13 SCARY WEBSITE FEATURES
A Bad Website is Guaranteed to Scare Away Customers
Picture this: It’s 5 pm on a Friday, you’re more than ready to walk out the door and start your weekend, but then it hits you… you promised your boss you’d find names and contact information for a potential client. Hastily, you Google the company and find their website. Upon entering their website, however, you’re greeted with an onslaught of obnoxious bells and whistles that only serve as obstacles to your task. Loud music starts automatically and a pop-up video plays in the foreground of the page. After abruptly muting the volume and making your way past the annoying ad, you find yourself at a clutter filled homepage with walls of microscopic text. All you need is the name and email address of the Director of New Business, so you frantically try to scroll through the page in search of an “About Us” or “Contact” icon. Finally you find an icon labeled “The Team” and freedom is so close you can taste it. You click on the link with a pen ready to write, but your head and spirits drop simultaneously when you see that the page yields that fateful “404: Error” message. This seemingly quick assignment has turned into quite the daunting task, and you’re ready to throw your computer out the 8th story window of your office.
Whether browsing the web from home, at work, or on the go, we’ve all been in a situation like this one. Nothing is more frustrating than going to an ineffective, poorly designed website with an overabundance of irrelevant content. Technology is evolving more rapidly every day, and websites that are unable to adapt will be left in the dust. An outdated website will cost your company credibility and customer satisfaction, and it’s a surefire way to scare away potential customers.
These 13 scary website flaws and “what to avoid” should be kept in mind when planning a website redesign or a new website:
1. Pop-up advertising, walk-in videos or auto-play audio/video
2. Difficult to use navigation
3. Broken links or too many links
4. Slow loading pages
5. Small or difficult to read text
6. Spelling mistakes or poor grammar
7. Low quality or distorted graphics
8. Unprofessional or DIY design
9. Hard to find “contact” information
10. Clutter (too much information, disorganized information)
11. Anti-social (no blogs or social media integration)
12. Low quality photography or too much stock photography
13. No responsive design – not optimized for tablets and smart phones
Share with us which features you find the most annoying and help us narrow these down to a Top 5 list of the scariest website features. If you are looking for a company that specializes in responsive website design and development, that can build something that is cohesive with your brand and can attract prospect clients, contact us for more information or to schedule a meeting.