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Home » The Famous Blog » When Good Web Design goes Bad

When Good Web Design goes Bad

June 11, 2010 - Last Modified: June 11, 2010 by andrewghayes

Good Design

I’m the first person to admit that looking good is a big part of online success.

In the virtual world, there are no non-visual cues that a potential buyer/reader/subscriber/customer can use to judge your credibility, so the professionalism and the tone of your website speaks volumes.  A little goes a long way, though; I see a lot of sites that feel like they’re just trying too hard.  Here are three common mistakes in web design I see, and how you can avoid them.

Too Many Adverts

This is a problem I have never quite understood.  I see small businesses who have a sales page listing their services – say, “blogger in Toronto” – and then they plaster Google Adsense ads all around the page.  They obviously haven’t clued in that Google Adsense is contextual, so those ads are more than likely for your competition.  This problem also applies for massive, flashy banner ads that distract from whatever service or product you are offering.

Every situation is different, but my generic advice for this situation is such:  If you make more money selling one of your ‘things’ than by promoting someone else’s, stop advertising. For most people, it doesn’t make sense to have a few pennies from Google when you could easily bring in more profit by focusing the attention on your great stuff instead.

If you do decide to have advertising – for example, if you’re an online magazine and that’s is your primary revenue source, then don’t oversell your virtual real estate.  “Widgetmania” is a real turnoff to readers and if you have hundreds of banner ads, the click through on each individual one just gets lower and lower.

Too Many “Innovative” Features

If your site is based entirely on flash technology, go have a quick peek at it on an iPhone or any other mobile browser.  Not so innovative, eh?  I’m all for abandoning support for Internet Explorer 6 (if you don’t know why, don’t worry about it), but sometimes websites push the edge so far that they leave half of their buying customers behind.

This is a very easy problem to fix: test, test, test.  With real people.  Not your developers overseas, not your internal sales team, but real people who are in your target market.  Does your site load slowly on their machine?  Do they get errors because they’re on a newer browser, like Chrome, or maybe an older version of Internet Explorer?  Don’t alienate a potential customer from the start because you don’t support their technology.  Test!

Too Many Menu Choices

Last but not least is what I appetizingly call “menu bloat”  You know the menu – you keep clicking and it never seems to end.  Layers and layers and layers, and tiny names and buttons to squeeze all those options on the page.  I can’t tell you if your menu is too big or too small or just right.  But if you think of it a bit like a grocery store, you’re OK:

  • If I’m looking for something particular, is it in a logical place that I can easily get to?
  • If I read the signs and follow them, am I not surprised by what I find when I get there?

Don’t follow the grocery store’s lead and change everything around every month.  But do take an honest look through your menu.  Is it as straightforward as you had intended?

Less is More

I have been accused before of ‘minimalist’ design practices.  I’m ok with that.  I have decent conversion rates, and the styles I use fit with my personal tastes and (more importantly) with my target reader’s taste.  But in many cases, a healthy dose of less is more could be given to a lot of sites out there.  Think about it:  if you did some decluttering and spring cleaning, could you focus some attention on the stuff that makes your website more profitable?   Try it for a month and see.

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Filed Under: Design, Online Business

About andrewghayes

Follow @andrewghayes

Andy Hayes is Managing Director of Travel Online Partners, a travel online marketing specialist. Don't miss their popular website review service.

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{ 30 Responses }

  1. Andreas Pazer says:
    The design of any website should look good and feel good to the user. With all the advancements in technology, websites of today do not much resemble the ones of yesteryear. In many ways, design has become more complex, but in a variety of other ways they have become simpler. Finding the right balance between the two is what a successful web designer does. But before you can do that, you have to ask yourself what your user will prefer in a design. All decisions should be made with the user in mind, because without heavy web traffic, you will never be able to grow your brand and attract revenue sources. Traffic is everything in the online world, and the only way that it can mean anything at all is if your users are happy with what they see when they come to your URL.
  2. Sheila Atwood says:
    Andy You are so right about keeping it simple and clean. You don't need to be everything to everybody. There is the Web for that. You mention in a comment above about trying what works and test it, which is hard to do if everything is thrown on your site. So true and so overwhelming that the testing does not get done. I have also found that people will give up on something they have not tested long enough or have enough traffic to test it up against. I will repeat what you said...Test Test Test. It is okay to follow good solid advice but you need to do your own testing.
  3. Gino Dizon says:
    Hi Andy, Great post! I do agree on your term of 'less is more'. Sometimes we do forget these simple basics. Too much ads really turn their reading experience in to a turn-off experience. Maybe choosing a 'blending' add would be better, something that would not take of the readers' attention from your site content. Good job!
  4. Rommel says:
    Every thing that is to much is bad. It is important go direct to the point when you are designing. Nice post.
  5. Todd says:
    I like your last paragraph best. I too try to be a minimalist. If in doubt, leave it out, is probably a good moto for beginning website/blog customizers.
  6. Patsy says:
    I remember the days when people could buy adword space, fill their target page with adsense and actually make money - ah memories
  7. andrewghayes says:
    Thanks for all the feedback folks! Jason, I agree with you, but the biggest mistake most newbies make is trying EVERYTHING ALL AT ONCE. When you do that, you get too many things going on and can't separate out issues properly. It's best to try one or two things, test, figure out what works and what doesn't, then move on to the next issue.
    • Hesham says:
      Thank you Jason for the excellent post! I appreciate it!
  8. Ray says:
    I've come across some websites that are intensely ad orientated and even the background image looks like a giant ad. Very offputting.
  9. Jason Jumat says:
    I agree totally that too many ads on your blog may distract people from even reading your blog further and simply leave. I also agree with you that having a great looking site speaks volumes and redefines immediately about what impression exactly the viewer/visitor of your site have about you (or your website). However, for people blogging from scratch, might be very difficult when you aren't having any money and is still experiencing what to do when as a newbie online.
  10. jai says:
    Actually all blogger always run good web designing but I also think good thing goes bad direction It means Simple is better. You are absolutely correct when you suggested simple website layouts. Over-designing will just make it look busy and confusing for visitors......thanks for sharing.
  11. SEO Company says:
    wow great tips i like your post nice topic good Web Design goes bad i book mark this post nice tips thanks for sharing very informative points for web designing..
  12. CJ says:
    Haha, So true man! Sometimes the most intriguing design, is the most simple. And as to adsense, I just don't use it. at least not for now. It drives so many people away from your site, it's not even funny. haha. CJ CJ's last blog ..10 Hot Blogs To Guest Post On and Get LOTS of traffic... For Free
  13. Shirley Kelly says:
    When I launched my first wedsite I was guilty of every point made in your post. I had Google ads on every page. I used fancy banners to say almost everything and you needed a road map to navigate my site. I had 20 pages of honest copy and then I created similar pages with the same products only rearranged differently. There wasn't much unique content going on either. However, 5 years later and after visiting many blogs that gave the does and don't s on good website design and SEO tips, I must agree with you, less is more.
  14. Menandro says:
    Simple is better. You are absolutely correct when you suggested simple website layouts. Over-designing will just make it look busy and confusing for visitors. Your site is a good example! It is simple but attractive and very informative. Thanks for this important advice.
  15. Asad says:
    You are right Andy.I personally don't like Ads all over the place specially Google Adsense.You have to select specific places where Ads should be placed without user distraction.
  16. Murlu says:
    I'd say that having too many adverts is one of the main reason why I stop reading a blog. I do believe a blogger should keep the opportunity to make money from their blog but when it interrupts the experience - it deters me from reading and coming back.
  17. Nabeel says:
    Right on Andy! I agree, I see Businesses that have AdSense Ads! I mean it is ironic, but weird at the same time. It really does not make sense. But a part reason is that, they really don't know that it effects their reputation and their impression. I guess they need to read this article! Kindest, Nabeel
  18. Felix Albutra says:
    You are right my friend. I am also distracted of so many flashy banners of some sites. That's why I also remove some of my flashy image that could destruct the reading concentration of my readers. Thanks for the tips. - Felix Albutra
  19. Colleen says:
    We just had our static site redesigned and it went live yesterday. We are crossing our fingers our search engine rankings will not be adversely affected. Once we have that peace of mind, we'll consider a lot of what you've written about today.
  20. Chris Chong says:
    Yeah, design and how you present choices as in what can I do when I get to your site is huge. I use a lot of tracking to figure out what links are being clicked or not, and usually just dump the non clicked ones to make the site less cluttered. Unless they are high value for some reason.
  21. Kimi says:
    Brilliant tips, and i am very much agree, i like more simple themes, and easy navigation is a must.
  22. Dennis Edell says:
    Timely and tasteful .i have a whole blog network unveiling; this should come in quite handy. :)
  23. Nasrul Hanis says:
    I agree with your points. Too much ads will bring negative effects such as lower attention on content and lower impression on single ads. That's why they should be a limit for the number of ads or widgets displayed on the site. Looks like even good design could be bad. We must be aware of that.
  24. Ryan says:
    Hi Andy, Great design tips here! I am not a design type of guy so I'll never be accused of overdoing it in this are ;) The way I look at it the more easily readers can digest your content - by reducing distractions - the more readers you will have. Thanks for sharing, Ryan
  25. Lyudmila Bloch says:
    Good job, Andy! Very useful advice. Looking forward to more tips on this subject. Best, Mila

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