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Breaking Horrible Website Habits

People are judging your website every day. The moment they land on your home page, the scrutiny begins. What can you do to help your visitors stay, explore and shop within your website? This article will examine horrible website habits that drive people away and what to do to fix them.

Poor Website Performance

One of the top reasons people get frustrated and move on is due to slow moving websites and pages with too much clutter. People are used to getting the information they want quickly. If your website loads slowly, has broken links, is hard to navigate and has dead pages, you’re asking for trouble.

I believe that every music retailer strives to provide the best website experience for their customers.  Even with the best intentions, sometimes their websites can’t hold customers. You may have a flashy design with all the bells and whistles, however if your website is hosted by a cheap or unreliable web host, people may bail because they get frustrated with poor performance.

Clashing Color Choices

Experts agree that the best readability for any website is the traditional black text on a white background. While a few additional colors here and there can brighten up a web design and make it visually appealing, using too many bright and distracting colors can drive people away. Keep things simple and make it easy for people to read your content.

Animated GIF Images

Animated GIF images have not quite gone the way of 8 track tapes, but many still live on within dated websites. Flaming torches, burning skulls, dancing animals and other similar graphics make your website look dated and  unprofessional. They can even make visitors question the legitimacy of your business itself.

Pop-Ups

It’s OK to have a single pop-up to help with navigation, offer onscreen chat support or to bring attention to a free offer. However, some web designers are still hanging on to the concept that every page must have pop-up windows. Considering that most browsers come with pop-up blockers now, this is definitely a waste of resources. One effective use of a pop-up window is when it asks the visitor to take action such as signing up on your email list or entering a contest.

Embedded Music 

Unless you’re a musician and are trying to promote or sell your songs, no one wants to hear your favorite song embedded into your website. If your website features embedded music that the user can’t turn off, they’ll immediately leave instead of taking time to listen or look further to see what you have to offer. Plus. there may be copyright or royalty issues to consider.

Talking Onscreen Actors or Avatars

This development hit the web a few years ago, and many websites still use them.  This is one of the biggest annoyances on the web today. While the intent makes sense by providing a so-called human touch, it’s generally a bad idea and terribly distracting.

Cluttered Websites

Ever watch an episode of Hoarders? It’s impossible to find anything you’re looking for when your house is a mess. Just imagine how tough it is when your website is a mess. I can’t stress this enough, a clean website design inspires repeat visitors and sales. Take a hard look at your home page and make sure things are organized and easy to locate.

Clearly Stated Policies

Sometimes returns happen. Don’t make the process more difficult by hiding your return policy deep within your website or require your customers to jump through hoops. Rarely do online retailers position their return policy as a selling point or competitive advantage. By promoting your policies, you have a tremendous opportunity to instill confidence in your customers and assure them that any problems will be quickly and painlessly taken care of.

Poor Search Engine Optimization

Websites are not like the Field of Dreams, you know, build it and they will come. Get in the habit of managing your keywords to provide search engines with the information they need to properly recognize and rank your website. This may be the most important habit you can develop. An ecommerce website not optimized for search engines is equivalent to building your brick and mortar store in a cave.

Poor Product Descriptions

In addition to a demanding "day job" I'm a gigging musician and DJ. This leaves little time to go to my local music stores to investigate and shop for new gear. So, I turn to the web. It's amazes me how many websites have poor and incomplete products descriptions. They tend to forget this critical component to the online shopping process. Your product descriptions are the closest thing you have to meeting with your customers face-to-face. Make them work for you. Improving your product descriptions is one of the easiest, yet most neglected ways to improve your online sales.

Just about every website uses the manufacturer's descriptions. Don't be like everyone else and take the time to embellish those descriptions. Add pictures, specs, videos, etc. You'll set yourself apart from the competition and provide the search engines with additional information to categorize and rank. Start with your Top 100 items and enhance them is groups to make it manageable.

Poor Category Structure 

You've probably seen TV commercials for used car websites where in just a few clicks, the customer is able to locate the exact car they want by sorting through a myriad of vehicles. They effortlessly filter through colors, mileage, makes and models to zero in on what they want. The same principles should be applied to your product categories. Make it easy and simple for your customers to navigate to what they are looking for. Be careful not to complicate this and overwhelm them with too many options. Let them filter down by obvious choices such as type of instrument, brand and model. Additional options should include sorting results by price, when the item was added, etc.

 Merriam-Webster defines a habit as "an acquired mode of behavior that has become nearly or completely involuntary."

Break those habits that have hindered your website success and form new ones that will help you cultivate relationships, build repeat traffic and repeat sales. Keep working on your new website habits until they become second nature.