Sometimes, examining the things to avoid in your website design can be just as useful as analysing what you need to prioritise. This is all about improving engagement, conversion, avoiding a negative bounce rate and ensuring that your CTR is as high as possible. Once you strip back the aspects that are going to harm any of these, then you’re on the road to a positive UX and a strong SEO ranking.
With this in mind, we’re going to take you through 3 of the most significant things you should not include on your website, and why bypassing them will help you to succeed in the long run.
Too Much Content
We cannot stress this enough, content is still king in 2024. When Google is analysing the most authoritative and reliable websites, it takes most of its stock from the content that your website will produce. If you have a strong quantity of blogs, with high quality, plenty of inner links, authority links, and appropriate keywords, then you have a good chance of ranking higher on Google and inducing more traffic to the website itself.
That being said, Google’s algorithms are smart. Because they’re focused on crawling, indexing, and ranking quality content, Google knows how to debunk bad content and recognise what’s filler. This is where a lot of businesses continue to slip up. Instead of prioritising content that works and is engaging for their customers, they instead look to overload their website with content and keywords that will – supposedly – bump them up to page one of Google.
This is not only a bad strategy with Google’s algorithms in mind, it’s also a sure-fire way to cannibalise your own content and work against your existing, quality content. Quantity is good, of course, but it must be in moderation, and always with your users’ interests in mind.
A CTA-Focused UX
To turn passive users into active customers, you must tell them what they should do next. This is done through ‘Call to Action’ statements that encourage users to learn more, get in touch or book a consultation. But once again, where a lot of businesses slip up is by overloading their website with CTA’s in the hope that, the more CTAs they have, the more chance there is to convert the user.
This is a mistake. The number one thing you should be focused on when designing your website is ensuring that the UX works and stands out amongst competitors. Not only will an overabundance of CTAs negate your UX, it will end up having an adverse effect on lead generation. Just think about how many spam emails you receive that are actively asking you to do something. Inboxes around the world are stuffed full of CTAs, and if your website is just as stuffed, then your users are going to have negative connotations of your business itself.
In other words, you’re going to be spamming your own UI, and spamming is never a good thing. Make sure that you have a healthy number of CTAs – too few will similarly be negative – and strike a good balance between a strong, coherent UX and CTAs that get your users onto that next stage of engagement.
Banners, Pop-Ups, Advertisements
We know, we know, this is technically another three things you shouldn’t include on your website, but they all kind of merge into one! When it comes to creating a good website in 2024, it’s important to remember that things that have worked in the past may not necessarily work now.
Banners and carousels, for instance, were once very popular. In 2024, however, they not only look outdated but they work against functionality and accessibility. Just think about how annoying it will be for a customer to see a post of interest, only for it to disappear, and have to wait for it to come back around again. With only a few seconds to engage users and ensure they don’t add to your bounce rate, you need to make sure they can get where they want to when they want to.
Another outdated thing to avoid is pop-ups. These are bad enough on a desktop web page, but think about the mobile format – they take up most of the screen, and are incredibly irritating for people to navigate. This falls into the same category as advertisements. While you might be tempted to include them, you have to think clearly about your UX and what’s going to add to the user experience. That’s what will make your website successful.
