All it takes is three precious seconds of loading time and you’ve lost a visitor.
Your website is one of your strongest marketing tools, so you can’t afford for it to be blunt. It’s time to ditch the dull, outdated and annoying elements of your website, and make way for quick loading times, easy-navigation and visually-pleasing web design. Here are three key features you need to flick before they drive more traffic away.
Auto-play videos
We’ve all done it – opened a website only to immediately close it after your quiet office was assaulted by the sounds of a Toyota ad, courtesy of an unwanted, auto-play video embedded from Youtube. Give your readers a choice and let them opt-in to watching your video, or lose them in seconds.
Unpleasant Pop-ups
There’s nothing wrong with a well-timed, effectively designed and relevant pop-up offering a subscription to a blog, or to enhance engagement with the visitor, but ensure they don’t frighten them off. Banners which take over the entire page on entry and are too “advertisement-y” are frustrating and can look spammy. Instead, make it a message that pops up after an appropriate amount of time with a close button which is easy to find (not a tiny “x” in the bottom corner).
Bad Sliders
A sliding image gallery can be an effective way to get your content across, but a bad one can cause your website to look badly designed, or slow it to a snail’s pace. Don’t have the images whizzing past so quickly that the viewer can’t keep up, and keep in mind that the slider is just a feature, not the main event – there’s no use slowing your website by including 20 images when most people will only see three of them.
To make it work for instead of against you, use 3-5 eye-catching images (preferably with text incorporated) which direct potential customers to key parts of your site.
Looking for a Brisbane website designer to help avoid all of the above and keep you ahead throughout 2015? Designing websites falls under Liquidity’s umbrella as a full-service communications and marketing agency in Brisbane.
Find out more: Liquidity Communication, Marketing and Design Services.