I recently posted the following discussion question in the Blogging Organizers Facebook group:

Your website is often the first impression customers receive of your business. Web visitors are less tolerant of outdated and poorly designed websites than ever, and if your site does not look clean and professional, you will lose traffic. What features have turned you off about certain websites?

The answers were very interesting, so I decided to post them here.

Advertising

Five people objected to seeing extensive ads on a site. One said:

I don’t mind a few ads – I know they bring in some money but I’m really not a fan of websites that have a lot – to me it comes off as sketchy and deters me from going any further on the site.

Others referred to ads that aren’t relevant to the content of the site, and blog posts that are broken up with ads in the content.

Pop-ups

Four people complained about pop-ups. One said:

I actually don’t hate pop-ups … but I do hate when they “pop up” before I’m finished reading a page or post. I especially dislike it when they open immediately upon opening a page. I think they should be timed well to be useful to users.

Videos/Audios

Three people stated that they dislike videos and audios that start automatically. One commented:

I don’t think the websites with automatically starting videos can have realised that people may visit your site often before they finally call or make a decision, and what might have been fresh and interesting the first time is irritating the second or tenth time.

Navigation

Three people cited difficulty navigating a site as a major problem. Specific issues mentioned were:

• No search box
• Too much clutter
• Having to click through twice to get to the post

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Contact Form

Three people mentioned problems they’ve had with contact forms, including some being too hard to find (another navigation issue) and those that require too much information.

One person was fed up with filling out contact forms but never hearing from the business in question – perhaps more of a customer service issue than a website issue, unless of course the form hasn’t been configured properly and isn’t reaching the correct party.

Pricing

Two people said that not listing pricing on a website is off-putting. One said:

I think a well-designed website sells you on a much more subtle level and sets the expectations that you’re not just there for the price, but it’s part of the decision and you’re old enough to be told.

Learn how publishing her rates helped Janine Adam’s business

Comments

Two people objected to blogs where it’s difficult to comment, specifically mentioning:

• CAPTCHA
• having to register to leave a comment

Read about other obstacles to commenting

Photo

Two people felt strongly that the business owner’s photo should appear.

Other Issues

The remaining concerns were only mentioned once, but are still very important:

• boring content
• typos
• broken links

“Old content” was mentioned by one person, who said:

I would take off the blog altogether rather than have the first entry be months or years ago.

Another said she was put off by sites that are non-responsive, saying:

Learn how to make your website mobile-friendly

Turn-ons

Please don’t think the Blogging Organizers group is a bunch of negative Nellies! In fact, even though I didn’t ask what they do like, many were happy to jump in with that information as well.

Some comments were very subjective, such as “softer colors” but others were more generic and might be worth keeping in mind when reviewing your own website:

I love when websites have a home page rather than just going to their blog, or another page

“about” pages that are creative and funny

Acknowledgements

I’d like to acknowledge the following organizers for contributing to this discussion:

• Hazel Thornton of Organized for Life
• Lucy Kelly of Joyful Surroundings
• Sabrina M Quairoli of Sabrina’s Organizing
• Suzanne Willett of The Clutter Ninja
• Jill Robson of Life Sorted
• Seana Turner of The Seana Method
• Autumn Leopold of Smart ~ Happy ~ Organized
• Anna Eskridge of Anna E. Lee Interior Design
• Deb Lee of D. Allison Lee
• Andi Willis of Good Life Organizing
• Susan Terkanian of AllSET Solutions

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