10 ways to annoy your site visitors

March 25, 2008

Getting visitors onto your website is one thing, keeping them there is another. Make life as easy as possible for them. A frustrated visitor will not stick around, will not come back and will not recommend your site to others.

Here are 10 common ways to annoy your visitors:

• No clear statement of the site’s purpose.
• Navigation and links are not obvious.
• Broken links.
• Distracting and irrelevant imagery, animation, sound and wording.
• Inconsistent signage, colouring, conventions and messages from page to page.
• Lack of orientation and clear signposts within the site.
• No site map and/or site search.
• Obscure or missing information such as contact details, prices and delivery charges.
• Asking for unnecessary information on registration forms, purchases, etc.
• Careless errors with spelling and grammar.

Or to put it another way – don’t confuse them, don’t put doubt in their minds, don’t put barriers in their way and do serve it up on a plate.

The offences not in any particular order of importance. Needless to say, there are plenty of others (I’ll see if I can come up with another ten soon). Each offence will deter some people more than others. But any of them could cost you customers. 

Filed in: Usability

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