Nov
5 Website Blunders That Scare Potential Customers Away
This is a guest post by Noel Addison Agnote of NDIC.
Creepy Self-Promotion
You know the climactic part of every movie where the prey is chased by the criminal or monster everywhere they go. The victim attempts to hide everywhere to escape from the villain but the monster would always appear right on their face. Most businesses care so much about branding, want to be noticed and leave a great impression on the web. Well, there is nothing wrong about branding. In fact, it is an essential factor in building solid foundation for an effective marketing strategy. However, when you overexert your branding efforts you give a bad impression to your visitors and made them feel that everything is just about you, you, you and you. And nothing scares your visitors most when you bombard them with things which basically represent you. So limit your advertisements or any direct self-promotion. Instead, reach out to your audience by educating and giving them information related to your niche. Reaching out to your audience is different from haunting them.
Despicable Web Navigation
People hate waiting. Poor website navigation could discourage potential clients. Website is a great representation of your business and it is expected to instantly send the message to your target audience as they land to your page. A good website should have a good and consistent navigation. It is essential in building an accessible and usable website.
Loathsome Content Layout
Content and layout is very important in a website. It is the primary reason why users visit your page and come back. Your content layout has to be simple so it will be easier for you to modify things once you wish to do some changes in your site. It is also recommended that you use readable and legible fonts so people can effortlessly read your content. Furthermore, it is necessary that you choose the right color for you website. Your choice of color must give your visitors a good impression and aid your website in relaying the information to your visitors.
Outrageous use of images and animations
Anything that is too much is not good. Too much images and animations in your websites could be annoying for your visitors. Yes, using images gives additional appeal to your website and grab the attention of more visitors conversely it could create distraction to your readers. Moreover, animation and flash are great to capture attention yet it affects usability of the website. It slows down the loading time of a website and scares away potential clients.
Dreadful Music on Website
Music is soothing and good but not for your website. Background music makes your website look unprofessional and lessens the credibility of your business. Also, not everyone have the same taste in music. Maybe the music that you have added in your website pleases you but it might abhor other people. If you think the music is really needed for your website, for example you are owning a music, personal or band web site make sure that your visitors have the option to pause or stop it from playing.
Noel Addison Agnote is a writing enthusiast and an online marketer. He is a part of NDIC, Santa Barbara’s premiere web design and web marketing firm. Visit NDIC to learn how to establish a good online presence for your business.
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
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A website should be simple, user-friendly and offers valuable services and and information. A video or images as a visual aide to explain your thoughts would be necessary but not too much, I think music is not really applicable. It’s informal for a business site.
Justin – Blatant self promotion is one of the most effective ways to alienate potential readers. We advise our clients to focus on the problem they are solving rather than just promoting themselves.
Hi.
All points is easy to take, except the last one. I hate when i hear music against my will and i just close the site if it has no button to turn music off.
One more thing that I want to add aside from simple layout and content is to make sure that the content is interesting, educational and unique.
I think that outrageous use of colors has the same effect, for example too much red, pink, etc. can make on to just run away
I think people see business websites as something rigid and soulless. You should concentrate your efforts into making your website look professional but also more personal and friendly to your visitors.
Like you said, the website should not be all about whom you are and what you do but also about whom your customers are and their needs. That is why interacting with your visitors is not only benefic but also necessary.
By allowing them to express their opinions and suggestions through comments, guestbooks or forums, you are setting a communication channel with your potential clients and strengthening your relations with them. It also helps you gather feedback on what it is that you are doing right or wrong and how you can improve your business.
Needless to say that first you should focus on your page content and also on keeping your website simple and functional. Nothing puts off clients faster than a poor loading page full of blinking ads, buttons and complex animations. Add a sudden (and many times) scary auto-play of music and you’ve lost them for good.
Regards,
Dianne
Great article Noel, I find it funny when sites still implement any kind of music on their website unless it is relevant to the site, i.e. a band’s website.
Larry Carillo
Fort Collins, Colorado
http://twitter.com/larrycarillo
Thanks everyone for dropping by and leaving your comments
If there is one thing that is really annoying then it must be those sites that open up with loud irritating music. The website owner should avoid this because you can never be sure which types of music your readers like.
John Paul Dauber@Fontana real estate´s last [type] ..FHA Loan Limits restored to 500k in Rancho Cucamonga and the Inland Empire
too much ads can be annoying. your blog should be nice and neat, and an environment that can offer good information.
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Outrageous use of images can also be bad for search engine optimization. Search engine crawlers can only read text, so if your website is all images, people will have a hard time finding your site through a search engine.
Hi, Noel and Justin.
You are right. As a web designer, I often steer my clients away from the stuff that you mention above especially the wrong use of colours, the music and the use of distasteful images and animation. I often advise them to use colours that represent their brand and speak to the customers’ emotion.
Great post, mate. I’m sure a lot of people will learn from this.
Wes Towers@Graphic Design Melbourne´s last [type] ..5 Tips for Entrepreneurs in the making
Nice article. I hate music in websites. Another problem is resizing images in html. Displaying photo’s from 2000 x 1600 pixels in you website like an image of 200 x 160 pixels.
Birgit´s last [type] ..Parkeren Schiphol
You have listed some very good points that require attention.
A webite should be developed with users in mind, this is why user feedback is important for creating an effective website.
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Background music is a major pet peeve of mine. It’s so obnoxious and no one wants to hear it–unless it’s a music site.
I totally agree with the points you mentioned above. In my experience, adding music would be a good one but there are sites that you can’t even mute or lower the volume of their sounds. Its very annoying, without optimizing it I’m pretty sure it will increase the bounce rate of the site.
Agree totally on your “music”-point. Music on a website, without the users permission is absolutely non-professional. Keep your fingers away from that!
Great aricle Noel – I have to agree with other posters here that the most irritating factor with a lot of sites is the music. As soon as you land on the page, i find myself in a blind panic searching for the volume control, next action I do is jump to another site asap.
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Really good post Justin. You have highlighted all those potential mistake most web designers do just to add extra effects in their webs
Dreadful music. That’s the reason which let me away from webs. I just close the webpages instantly, having unwanted background music. I have visited many site having really good content but never revisited them because of their annoying background sounds.
Self Marketing can be a joy killer. I can’t hate anything more than bragging and promoting yourself in an aggressive manner. Is not right.
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Hi Justin,
Great post! Me and my friends are planning to make our own website and this tips of your is very helpful. But about music I agree with you in some point but I think you can still music (not those type of music that always play for hours). I think sound effects is very attractive for websites.
Glenda T. Wagner´s last [type] ..MLM success
Nice pointing it out, these was the typical website failures. Webmasters should track their website’s performance so they can tweak it for better results. Having a suggestion or comment box about your site is also a good way of identifying your visitor’s needs.
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Absolutely agree about music on the website – it’s awful. And it’s even worse when the music is awful) And I want to add here that all those videos that begin to play on downloading the page are just irritating. If a person wants to watch your video message, then he’ll click on it. But all of a sudden he hears your voice – boy, that’s annoying.
Yes good article. I can also confirm what they write. Above all, Flash animations, and more layers can scare the visitors very. Not to mention the so-called pop-ups in the background or directly into the center opening. I think of such matters should be left when the finger is not to scare the visitors want. In addition, the search engines find such matters is not good.
On-page SEO is really an important aspect that every website should properly establish. Site lay-outs, design, and navigation will either invite or drive a visitor away. And extreme self-promotion is such a turn-off. People don’t like sites that are so self-centered and does not seem to reach out to its readers.
A website needs to be simple but in a way should be unique also. Simple so it can deliver it’s message clear to it’s audience and unique to be identified from the rest.
dreadful music is really a no-no for a business website. It really scares your visitor away from your site. Even if it is soothing, it will play again and again whenever a viewer will click another page and another. I tweeted this post. These should really be taken seriously by those who want to be successful online.
lymphoma´s last [type] ..Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma
Hi Noel! I just realized that I am guilty of putting crazy music in my business website. I know that I love Punk rock music but i think that is the reason my potential clients are turning away from my site. Thanks for the tips and I will update my site to have an appropriate music to go with it.
I hate it when people use music on sites (especially the auto-playing stuff0. It’s so 2003.
Interesting post. I totally agree with the idea that too much images and animations can be really annoying.
I’m so agree with your hate of in-site music. I personaly like to have a background music when working and when it starts to play somewhere else there is a mixture of sounds happen and irritates me greatly. If a reader wants to listen to some music you share, he/she will listen to it. Leave the choice.
I had music playing during our picture slideshow on my gym’s website and after finally removing it, our bounce rate is much lower. I didn’t realize how much it was making a difference, but it certainly does!
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I don’t like too much animations and popups on the page I visit. They’re really annoying and a distraction. I go to sites to read & get information.
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I’m agree, music and animated images are deprecated. The music is also fastidious in html / css websites because every time you change page it stops and starts again, unless you use the frames (also deprecated).
Animated images have an effect of an alarm, call attention to them while the user wants to see the text content, so they are incompatible with your same interests.
Music and animated images are usually used by inexperienced webmaster (or webdesigners).
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One more thing i would like to point out. Even if a website is good in navigation and has not any Dreadful Music , then also one thing should be kept in mind that webmaster should not put so many ads on their websites. Popup ads are so irritating that i never visit those sites who have enabled popup advertisement. I think webmaster should not be so much greedy . So please don’t use popup ads if possible.
Nice post , we should highlight on content rather than any other thing on a website because people visit the site for content not for listening music , seeing animations.
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