One of the tenets of inbound marketing is not to annoy. So why is it that many websites are still chock full of the elements that so many visitors have bemoaned over and over? Perhaps with the sheer excitement (or terror, depending on your personality) that comes with designing your own website, all of the user experience quirks that have driven you crazy over the years escape your mind. But poor user experience can cause high page abandonment rates, low visitor-to-lead conversion rates, poor organic search listing positions, and a plain ol' bad reputation. So we compiled a list of the 15 most annoying things we've seen on websites to act as a sort of guide for what not to do when designing your website. Take a look at the worst offenders!
15 Things People Hate About Your Website
1) Pop-Up Ads
Let's get the most obvious one out of the way. Pop-ups are seriously annoying. Yes, a pop-up could get you a few new email subscribers, but is that really worth all the traffic you lose when visitors abandon your site in annoyance? Convert site visitors into leads with well-written content and compelling CTAs/offers, not interruptive gimmicks.
2) Automatically Playing Multimedia Content When a Page Loads
Shhhh! I wasn't supposed to be on this site at work! If someone's enjoying what they thought was a silent browsing session and they're bombarded with your theme song or a talking head on a video for which they didn't press "play" and can't find the button for "stop," what do you think they're going to do? Some might fumble for their mute button, but I can more easily locate the back button in my browser than my computer's volume controls. Let visitors choose to play your multimedia content; don't force it on them.
3) Disorienting Animations
You're probably familiar with the blink test by now -- the 3 seconds users have to orient themselves on any given web page before they click 'back' in their browser. Animations, auto-play videos, blinking and flashing paid advertisements, and other interactive entertainment may seem really cool (I'm sure it's very well designed!) but it detracts from a visitor's focus during those critical 3 seconds. Nix the animations, and let visitors focus on what they can do on that page with clearly written headlines and explanatory copy.
4) Generic Stock Photography
You've heard using images is great for your inbound marketing, so you go browsing and find this gem for your website:
Are we supposed to believe they work at your company? And are they always that delighted to collaborate over a piece of notebook paper? Show pictures of customers, real people that work at your company, your product, and your location. Or if you're particularly design savvy, create visuals yourself that directly relate to what you do. Images are helpful if they clarify something for a visitor -- generic stock photography doesn't help visitors, so by extension, it doesn't help you.
5) Including a 'Contact Us' Form in Lieu of Contact Information
A 'Contact Us' form may seem like an easy way to generate an opt-in email list, but it's really the least valuable form of lead generation for you and your site visitors. It's terribly generic, and doesn't indicate the contact actually wants to receive ongoing communications from you -- it's more likely they have a one-time problem or request that needs to be addressed.
So let's say they do in fact have a one-time request. There's nothing wrong with having a "Contact Us" module on your site; but it should never be the only means of communication between you and your customers. If your visitor or customer needs help, they want it now. They don't want to fill out a form and wait to see when, if ever, they get a response. Let people get in touch with you via email, the phone, and social media, and make that information available on your website.
6) Unintelligible 'About Us' Page
Does your 'About Us' page explain what you do in business babble, or using the words and phrases common to the general population? Let's play a translation game using HubSpot's 'About Us' page copy. Would you know what we did if our 'About Us' page said this (thankfully, it doesn't)?
HubSpot assists organizations across multiple countries reduce churn by backfilling the sales pipeline with highly qualified traffic that generates leads that convert into customers with high lifetime value. We achieve this through leading-edge software that integrates all marketing channels for a synergistic view of the data that determines and prioritizes the high-value marketing activities.
What? Let's translate that into the way people actually speak!
HubSpot all-in-one marketing software helps more than 6,000 companies in 45 countries attract leads and convert them into customers. A pioneer in inbound marketing, HubSpot aims to help its customers make marketing that people can actually love.
Got it, we make
marketing software
that helps you get leads and customers. Do a business babble check on your 'About Us' page to make sure you're speaking in a language non-experts can understand. I recommend running it by a few friends and family members that don't work in your industry for the best results.
7) SEO-Driven Copy
Remember back in the early 2000s when you went to a website and saw paragraphs and paragraphs of copy? Aside from being visually overwhelming, if you read that copy you'd find nothing more than a bunch of keyword-dense copy meant for crawlers, not humans. Unfortunately, some websites are still writing for bots, even though Google's algorithm is far more sophisticated at determining a page's relevancy than it was 10 years ago. In fact, now Google will ding you for these types of activities! There's a difference between search engine optimized content and over-optimized content. Don't write for crawlers; write for humans.
8) Not Including Social Sharing Buttons on Your Content
If you're writing for humans, you probably have some really interesting content on your site. Content that people want to share on social media, perhaps. That's why it's a huge disappointment to scroll up and down looking for a "Tweet This!" button, only to realize there aren't any social sharing buttons on your website! These buttons make social sharing easy for your readers -- they don't have to copy and paste your URL, shorten it, and compose a tweet. And easy social sharing options means your content gets more visibility, which means more site traffic, better search engine rankings, and more lead generation opportunities.
9) You Don't Have a Blog
Perhaps I'm biased, but visiting a website without a blog is a turn off. Visitors want to learn about you, and in today's world where consumers are performing in-depth company research on their own before ever contacting a sales person, an 'About Us' page isn't enough to tell the full story. Think of it like this -- the 'About Us' page is like your personality at a job interview, and your blog is your personality after a few drinks. After reading through a sample of blog posts over a long span of time, visitors have a much better understanding of who you are (awesome), who works at your company, what you believe, and how you've grown over time.
10) Titles and Content are Incongruous
If you're an avid content creator, you know how important a well-crafted title is. Great titles are what cause people to click through in their RSS, emails, and search engines to read what you have written. But if they're met with content that's unrelated to the title you provided, you'll disappoint visitors -- and they'll abandon your site. While it's important to capture peoples' attention in titles, make sure it isn't misleading and your content can actually live up to what you promised you'd deliver.
11) Your Call-to-Action Copy Doesn't Align With the Offer
Along the same lines, your call-to-action should align with what visitors receive when they redeem your offer. There's nothing more frustrating than being promised a 50% off coupon in the call-to-action copy, only to redeem it and find there's a caveat that says you must first spend $1,000. On select items. In-store purchases only. This is not only insulting to your visitors, but it will also kill your reputation and the conversion rates of your calls-to-action and landing pages.
12) Your Internal Linking Isn't User-Friendly
When done correctly, internal links are helpful for readers and website alike. They point readers to other relevant information, and help you improve the organic ranking for important pages on your own website. But some websites seem to have trouble executing internal linking correctly , pointing users to irrelevant pages, linking strange phrases within the copy, and overdoing it to the point of making content unreadable.
Include internal links only to relevant pages on your website that will enhance a reader's experience, and include that link on the anchor text that makes the most sense. Recognize that sometimes, the link that makes the most sense isn't keyword-optimized anchor text, either, like in this example from yesterday morning's blog post.
I thought about a way to rephrase the last sentence so the anchor text could be keyword optimized, but in the end, the "reference this ebook" text, while technically against SEO best practices, was the most user-friendly option.
( Tip: Be sure to have all links open into a new tab in your browser, not the same window. Visitors may not be done reading the content on this page, and you don't want to navigate them away while they're still reading!)
13) Sliders That Take Forever, and Ever, to Load
Sliders are a great way to showcase multiple images in a space-efficient manner (just check out our current homepage , for example). But there's a right way and a wrong way to use them. If your slider loads images quickly and doesn't require a new page to load every time a user clicks, congratulations! Your slider is not annoying. But the web is filled with sliders that, every time you click the arrow for the next image, load an entirely new web page. That can take visitors from a 0 second load time to 1, 2, 5, or more seconds as the entire webpage reloads!
( Tip: If you're using a slider in a list post, accompany the visual elements with written copy above or below the slider. Many readers are scanners, and won't invest the time to click through every image in the slider.)
14) Using Flash
Many designers use Flash on clients' websites, and it's enough to make a search marketer cringe along with the site visitors. The problem with Flash is not in its limitations; I've seen some stunning websites created with Flash! But search engines can't read it, so your site won't get indexed. And another problem? Visitors are often looking for a very specific piece of information when visiting your site -- if they have to wait for a 10-second visual introduction to unfold on the screen before they can find your hours of operation, you're going to have an angry customer (or would-be customer, depending on their level of patience).
15) The Worst Offender: I Don't Know What to Do.
This is the worst offender in my opinion -- when someone lands on your site, do they know what to do? Alright, maybe they don't like your stock photos, or perhaps they see a 'Contact Us' form that grinds their gears. But visitors may be able to look past those things if they can immediately see what your website does, what the value of that is, and what they should do next. Include clear headline copy, jargonless page copy that explains the value of what you do, and one clear primary call-to-action per page that shows visitors how to take the next steps -- whether that's subscribing to your blog, getting a free trial , watching a video, or any other action you hope visitors will perform on your site.
What website components drive you nuts? Share them in the comments!
Image credit: CyboRoZ
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Jenna Williams 3:04 PM on April 10, 2012
Nice article! Lol about the stock photography... there is good & bad though I think. That picture is more "so bad, it's good"...
Paul Danek 3:19 PM on April 10, 2012
Very astute article. Many of the elements you mention (autoplaying multimedia, flash, annoying animations) can be avoided simply by keeping simplicity and purpose at the center of design decisions. Simplicity in that simpler is generally better, and translates better across multiple browsers, channels and devices; and purpose meaning keeping in mind what a site visitor is trying to accomplish (getting information or support, or better yet, to contact you or buy, not see how skilled your flash developer is).
Barbara 3:27 PM on April 10, 2012
Great stuff. It touches on almost all the things that really irritate me. One of the things that offends me most is the use of popular images across so many websites. Surely the designers could be a little more innovative and perhaps delve a little deeper into iStock and not just use the first ones they like.
Jo Harrison 4:00 PM on April 10, 2012
My pet hate is a website/blog not bring mobile user friendly... and I'm sorry to say Hubspot is not! I love your articles but it's so frustrating visiting your website on my iPhone because its just not nice to navigate. I am posting this from my iPhone as I feel quite strongly about it.
Good points though, I also hate pop-ups, images don't bother me so much.
James Gradige 4:30 PM on April 10, 2012
Depends on the nature and purpose of the site.You should not expect that a Multimedia site, for instance, will be without some pyrotechnics.
Further, many sites are not constructed for the crawly-engine search market, but rather to showcase the best of a producers output.Some sites are there only for direct referals and serve as a prescence in lieu of the producer.
These are not designed, I am afraid, for the "sneaky browser", and must serve as a presentation platform when the producer is earning his keep.
In terms of security, it is unwise to publish even contact information on a public site,unless you have the staff to manage the response.
Many contact response forms are linked directly to the relevant party,via mobile, so believe me, the connection is instant if your webmaster is wide awake.
Ultimately,it's horses for courses. Define the purpose of you endeavor,and construct accordingly. Many high-end marketers are happy with fewer hits of a higher quality, rather than droves of maybes.
Some browsers are not buyers.
You should always cater for your specific market, and be keenly aware of who they are.
Content must be relevant, and focused.Find a well-rounded constructor, who has some experience of marketing beyond the web, or all you will end up with, is bells and whistles.
Deb 5:01 PM on April 10, 2012
Great advice. I'll be sure to take it all and evaluate my pages and content for offenses!
Ben Erickson 5:08 PM on April 10, 2012
I think the best comment so far was that your website needs to be unique based on your industry and customer base.
I am inclined to agree with Jenna, some stock imagery is not so bad. As with all content it all boils down to using your eye and your common sense. I do release a slightly bored sigh over generic photos that have been overdone.
The automatic loading of multimedia, specifically anything that makes noise is a massive faux pas. For one, if I am online at home, I likely have my own music on. If I am at work I do not want to:
a. be surprised by a sudden blast through my speakers.
b. want to draw attention to the fact that I have just clicked onto a website, that may or not be work related.
Pop ups are a personal pet peeve. They are telemarketers of the web world.
Great article I found it very interesting!
James Gradidge 5:46 PM on April 10, 2012
Point taken, however, there is certainly a market for joyous noise, If that.s what you produce, then it would be missed if absent.
Once again, the target is the most relevant factor.
However, in our modern age, there is always a mechanism available to soothe the path of those who have need of it. Just avail yourself of the technology at hand, and click on the video. The noise will cease. Or just turn the volume down on your receiver, and voila! Silent Movies.
Nothing has changed, except that we now include an instruction to elucidate.
On the point of Flash, I forgot to mention, Even though machines cannot read it, still, it has it's uses.
Because humans can
.
For a good example of how you can enhance an otherwise static site with a strategic bit of Flash, look here: http://jpg.doodlekit.com/home
You can be content with the html while the flash is loading, Are we thinking outside the box yet?
When it comes to photography, hire a young, up and coming shootist who needs a good break. The colleges (and streets) are full of potential candidates, and they need the work. Support your environment.
LP 5:50 PM on April 10, 2012
I definitely hate just finding contact forms but that seems to be happening more nowadays. I also appreciate being able to see a real/non 800 number to see where they are physically located.
Patina Marketing 7:02 PM on April 10, 2012
I love this post! These are some of the most fundamental items that every website owner should pay attention too. In addition to adding a mobile website or upgrading to a responsive theme. Optimizing websites for customers and sales is what every website owner or webmaster should be doing because it affects the bottom line in a positive way with the right changes. And you should never stop testing there are always incremental changes that you can do to increase conversions.
James Perkins 7:18 PM on April 10, 2012
Some good points and differing points of view on here, enjoy them almost as much as the content.
One thing that I really fail to understand, are the number of websites that use flash so much that there is little/no content left for people who are browsing on iPads etc. and in many cases it simply isn't needed.
Massive oversight IMO.
JRogier 7:24 PM on April 10, 2012
Worst thing ever: seeing a home page that says: "Welcome to Blah Blah Blah's Website". Ergh, very tacky.
Richard Kent 5:59 AM on April 11, 2012
Great post Corey, in my specific industry the 3 second blink test is key. People are too busy to spend time trawling through too much narrative on the home page.
Anneli 9:53 AM on April 11, 2012
I hate it when websites aren't mobile friendly or when content isn't updated regularly.
top media 10:39 AM on April 11, 2012
Excellent post! I can testify that I was myself concerned to implement a large part of the things written here and there is no doubt that it contributes a lot in terms of abandonment and conversion rates. You have to understand what site visitors expect to find when they enter a certain site and just give it to them, without the push of unwanted content before your eyes.
Effective Site Marketing 10:58 AM on April 11, 2012
Nice list, that sure did look like an interesting piece of notebook paper :) I'm in complete agreement about everything except the animations. Those first 3 seconds are crucial, but a simple well done flash animation can often help get their foot in the door and interested in what you have to offer. spammers typically just have copy so those little extra items can sometimes show legitimacy if done correctly. often they arent though
Sven Tilburg 11:52 AM on April 11, 2012
very nice write up!! - Just one thing made me flinch:
"Or if you're particularly design savvy, create visuals yourself"
Please, please, pretty, please - do not confuse designers with "decorateurs" or "artists"... Isn't that an integral message of this very blog post?
Art is being interpreted. Design is being understood. Someone who knows how to bring a message across, how to make the user "click" - is a designer. Someone who can draw the needed artwork, would be a illustrator or an artist. Being "design savy" means knowing how our brains work, not necessarily how to use a pencil...
igeek 12:33 PM on April 11, 2012
Great post. It's not just me who dreads the 'business people round a laptop' stock photography shot.
Joan 4:21 PM on April 11, 2012
I think that everything you mentioned has been a huge bugaboo for me, just this week, all on one web page! And that web page is meant for seniors, I can't imagine how anyone over the age of 30 gets around this horrendous web site that I have to use for work!
Utkarsh Khare 2:53 AM on April 12, 2012
Nice article. These things really are irritating. And avoiding them can help increasing the time spent on website.
Brenda 11:26 AM on April 12, 2012
Good, practical stuff. Thanks
Karrie 12:19 PM on April 12, 2012
Excellent article! I had no idea a personal site blog was so important; I sall be implementing that on CaribbeanFunCruises in short order.
On the issue of pop ups, I also do not like them but I have to admit that sometimes they serve as effective marketing tools.
Rich Page 12:23 PM on April 12, 2012
Love it!
For another 35 more of these things that website visitor hate, check out my blog post I did a while back called '50 Ways to Really Annoy Your Website Visitors (and reduce conversions):
http://rich-page.com/website-optimization/50-ways-to-really-annoy-your-website-visitors/
Thanks,
Rich Page
Pat Chiappa 12:49 PM on April 12, 2012
I love this comprehensive and informative post. The days of a website being just an on-line brochure are over!
Angie Wilkes 1:19 PM on April 12, 2012
I hold my hands up - I'm guilty of using stock photography on sites sometimes!
My one bugbear, and the one thing that will guarantee I leave a site fast, never to return, is autostarting audio or video. I just close the page straight down instead of listening or watching or trying to turn it down. Even worse are the ones I have seen recently that are on a completely white screen with no surround, so there is no way to even stop or pause the video, let alone mess around trying to turn it off!
When will businesses learn that their visitors want to be in control of the media content?
cindy 1:59 PM on April 12, 2012
Could you explain this for me please.
(Tip: Be sure to have all links open into a new tab in your browser, not the same window. Visitors may not be done reading the content on this page, and you don't want to navigate them away while they're still reading!) I do a lot of internal links and question if this is something I have not done. Thank you in advance. Cheers!1
Mikhail Tuknov 5:49 PM on April 12, 2012
I really enjoyed reading this article. I want to translate it in Russian and share it with Russian Internet community.
Carpet Cleaning Palm Harbor Florida 3:15 PM on April 13, 2012
This is a great checklist for looking at my own site, Carpet Cleaning Palm Harbor, FL. I really have to add in the Facebook like buttons.
Abi @ Page One Photography 2:59 PM on April 15, 2012
I totally agree with the comments about the use of generic stock photography...but as the co-owner of a photography business I would say that! My pet hate is when a UK website uses stock photos of people who are obviously American. The people all look so beautiful and perfect! Let's see real Britons, warts and all.
Rose McGrory 5:25 AM on April 16, 2012
I think that just about covers it ;)
The "contact form only" one is definitely my top bugbear, if you have a task to complete (ie finding a supplier) you want to call RIGHT THEN, not wait for them to get back to you!
Pradeep 8:14 AM on April 16, 2012
Once again a well explained and to the point post. Thanks for sharing.
Linda Francis 5:27 PM on April 16, 2012
@Cindy re: opening links in a new tab...I'm onboard with all the suggestions here, but this one should be treated with caution in my view. There is an assumption that people would want a new tab or browser) opened for a link because they "might not be finished reading" the page. What I have observed is that people use the browser back button often as the way to back out from a link. If the link is opened in a new tab or window, the back button will not have anywhere to go (because it is a first page for that tab or browser). As a result, they have to stop, realize they are in a new tab/browser, close it and go back to the originating one.
My preference is to open internal links in the same tab, but if there is a benefit to having an additional window open for the link, or if the link leads to an external site it may be good to open that link in a new tab/window. When that happens, especially if it is not the "normal" situation for links on the site, I might advise the reader by making a sentence like the following the hyperlink: "read more about blah on our corporate website" or "sign up for blah on nameofcompany.com"
Thanks for the comprehensive list always good to remind ourselves of these types of things.
Web designer, London 7:37 PM on April 16, 2012
I don't think many websites use pop-up ads any more. However talking about advertising, it is very important to limit any type of advertising on a website. While some ad units are OK, I have come across many sites that over do it by using Adsense, Chitika, Text links and other ads all on a single page.
violet stevens 4:26 AM on April 17, 2012
I usually get irritated if i have to scroll to get more information. It is really irritating if the Homepage needs to be scrolled.
Site Traffic Control 12:45 PM on April 17, 2012
Thanks for posting. I agree that the blog is the first place I look when I want to learn more about a company.
Caroline Kelli Wright 9:09 PM on April 17, 2012
My two issues are sites that open to music, and sites that have broken links. UGH.