Have you ever wondered why people don’t visit some company websites? Whether they have excellent products and services, a website can affect the organization itself.
A website can help your company grow and possibly gain more consumers who’ll become loyal to your products and services. But it can also affect the business negatively. Things like page speed, excessive pop-ups or poor navigation can all lead to losing potential customers.
Of course, you want to get more visitors to your site as it could get you more potential customers. So you have to ensure that your website is user-friendly and doesn’t have attributes that people hate about websites.
Why It’s Important To Have a User-Friendly Website
Depending on the company, a website can be the main element of your business model. For instance, if you have an eCommerce website, your website optimization will be different from others. But even if your company website is not utilized for transactions, it can still be used to build an online presence, which is a key component of creating brand awareness. Besides social networks, your website is another great way to build your brand.
Apart from building your brand name, your company website can also help you conduct a brand audit, which is one of the primary sources of information about your customers.
So to help ensure that the visitors to your site have the best user experience (UX), here are 13 things people hate about websites and how to avoid them.
1. Takes Too Long To Load
In a fast-paced world, people don’t like waiting. A single second can highly affect customer satisfaction; even the search tool on your site is expected to produce results almost instantaneously.
You may, therefore, want to check the factors affecting your website’s loading speed. The most common factors that affect page load time are videos, images and code. Try to optimize everything and reduce the size of images and videos where possible, but not to the point that you disregard the quality.
2. Too Many Pop-Ups
Pop-ups alert the user on what action they need to do but can also be used for promotion or advertisements. However, it could be irritating, especially if there are too many.
If a customer just wants to check one item on your website, there shouldn’t be tons of pop-ups before they can reach the item.
Excessive pop-ups can affect your customer satisfaction negatively, so it’s best to be selective when using them.
3. Not Optimized for Mobile
Users don’t just use computers to access the web anymore. Since the birth of smartphones, the internet has become more accessible. This means you have to ensure that your site is optimized for mobile browsers, especially if you have an app.
The aspect ratio of your phone, tablet and computer are different, which means the interface should also be adjusted depending on the screen size and your site’s functions to ensure a seamless user experience.
4. Poor Navigation
Visiting a website for the first time should be as effortless as possible to navigate for a user. However, poor navigation can be frustrating, especially if it takes a long time to get to the right page or section. This could lead to a high bounce rate or, worse, losing a potential customer for good.
It’s therefore essential to ensure that your website is easy to use. Nowadays, the most common design is to put the navigation links on the header to redirect the user to a new page.
The footer should have the “contact us” section and other relevant links, such as FAQs and terms and conditions.
5. Inconsistent Titles and Headlines
Have you ever been a victim of clickbait? Perhaps you’ve clicked a link on a social media platform because of the headline, only to read the article, and the content doesn’t relate to the title.
You want to gain your website visitor’s trust, but using clickbait can destroy your site’s credibility. We understand that capturing people’s attention through headlines and titles is essential, but it doesn’t help you in the long run. Instead, ensure it isn’t misleading and the content relevant.
4. Generic Stock Photography
Photos can make your website look better, but they can easily affect your site’s credibility, especially when you use stock photos. Although the intention is good, the result could be damaging.
Let’s say you want to showcase people who are happy with their purchase. One way to do this is to set up a photo shoot and get original images that suit your product or services.
Alternatively, you could also use photos of real customers, provided you get permission first.
5. Unfriendly Internal Linking
Internal links that redirect users to an incorrect or different page are incredibly frustrating and can decrease your site’s credibility.
Proper internal linking is a must. So before publishing the page, ensure the phrase used to link to another page was used naturally.
Also, make sure the page link isn’t broken, is correct and relevant, and not just there for the sake of having an internal link.
6. Disorienting Animations
Animation and auto-play videos can help get more visitors. However, they can also irritate the user, especially if it is disorienting.
It’s, therefore, recommended to conduct a blink test, which refers to the three to five seconds it takes a user to decide if they want to stay on or leave a site. If they get frustrated within the blink test time frame, they would most likely click the back button or close the page entirely.
Keep animations simple. Make sure they aren’t distracting, especially when reading content.
It’s also a good idea to update your website regularly. This will ensure that your website has a trendy overall design and updated content. So including site maintenance in your budget is essential.
7. Wrong Call-To-Action
As a rule of thumb, call-to-actions should never promise a user something that they won’t receive. It should also never be a catch, as this is similar to click-baiting.
The best resolution is to be specific in your call-to-action so the customers know exactly what they are getting.
8. No Blog
Sharing valuable information with your site’s visitors can help you gain their trust, especially if you’re providing useful tips and strategies. A blog is the perfect way to do this.
Having a blog allows you to connect with many visitors and share information to help with decision-making in the buyers’ journey. And when you assist them through your blogs, they could deem you worthy of their time and money.
9. Unintelligible ‘About Us’ Page
Does your “About Us” page or section explain specifically the type of service and products you offer? Or is it just a general explanation?
You don’t want to read the same information repeatedly from different companies. Make sure you have the right history and be specific with timestamps, milestones and any unique details.
10. It Contains a Contact Form, but No Additional Contact Information
A contact form is where the user will sign up to join the mailing list. After that, the user will receive the company’s promos, updates and other emails. But there are times that users accidentally hit it by accident, or perhaps they get notified too often.
Adding the company’s contact information is essential. This is where they can make requests, or perhaps they have some unanswerable queries in the FAQ section. Of course, don’t just give them the email address. Ensure that you include a contact number where they can call in case they want answers right away.
11. No Social Sharing Buttons
Visitors who love the content you just posted will most likely share it on their social media pages. But it would be troublesome for them to copy the URL and paste it on their multiple accounts.
On the other hand, if you have a “share” button on your website, it would be easier to share your content. Therefore, easy sharing access is an excellent way to create more opportunities to get more traffic.
12. No Clear Explanation of What Your Company Does
After reading a company website’s “About Us” page or section, it’s essential that visitors clearly understand what they provide.
If your “About Us” section does not give specific details about your products or services, it’s best to rewrite it. But most importantly, explain why your company exists and why people need your services or products.
13. Keyword-Stuffed Copy
Using keywords for your content is crucial as this will create more organic traffic. But one critical mistake people make is creating content for computers, not for humans.
Stuffing your copy with keywords simply isn’t enough to rank; your content needs to satisfy user intent. And to keep visitors on your site, the content must sound natural rather than robotic or forced. Remember that it has to be worth reading.
Sum Up
When you stop making these mistakes on your website, you increase the possibility that your site will gain more traffic. The results; more potential customers and, ultimately, higher sales and return on investment.