With the evolution of technology, you can add anything possible to your website. Although there are myriad of features, content, and designs that CAN BE be included on your website, these don’t always improve usability or ranking.

With this in mind – check your website for these problems – and, apply the fix.

Things to Avoid in Your Website

Problem = Vague and Unrelated Headlines

Have you come across homepages with a catchy headline which doesn’t explain what the business is all about? These confuse the reader or visitor, leaving them thinking, “Am I on the right page or is this about something else?”

CHECK – Use the Five Second Test

Let a stranger view your website. Count till five and then turn off the screen. Ask what they recall – if it’s the main business category of your business or, what your service is, then you have passed the five-second test. If not, then you have to think of a better headline.

Solution

Make a simple and descriptive headline that explains what the company does so that readers can tell what it is all about with a simple glance.

Problem = Insignificant Section Headers

If there are section headers on your web page that are quite large but meaningless, it is better to remove them.

CHECK – Try visualizing your page without those headers and check if it seems confusing. If your answer is no- then those headers are not required.

Solution

Remove the extra headers. This will then give more prominence to the description in the sections.

Problem = Blog Dates

Informative articles designed to provide useful information to your clients are evergreen or cornerstone content.

CHECK – Do your blogs contain dates?

Solution

If there are dates on your How-to articles, just remove them. There is really no need to date them as it remains useful for years to come.

Problem = Text, text, text

A majority of the visitors scan web pages rather than read. Long paragraphs can appear quite uninteresting to read. Many people read small and informative articles.

CHECK – Does your page look intimidating to a reader?

Solution

Keep your paragraphs short and concise. Limit it to three or four lines which make it easier to scan. Also – add images, graphs, and visuals to break up text and add interest. make sure these are relevant and not just filler and keep your page neat – images all over the place can be distracting – align them all left or right or just dividers to allow the eye to easily read the page.

Problem = Press Release

A press release is an announcement which is made by the company. It might not be as educative and entertaining as a blog or article. Press releases are designed for journalists. So how many visitors are journalists?

CHECK – Does your site include Press releases?

Solution

Rewrite a press release as an article with links, images, keywords and calls-to action.

Banner Ads

This is probably the worst method to garner the attention of your visitor. Everyone is tuned to avoid ads, so why put them on your own website?

CHECK – Do obvious ads appear on your website?

Solution

Use native advertisements that appear to be content. It is quite effective.

There are many more bad ideas that are often included on web pages – think sliders, old-fashioned formatting, sidebars on both sides, cluttered pages and more! These are just some. So, which ones annoy you?!

Look for our next blog – 10 Simple and Effective Ways to Improve your Website – COMING SOON!

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