First of all, these are general points that apply across the board to most websites – there will be edge cases or specific reasons to argue the contrary for each of these. Don’t take offence if you have a few of these on your own site, but believe you’ve got a genuine reason for having them. The point of this article is to get you thinking about challenging your current content.
Vague titles
In 2024 people are lazy, very lazy. They need to be spoon-fed information and don’t expect to have to work for anything when reading pages. What does this mean? Be direct. Don’t leave people guessing about what it is that you do. Don’t use a main heading of “Wonderful solutions you can rely on” if the title should really be “Yorkshire’s finest sprung mattress’ and headboards”. There should be no doubt about what it is that you do.
Generic navigation titles
Look at your navigation, is it specific and deliberate enough to be clear to everyone? Maybe instead of “solutions” your menu label should be “removal services”? Again, it’s about being deliberate. Want to know what people are clicking on with your site? Pop onto Google Analytics and take a look. You can break down the clickthrough rates on your headings. If people aren’t clicking on something important, ask yourself why?
Pointless headings
Do you have meaningless section headings like “our offerings”? Ask yourself what they’re adding to the visitor journey. Be specific with your content. Avoid adding robotic “filler” headings like these, they just don’t resonate with your audience.
Main heading sliders
Slightly controversial this one, there are reasons why you might use a main heading slider. The fact of the matter is though that people only ever see your first slide. Nobody is going to pause on your homepage for 8 seconds for the second slide to appear. You could randomise the slides so they’re all seen, or just pick a single slide that you want to focus on. Don’t rely on people seeing the 8th slide on a homepage slider.
Stock photos
Nothing screams “anonymous design” or “template website” more than the same pictures of the same smiling people that you see on every other website. Images are a chance to inject some personality into your site, don’t throw it away by taking the easy option of stock images. It’s not going to do you any favours with standing out from your competition.
Long paragraphs
Remember when I said that people are lazy? They’re really lazy. Long paragraphs are seen as off-putting. It’s a sure-fire way to stop visitors in their tracks. There’s lots of ways around this, break up paragraphs into smaller ones? Use bullet points? How about iconography with key points used in a visual way? All of these are more digestible than a huge wall of text.
PDF files
These are formatted layout documents designed to be portable and viewed offline. They’ve got a static layout and don’t encompass any of the standard features you’d expect from web content. If you’ve got PDF files on your website, ask yourself why? Should the content be on a page? By putting content in a PDF file you’re effectively freezing it in time – it won’t be updated with the rest of your site and will definitely become an oddity in the future.
Testimonial pages
Testimonials are great, absolutely make use of these. What you shouldn’t do is throw all your amazing reviews on a “testimonials” page where nobody will see them. Use these throughout your site so people see them, shout about the great service you provide. Nobody is going to browse to a testimonials page to find them.
Email links
Want people to get in touch with you? Use a contact form. It’s a much lower “barrier to entry” and encourages communication. Don’t rely on people opening up their email program to send you a message. Putting email addresses on your website is also a great way to attract spam from robots crawling the internet to collect emails.
Hopefully these have you got you thinking about the content on your site and if these features have a place on your site. Disagree with any of these? Let us know! We always enjoy a lively debate.