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10 Reasons Why Your Website SucksDo people hate your website? This is a question you should ask yourself if your finding your site isn’t performing the way you would like it to. If your finding that people aren’t visiting your site for very long or aren’t coming back at all here are 10 things you should look at that could be killing your website traffic. This isn’t to bash your site or trash talk or brag about how much better my site is over yours (there are things I have to fix) this is just to point out some things that could be hurting how it performs.
1. Your load time is slower then the second coming of Christ
One of the first things you should look at is how fast your pages load, obviously a visitors internet connection will be a factor when it comes to speed. But if you have a fast connection and it takes more then a second or two to load up then you have a problem. How to speed up your pages
a. reduce, remove, or shrink the file size of any pictures you’re using
b. reduce the page length. If it’s a long post chop it and make it into a multi page post i.e. part 1 part 2 etc.
c. If you’re using flash get rid of it unless you need it.
d. get rid of unnecessary widgets
e. don’t auto play videos. This has the duel effect of not only pissing off people by forcing them to see or hear a video but it slows your page down, either way it results in people leaving.
2. Your navigation leaves visitors scratching their head and going WTF
You want your site to be easy to get around. You should have an easy to see menu bar that displays all the main pages on your site. You should have a site map that visitors can find any page. And it should all be neat and tidy. You also want all the important contact information in an easy to find place, especially if your website is part of or is your business. Put yourself in your visitors shoes, if you’re having a hard time finding your way around your site how are they suppose to.
3. Too many ads equals no cash for you
There is absolutely nothing wrong with trying to make money with your site, take a look at the majority of websites or blogs out there and you’re going to see advertising usually by Google Adsense. But there’s a fine line between having some ads and having your site look like a giant advertisement, and this is one thing that many people go anal about. If your content is being swallowed by advertisements then it’s time to start cutting back on them.
4. Does your site look like a cluster bomb went off inside it
When it comes to the graphics and design of your website don’t worry about being the fanciest best looking site on the internet, there are tonnes of sites that look simple but work really well when it comes to presenting their information. That being said it shouldn’t be a mess either. Like your sites navigation your pages should have a clean organized look to them. If you’re using fancy graphics and logos they shouldn’t clutter your page. If you’re unsure of how to layout your web pages look at sites that rank high on the search engines and get inspiration from them.
5 No blog for you
A blog is a great way to constantly update your website which in turn helps your site go up the search engine rankings that much faster while giving your visitors new content to look over. There are also those who will stick their nose up at you and leave your site if you don’t have one.
6. Broken links
Nobody wants to click on a link only to find an error message. Their clicking on that link because you offered something that turns out isn’t, and because of that their going to go somewhere else to find what their looking for. Check your pages over before you publish them to make sure everything is in working order.
7. Your content sucks
How many times have you heard that “content is king” there’s a reason for that. If your content lacks any substance, is too few and far between, and doesn’t offer anything of value why the hell would anyone visit your site? You can have the best looking site with everything perfect, but if you have no content no one is going to stay.
8. How can I contact you?
First your visitors shouldn’t have to go on an epic quest to find out how to email you because they have a question or suggestion. You should have some means of contacting you such as an email address, or phone number (I don’t recommend posing a phone number for a personnel website only a business one). And second having clear and easy to find contact information helps build trust and allows then to build a relationship with you, not in the romantic sense but in the sense that you are a person and not a random collection of web pages.
9. Site intros
Nobody wants to be forced to watch an advertisement or an intro video before they can even visit your site. And while some sites do have a means of skipping those ads or videos it’s still a bad idea. That is of course unless you don’t want people visiting your site then by all means goes for it.
10. Forcing people to sign up
Having a subscriber option on your site is a good thing, forcing people to sign up just to view your site is bad, very bad. Not to mention the pop ups that many sites have that force you to view their subscriber form. If you want to piss people off then this is one way to go about it, otherwise avoid it altogether. Instead if you want subscribers simply put a button or link in a easy to spot place on your site. If people like what you’re doing they’ll subscribe. Take away that option and try to force them and they won’t.
Other posts to check out
- How To Get Indexed By Google Fast
- Why Long Tail Keywords Are Good For Your Site
- How To Ask For Backlinks
- When Is The Best Time To Tweet
- SEO Tactics That Are A Waste Of Your Time
- How To Get Indexed By Google Fast
- Why Long Tail Keywords Are Good For Your Site
- How To Ask For Backlinks
- When Is The Best Time To Tweet
- SEO Tactics That Are A Waste Of Your Time
Previous Post Crap Comments - How You Can Hurt Your Site By Leaving Bad Comments
Leaving comments on blogs and websites. It doesn’t matter if the site is a “do follow” or not, building links through comments can help get the word out about your site. Comments are also a good indicator if you’re doing something right and can give you great feedback. Of course in a perfect world every comment would be a good one, the reality is that at some point your going to get bad comments or comment vomit if you will........
