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7 Web Site Design Mistakes That Will Lose You Clients
In today's world, a web site is virtually mandatory for any successful business. But there are web sites that will win you customers, and there are web sites that will lose you customers. Good design has a lot to do with which category your web site will fall into. But what is it that makes good or bad web site design? In my personal opinion, a good web site is one that's simple, informative and gives me a reason to come back frequently. That's what you should get from a good web designer/writer team. Bad sites, on the other hand, are complicated to use, slow loading, confusing or just plain annoying. Here's a list of my personal top 7 turn-offs as far as web site design is concerned: 1. Slow loading pages Studies have shown that you have less than ten seconds to grab a visitor's attention. If your web page hasn't finished loading within that (very short) amount of time, you might as well forget about it. The main culprit I've found here are huge, slow-loading graphics, especially when they are embedded in tables. If large images are absolutely vital to presenting your business, compromise by adding thumbnails to the main page and allow the visitor to click on them to access the main image. Nobody minds a longer loading time, as long as it's them who can make that choice. 2. No contact information As I've already mentioned in my article "Do's and don'ts of web site copy", one of my pet peeves is a web site that has no contact information accessible form the main page. If I can't get in touch with a company quickly and easily, chances are that I'll go to the competition. My advice is to have a whole page dedicated to contact information - address, phone, fax, email, and preferably a map of where you can be found (remember item #1, though - no huge graphics!) And please, don't use a graphic to display that information in a particularly clever way. I like to copy and paste that information directly from the web page to my contact management program. If I can't do that, you'll likely never hear form me - and all other customers who do the same! 3. Difficult to navigate Don't try to be clever with navigational features. Simple text links or, if you prefer, quick-loading graphics are perfectly good means of allowing a visitor to navigate your site. Anything that requires interactive navigation, like menus that expand into sub-menus, sub-sub-menus and so on, is more an indication of a wrong information architecture than of a true need for complicated navigational features. 4. Non-HTML features Don't get me started on this one. I've got a firewall on my computer, and my browser is set to block all those little nasty things that can mess with my PC. As a result I come across many a site that won't display or function properly, because it relies on features like JavaScript, Cookies, Interactive Headers or Java Applets. None of these are necessary to build a good web site, and unless you want your web site to lose you potential customers, you shouldn't use them. Or, if you absolutely have to, make sure that they are not integral parts of the web site! 5. Huge splash page Another pet peeve of mine. As mentioned earlier, you have less than ten seconds to get your message across. Now guess how many visitors are going to wait longer than that just to watch a fancy animation? 'Nuff said. 6. Pop-up ads A huge turn-off as far as I'm concerned. As a matter of fact, I've got a pop-up blocker installed on my PC, so if your web site tried to tell me something important via a pop-up window, I'd never even see it. If you feel that you have to use pop-ups, consider going for the less intrusive (and annoying) pop-under windows instead. 7. Sideways scrolling Not everybody has a monitor with the same screen resolution as you, so make sure that your web site displays on monitors with a lower resolution without forcing your visitor to scroll sideways. It's a singularly annoying thing, and chances are that you'll lose those visitors very quickly. Or, if you have information in a column on the right side of your web site, it may simply never appear on the screen. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
MORE RESOURCES: PROFESSIONAL WEB DESIGN SERVICES - SIPPICAN DIGITAL Sippican Week Designing with Intelligence: AI in Web Development Touro University Site.pro Unveils One-Input AI Website Builder for Effortless Web Design The Cornwall Seeker Rate my website SitePoint Webflow vs. WordPress: I Built on Both to See Who Wins Learn Hub | G2 Unveiling the invisible hand: how AI is reshaping web design UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media FANUC America's Cobot and Go web tool Aerospace Manufacturing and Design Web Pacific Lutheran University 2/6/25 – EXPLORE OUTDOOR HAWAI‘I SITE WINS WEB DESIGN GOLD Department of Land and Natural Resources - Hawaii (.gov) Web Design and Development Muskegon Community College Digital Silk Shows How Chicago's Manufacturing Industry is Modernizing Through Strategic Web Design Yahoo Finance 18 Best Tech Website Designs in 2025 DesignRush For the first time, Generația Tech expands nationwide: a new edition launches on May 15, offering 1,500 scholarships business-review.eu 8 Best Apps for Web Designers in 2025 DesignRush Top Web Design Trends for 2025 Designmodo ChatGPT was tasked with designing a website. The result was as manipulative as you'd expect Fast Company The Smarter Web Company sets out 10-year growth plan and Bitcoin strategy - Proactive financial news The Smarter Web Company sets out 10-year growth plan and Bitcoin strategy Proactive financial news Essential Web Design Principles NYC Businesses Must Embrace in 2025-Insights from Digital Silk Newsfile Best Website Design Inspiration: Amazon DesignRush Faculty Profile: Libby Perry (Editing for the Web, Web Design - Media Communications) Full Sail University 11 Best Interactive Website Designs in 2025 DesignRush Best web design software of 2024 TechRadar USPS Website Design: A Detailed Overview DesignRush Web 3.0 And The Evolution Of Website Design: What You Need To Know Harlem World Magazine 16 Best Modern Website Designs of the Moment DesignRush Digital Silk Discusses How Miami's Hospitality Industry is Elevating Customer Experiences Through Web Design StreetInsider The Quake's Website Design Analysis DesignRush Best website design service of 2024 TechRadar 5 Upcoming Web Design Trends for 2022 SitePoint Digital Agencies Can Now Earn 20% Commission Through GoDaddy's New Exclusive Partner Program Stock Titan Beyoncé Website Design Analysis DesignRush Lululemon Athletica Website Design Review DesignRush Revolutionizing Web Design: How Squarespace's Design Intelligence AI Empowers Creators Boy Genius Report Web Development | Website Design for Yachting Companies Yachting Pages The Opportunity Agenda Web Design Analysis DesignRush |
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