is a great addition to any website, but let people decide if they want to play it. Don’t worry, people love to do things on a website. More than that, they like to be in control of their own experience.
Flashy Stuff
Unless you’re running a special effects company, avoid Flash and flashy features on your website. People visit your website to get information. When they have to deal with flipping tabs, new windows opening with every click or icons tumbling around the screen they give up and go somewhere else. Don’t you?
Small Print
Cramming more content onto a page by reducing the font size might sound like a great idea. It’s not. If you want people to read, make the type easy on the eyes.
Poor Colour Choices
Colour can be subjective and I’m not about to start a debate about it. However, if your print is similar to the background colour, you won’t have many people reading your page. Grey on grey, yellow on silver and red on purple are all difficult to read. Don’t do it.
Busy-ness
More is not always better and that’s certainly the case for websites. Position your content so it’s the obvious feature on the page. Filling up every bit of space with images and copy detracts from what you’re trying to accomplish.
This is a relatively short list of pet peeves, but every one of them is guaranteed to provoke your prospects to move to another site before they’ve even read a word. Your website needs to support the goals of your business, not the whims of your web designer. Ensuring your website “looks” attractive will give you a better chance to influence your current and potential client base.
What annoying features make you abandon a website?
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*Image courtesy of briannaorg at www.flickr.net
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