Do you make these mistakes on your website?

Home>>Common Website Mistakes

Avoid these common mistakes by taking the time to doubule check your website before you upload it.

1. Slow load time
2. Pop up boxes
3. Banner advertisements
4. Unnecessary images
5. Splash pages
6. Automatically plays sound

Slow load times
In 1999, Zona Research estimated that up to $4.35 billion in sales per year were lost due to user frustration with slow load times. A ZDNet survey in 2000 found similar results with 48% of respondents admitting they have given up attempting to purchase an item because the page took too long to load. Suggestions to resolve this include:

• Avoid use of unnecessary image.
• Put your graphics in a vector format to reduce the file size.
• Design your website to load in approximately 8 seconds.

Pop up Boxes
A study in 2004 found that 95% of users rated pop-ups as very negative to negative on a survey rating web attributes. The prevalence of google tool bar, windows pop up blocker, and zone alarm is a clear indicator of the ineffectiveness of pop ups.

Banner Advertisements
Banner advertisements are rarely effective. The graphics and animation slow down the download time for the website and many users have developed a blindspot to them.

Unnecessary images
There is nothing wrong with blank space on a page. Unnecessary images slow load times and annoys the internet user. Nielsen netratings found that second to communication (email, im) 40% of internet users spent their time looking for information, which does not include cute animated graphics.

Splash Pages
Splash pages are pages that require the user to click on a link to enter the site. Predominantly, this serves as an additional obstacle for a user to overcome to reach your website. Even talented individuals and companies make this mistake as shown in this example. Don't let yourself be one of them!

Automatically plays sound
Another study found 80% of internet users rated automatically playing sounds as a negative to very negative attribute of a web page. Automatically playing sounds immediately clues internet users into the amateur design of a site. Give the user the option to turn on sound, but do not force it on them. Sound is a useful distraction technique in television advertising, but avoid it for your website.

Hopefully this information will help you resolve many of your common website issues, if you have any questions, feel free to contact us.