3 Web Design “Features” that Drive Online Customers Away
The road to unprofitability is paved with ideas that seemed good at the time.
That's an important thing to remember in the web design and online marketing industry, since so many strategies and concepts that work perfectly on paper can quickly put you out of business in the real world. From spam to redirecting sites, you can be sure that the first people to use them thought they had come up with something big. And, in a certain way, they did.
But as the Internet continues to move on, the trend is clear; anything that stops people from doing what they want to do, or gets in the way, is going to hurt sales over the long run. With that in mind, here are three Web design "features" that drive online customers away. Use them at your peril:
Pop ups. Once upon a time, pop-up ads increased response rates because they were new and innovative. People hadn't seen them much yet, and were a lot more willing to share their contact information or visit your redirect page. Now, however, the best thing that can happen with a pop-up ad is that someone closes it; it's far more likely that they'll simply click away from your page and never return.
Intros that you can’t skip. If you were one of the first companies to introduce Flash intros to your site, then you probably heard quite a bit about how "cool" they were… but you probably haven't heard that in a while. These days, Flash isn't fun, it's just annoying, so make sure to give visitors the option to skip the intro.
Music. It takes something seriously unique to pull this one off. Because so many of us surf the web at work (whether as part of our jobs or not), while we’re on the phone, or otherwise interacting with others, distracting music isn't a big hit. Plus, since no two people have the same taste, even the most tasteful selections are bound to send visitors clicking elsewhere.
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