Every business wants their website to not only educate their consumers about their products or services but also engage, entertain and motivate them to interact with the brand. Well... at times companies take this creativity to the dark side; meaning the tactics that are meant to engage and entertain become intrusive and annoying- making it harder for the consumer to fully enjoy using their website. The Where 2 Get It team put their collective minds together for a quick refresher on things to avoid on your website.

1.       Flash. Flash can be exciting and engaging yet it can also slow down users that don't have the right browser to view it properly. Also, since more consumers are surfing websites from their smart phones- flash almost NEVER works.

2.       Too Much Text. Obscure messaging is a by-product of too much text. Remember, the general visitor to your site will spend less than 30 seconds before deciding to stay or move on.

3.      Poor Analytics Tagging. Make sure you collect as much data as possible to determine click-thru rates and engagement.

4.       Too Much Navigation. Make the navigation easy, clear and put links to other pages inside related pages to help facilitate movement through the site.

5.       No Automated Redirect to Mobile Sites- If you have a mobile site we applaud you- you're ahead of the curve! Make sure you check your site on a smart phone to gauge how it will look. 

6.       Mandatory Registration. We understand you gain a huge database filled with valuable information that can be used for targeted marketing later. Great. But today, almost every website requires a sign-in for content and because of this consumers are more likely to just skip it.

7.       None or Hard to Find Info on the 'Contact Us' Link- A form-fill to email in questions makes customers feel like your customer service is not accessible- and this is just bad business.