In the run-up to Halloween, you’ve probably seen plenty of websites embracing the Halloween spirit by adding plenty of themed graphics, banners and images to their pages and yet by November 1st most of the online ghouls will have mostly disappeared.
Unfortunately, however, there will be a few websites out there who won’t leave their scary website designs for Halloween. From bad font choices, to slow load times to even still using flash to build websites here are 5 ways you can avoid an unintentionally scary website.
A Slow Website
It only takes a matter of seconds for a visitor to decide whether they want to stay on your site or not, so if your website takes any longer than seconds to load then you might be in trouble. A fast website is crucial for the success of not only your website but also your business, if it’s taking too long to load then there’s no doubt that your customers will go to a website that’s they don’t have to wait around for.
Luckily there are actions to take if your website is taking too long to load, including resizing images, reducing resolution, compressing images and limiting the number of plugins you have used. These are all simple ways to make sure your website is fast enough to keep up with your visitors.
Pop-Ups
People don’t want pop-ups, whilst paid ads are fine in search results and on display through the display network, pop-ups are a great way to scare aware your audience. Pop-ups can be annoying for visitors, even when implemented well, as well as making your business appear too pushy for leads or sales.
You might think exit intent pop-ups avoid annoying people and while they can lead to a small number of people signing up for email lists or for promoting your content, they can be viewed as a hard sell and could send visitors running straight from your site.
Poor Navigation
A complicated or confusing navigation, that’s too difficult to use can be one of the main factors that drive visitors away from your website. By featuring too many links, large menus, too many drop-down options or even just a website that appears too clunky, could be a big mistake, one that could seriously damage your website.
Your navigation doesn’t need to be damaging, however, by using fewer links, clear text, short descriptions and a standard nav design you can create a simple, yet effective way of making your navigation easy to comprehend and encourage your visitors to explore your website.
Illegible Copy
Your text is one of the most important elements of your website, if it isn’t up to scratch then it could be something sending your visitors away. Using inconsistent fonts types, colours, bad spacing and badly written copy are easy ways to confuse your visitors and lead them to look elsewhere for much more legible information.
By splitting your copy into smaller chunks, laying out your paragraphs in a much more clearer manner and using a consistent font type throughout the website, you can not only make your website look better but it can also be a great way to keep your audience around, increasing your bounce rate.
Forgetting Mobile Devices
Although it might not seem like a nightmare at first glance, if you aren’t including responsive design in your website design then you’ll be sending lots of people away from your website and straight to your competition.
These days more people than ever before are choosing to browse the internet through mobile and tablet devices, meaning that all websites need to be designed to suit these devices. If you’re looking to keep your customers on side, you definitely need a responsive website.
Just because it’s Halloween doesn’t mean your usability needs to be frightening, with these tips in mind your website will go from being a nightmare to a dream in no time, welcoming your customers to your website rather than scaring them away.
