5 Ways to Annoy Visitors to Your Website

5 Ways to Annoy Visitors to Your Website

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/ about running her online home business. Get more tips on how to earn money working from home by visiting http://www.homewiththekids.com/blog/top-home-business-posts/

Distributed by http://www.ContentCrooner.com

No matter how much you love your website, viewers are going to see it differently. There are many things you can do to your website that you might think will help that in fact put visitors off. Annoy them too much and not only do they leave quickly, they don’t come back.

1. Start with a splash page.

I remember in my college website design classes my professor was huge on splash pages. He thought they were a great way to introduce a website.

Real world?

Splash pages are annoying. Search engines don’t like them. Visitors don’t like them. Plus you don’t have that much control over where people come into your site, so not all visitors will see your fancy schmancy splash page.

But when people type in your domain name they don’t want to have to click through to get to the actual website. There’s no need for that pretty Flash animation sharing what your site is about. Just start your site on the home page and skip the splash.

2. Slow loading.

People are impatient. They don’t want to wait for the content of your website to load. They want to get what they’re after quickly. More than 7 seconds, plus or minus depending on the individual’s patience, and they are away from your site and off to another.

3. Confusing navigation.

Ever get lost driving somewhere? It’s frustrating.

The navigation of your website should help people not get that lost feeling. They shouldn’t feel as though they need to ask for directions on how to get to different parts of your website. It should be consistent throughout the site.

4. Too many ads.

You know how many ads are in your typical magazine or newspaper? People don’t put up with that many online. Don’t overload your site with ads.

A large part of the annoyance with online ads is how intrusive they can be. It’s not like print ads. Online ads can talk. They can be animated. They can quite simply drive people nuts.

Overuse of ads, even when tolerated, can even lead to “ad blindness,” where people don’t notice ads at all. Keep your use of ads to appropriate levels if you want them to be effective.

5. Website appears incomplete.

Don’t say your site is “under construction” or anything like that, even if it is. Most sites are a chronic work in progress.

If a page isn’t done, don’t put it up yet. You can add it in when it’s ready to be seen by the public. You really aren’t drawing people in by saying that something is coming soon unless it’s something really important to them. If they’re just casually shopping on your site or seeking out particular information, they aren’t going to be that interested in waiting for the update.

If you’re trying to build anticipation, give plenty of information. Make it interesting. “Coming soon” just doesn’t cut it.

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