10 Signs Your Website Sucks!

Well, maybe "sucks" is too strong a word, but I once bought a book titled "Web Pages that Suck". The title alone caught my attention, so I figured I would give it a try and see what everybody else thinks :)  Anyway, that same book focused on websites that the author felt were ugly or had room for improvement... lots of improvement. I agreed with the author's take on the subject. It can be difficult to explain or illustrate good design or looks, but it was very easy to point out bad choices and decisions on a web page. Some of my clients call me after they accept the fact that the free website that they setup could use some improvement. In most cases, the website that they setup is not too bad. There are definitely some rookie mistakes, but overall it gets the job done. Ok, now that I said something nice, here comes the negative stuff.

Just about everyone can recognize an expensive car without knowing the price tag. The same goes for an expensive restaurant or a fancy hotel. There are always exceptions, but in general, you can usually tell when a website was done either by the actual business owner or a web design company. However, it is not the actual design itself that gives it away. In most cases, the design is a template which can actually look very good. Typically, the clean simple layout is lost among a lot of unnecessary content and "features" that are thrown in afterwards.

The following is a list of of features that I believe are not needed and scream, "I don't want to invest in a website because I can do it myself and I don't care what it looks like". I apologize in advance if I offend anyone! Taste is in the eye of the beholder, so if you think my website sucks, I will respect that too and would love to hear your suggestions (but please don't use 4 letter words when you respond).
  1. A visitor counter - This is that counter at the bottom of the website that show how many visitors have been to your website. If you really want to tell everyone how unpopular your website is, than use it. Otherwise ditch it and you will no longer fall under the category of amateur.
  2. Under Construction page - If the web page is not ready yet, then don't publish it. A website is always under construction. So, don't waste anyone's time. If someone clicks and ends up on a page that simply states "under construction", they will soon stop clicking and possibly leave your website
  3. Your pictures take forever to download. This is possibly the most common mistake that I have seen. There are many inexpensive digital image applications available and even free online applications to help reduce both a picture's physical size and file size. Again, if a visitor is waiting too long for your pictures to download, they will quickly grow frustrated and move on.
  4. Fancy background - This one really puzzles me. People like to put a really fancy background that looks really really ..."fancy"... but .... you can't read anything because the fancy background is almost the same color as the text. This is in addition to the huge size of the background that takes forever to download.
  5. Huge buttons - I am not talking about trendy buttons that look good and function well. I am referring to simple buttons that have no reason to take up so much space.
  6. Music - I have no problem with music that I like (and I listen to just about everything). But sometimes, I don't want to be spooked while I am browsing the internet. On top of that, I like to control the volume when I listen to music. So, at least give me the option to lower the volume.
  7. Animation - I don't think too many people are doing this anymore, but I still want to throw it in because it makes a good point. If you want some graphics on your website, take it easy. Appreciate white space and realize that too many graphics or busy graphics distract from your content.
  8. Poor navigation menu buttons - This is probably one of the easiest things to fix, so please put in some effort and do this part right. If you visitor can't get back to the home page easily or figure out where they are at, than do not expect them to come back for  another painful visit.
  9. Blurry logo - I don't see this a lot but I do see it happen. It is worse than the blurry pictures or long downloads in my opinion because this is the first impression of the company for some.
  10. You did NOT hire onfx. Ha ha!!! I have to mention onfx somewhere in this article, right? I am only kidding. Anyone can create a  good and effective web site if they put in the effort. Just  be sure to ask for some constructive critism along the way and you will be on the right track.