20 Things People Hate About Your Website

20 Things People Hate About Your Website Do you want to create a website that is guaranteed to attract and keep visitors? Developing a web presence that audience loves is easy – if you avoid the twenty things people hate about websites. Whether it be through smartphones, laptops, tablets, or home computers, almost everyone can easily obtain the vast and overwhelming source of information that makes up the world-wide web. It goes without saying that online sources are full of useful and popular web pages that people visit again and again because they love what is offered at that particular page. However, many websites they visit leave a terrible impression that makes them never want to return. We’ve searched high and low to reveal the top twenty things that people hate about your website to guide you to create a site that they will love! Copy Mistakes Listed below are the most common mistakes made when it comes to your website’s text content, better known as the copy. 1. Your Copy is Over-Saturated with Keywords In years past, the way search engines found webpages was by the amount of keywords within the copy. Today, search engines are much smarter and are able to find what you are searching for without the use of keyword density. While keyword density is important for SEO (search engine optimization) when you have too many keywords in the copy, it makes it unreadable for those who visit your website!   2. Confusing About Us Page The about us page should be exactly about the website your guests are visiting. When you do not have a clear and easy to understand about us page, your visitors will feel confused and overwhelmed at not knowing the exact products or services you offer.   3.  Lack of a Blog A blog is a great way to boost your SEO, but it is also a great tool to connect to your website visitors. Blogs can give a great source of information and   they will boost traffic to your site just so long as the blog you offer readers is interesting and updated often. Blogs can also be sources of Frequently Asked Questions and their answers to assist your visitors with an issue without having to contact customer service. 4. Call to Actions that Do Not Match Offers The calls to action that you feature on your website should coincide with the offers you are promoting to your visitors. Nothing will frustrate people more   than being told they will receive a 50% off discount if they buy now. Only to find out there are more strings attached to the promotion such as: must spend X amount of money, selected items only, or applicable for in-store purchases only. When your call to action doesn’t match the offers, your reputation will suffer, but more importantly, so will your conversion rates. 5. Headlines That Misguide Readers Catchy and interesting titles and headlines within your copy are great and useful ways to attract the reader’s attention. Just bear in mind that if your copy doesn’t match the title, you will become known as a ‘click bait’ site or one that attracts readers because of the title. Once they reach the website, they quickly realize the information they were looking for is not there and they will leave. Not to mention misleading headlines annoy readers and create distrust. 6. Contact Forms Instead of Contact Information When your website does not feature basic contact information such as email, phone number, and/or address your visitors will not be able to contact you! Sometimes websites will use a contact form. Contact forms are a fill in the blank information box that will store the data provided by the website visitor and will leave the communication up to the team behind the website. This is unreliable for visitors and many people nowadays feel uncomfortable with giving out personal information over the Internet. 7. Unclear Descriptions of What Your Company Does This is just as bad as having a mashed up About Us page. When you have visitors to your site and your website is not intuitive enough to show exactly what your company does, it will create feelings of confusion and mistrust. If you cannot make your visitors stay for more than fifteen seconds, they will be more than likely to abandon your site to never return. Visual Mistakes Websites must be visually appealing to visitors. This will help encourage them to stay on the site and even return knowing they will have an enjoyable experience. 8.  Using Obvious Stock Photos It’s alright to employ the use of stock photos from time to time, but be careful which ones you select for your website! It is painfully obvious when a website is using tacky, generic, or even cheesy stock photos. Images should be used on your website to help your visitors. Using generic photos serve no purpose when it comes to being helpful to your visitors. 9. Using Distracting Animations Animations can be fun and entertaining for your website visitors, but take caution when thinking about using them for your website. Often times, people find that animations are distracting as the constant movements take the eyes away from the text they are trying to read. For example, if your website does not pass the three second blink test (the crucial three seconds it takes for visitors to decide to stay on the page or not), they will click the back button. Obtrusive and distracting animations can cause your site to fail the three second blink test and if you are interested in using animations on your webpage, make sure to do so the right way! 10. Not Knowing What to Do While this is the most obvious visual aspect of your websites, many webpages out there have no indication as to what the visitor is supposed to do once they arrive. If you’re an online store that shoppers cannot easily access products or they cannot figure out how to use your site, guess what? They will shop somewhere else. The same goes for every single type of website, whether you are on online store or not. If your visitors cannot figure out what to do, then they will head somewhere else for what they need. 11. There Are Too Many Pop Ups If there is any one thing that will turn people away from your website, it is the use of pop ups. No one likes them. No one. If you are using them on your site, please take the steps to remove them! People find pop ups annoying and sometimes difficult to close. Besides, pop up ads will distract your visitor from the main purpose of visiting your site in the first place. 12. Sliders Take Too Long to Load Using image sliders are popular choices for web design and when they are done right, you can have a visually appealing website. On the contrary, if your site has loaded nearly 90% of the way and your visitors still cannot see the slider image, they will find that they will have to wait too long for your site to do its thing and they will become bored and search elsewhere. User Interface Mistakes When it comes to websites, user interface is one of the most important factors in attracting and keeping visitors on your page. When user interface is done right, your visitors will have no trouble and even enjoy using your website. If the design and usability is unfriendly or not functioning properly, you will find that you will have unhappy visitors whose numbers continue to dwindle. 13. Unable to Contact Customer Service There are hundreds of websites that offer instant connections with customer service agents, whether they are live or virtual. When you see the pop up or prompt to use their online customer service and you actual go to do so, chances are you are already frustrated due to an issue you are experiencing. As a visitor you automatically expect the online customer service tools to work and function so you can be assisted with your issue. When these things are not working, visitors can become outraged and confused, not knowing where they need to go for help with their problem. Furthermore, if you have your customer service contact information listed on your site, make sure it is accurate and that your customers are able to reach someone. 14. Not Mobile or Tablet Optimized Today people are accessing the Internet via the smallest devices possible. Yet, there are still plenty of sites out there that do not work on mobile phones or tablets. This can be caused by the lack of mobilization in the design and code structure. To put it simply, some webpages are not built or coded, to adjust to the smaller screens which will prevent the entire thing from loading at all. Mobilization ensures that your website will work on: iPhones Tablets Android phones Laptops with small screens In short, the mobile-optimized site can be accessible for your audience from any device. 15. Poor Navigation Tools Poor navigation within a website will leave your visitors confused and frustrated, as they will not know what to do or how to find something on your site. Having a search bar or navigation bar that functions properly and is easy to use will allow your visitors to find exactly what they need in just a few clicks. Phrasing the navigation copy, how to properly analyze visitor’s flow, are used to make a website easy to search though. Take time to design your site and make sure you can achieve the perfect website navigational tools. 16.  Struggling to Buy Products When you are buying anything online, all you want is for this process to be quick and painless. There are several websites that commit what is known as two-site syndrome and their users go to click on something and it leads you to another site to complete the task that should have been done on the first website. Two-site syndrome has shown to decrease conversion rates, and make the customer experience a miserable one. Take our advice and avoid the two-site syndrome so your customers can make their online purchases as hassle free. Overall Website Mistakes 17. No Social Media Icons Social media is one of the greatest ways to connect and network between current and future customers. It is so common and very easy for visitors to share with their family and friends by using the social media icons found on the website. Social media icons make it instant and did I mention ‘easy’ for your guests to share what they love about your site! Not to mention, when your site and content can be spread across several social media platforms, your site will be able to see a boost in SEO and your page ranks according to your search browser. A quick list of social media icons all online business should or need to have: Facebook Instagram Twitter Imgur Tumblr Google+ Flickr 18.  Auto-Playing Videos   We’ve all been to those annoying sites that startle you when they catch you off guard with their loud and unexpected video that begins to play out of nowhere. People across the globe find those auto-playing videos on websites to be insulting, distracting, and annoying as they are reported to be one of the worst tactics for webpages. 19. Internal Links that Lead Nowhere Crosslinks also known as internal links, are links within the webpage that keep your visitors on your page or provide a gateway to another useful website, are excellent tools for allowing your visitor to learn more or continue searching for related topics. When you go to click on an interesting link and you end up nowhere, you will become frustrated and even decide to leave the entire site behind. This all comes down to not having proper function and this alone will change the minds of your visitors. If you do have internal links, always make sure for them to open with a fully separate tab. Many times, customers will click on a link and want to continue reading or examining your website. In this case allow them to stay on the page they are reading and let the link they clicked on open up in a whole new tab so they do not lose their place! 20. Takes Too Long to Load Going back to the point made about the three second blink test, people want things to happen fast! Unless the Internet connection is fully to blame for a slow load time of a webpage, you need to do everything you can to allow your site to load fast. The longer it takes for your website to load, the more people will search elsewhere and abandon your site completely. In today’s world, many people seek instant gratification. This is especially true for using the Internet and accessing websites. According to a study, 40% of your sites visitors will leave if it takes longer than three seconds to load. Luckily, there are ways to test the site’s load time and you can make sure to take the steps to adjust where you need to in order to pass these tests. Once you have tested your load time check the following factors to ensure they are not causing your site to load at a snail’s pace: Spikes in traffic – too many people trying to access the site at once will definitely cause a slow-down. Sharing server space if your site is hosted somewhere and you share server space with a busier, more active site, it can cause your site to be slower. It is advised to hire private server space to prevent this from happening. The total number of the HTTP requests your site receives. If you are trying to boost your traffic and maintain a healthy following of regular visitors, make sure you are NOT making the mistakes that lead to people hating your website. Even though they might not seem like a big deal, even the smallest mistakes can lead to low traffic, low conversion rates, and low bottom line results. At the end of the day, if you want to have a strong and prevalent online presence, no matter what sort of website you have, make sure you are doing everything in your power to ensure yours is mistake free. Giving your visitors a pleasant experience will not only have them coming back for more (and telling their friends when they share your site on their social networks), but your webpage will not be known amongst the worst on the Internet. This will only happen if you avoid the twenty things people hate about websites, so plan and execute your web strategy carefully! Your site’s survival on the Internet depends on it!

French Listening Comprehension and Practice Exercises

French Listening Comprehension and Practice Exercises If youd like to improve your French listening comprehension skills, the exercises below can help you better grasp the language. They  include  a French sound file with a study guide, quiz, transcript and translation. Altogether, there are more than 100 listening exercises  on this site, ranging from simple dialogues to in-depth listening comprehension exercises. The most popular pages offer practical advice or discuss someone or something famous. The French Language Accents de FranceFrench varies from country to country and from region to region. Learn about some of the accents you might encounter in France in this audio report from  LaGuinguette. French in France Introduction to French in France (dialects and standard French) and the  Dictionary of French Regionalisms. PatoisDiscussion about dialects in France and the two main points of view on their linguistic status. The Patois of Vendà ©ePresentation of some characteristics of the French patois spoken in Vendà ©e. Patois and Regional CharacteristicsDo regional differences in dialect reflect regional differences in mentality? Beginning French DialoguePractice your French listening ability with this beginning-level French dialogue featuring greetings and introductions and your choice of speeds: regular and slow. (Camille Chevalier Karfis) The Scary HouseBeginning level of  Les portes tordues, a bilingual audiobook for beginning to intermediate students. (Kathie Dior) The Twisted DoorIntermediate level of  Les portes tordues, a bilingual audiobook for beginning to intermediate students. (Kathie Dior) The CemetaryIntermediate level of  Les portes tordues. (Kathie Dior) Greetings and IntroductionsPractice your French listening ability with this beginning-level French dialogue featuring greetings and introductions and your choice of speeds: regular and slow. (Camille Chevalier Karfis) Number Practice Learning to count in French is one thing - its fairly easy to memorize  un,  deux,  trois. Its another matter entirely to be able to think of a number without counting up to it, or to understand individual numbers when you hear them. Fortunately, practice makes perfect, and these sound files can help you to get better at understanding and using French numbers with random number generators. (Laura K. Lawless) Who said no? Intermediate level of  Les portes tordues. (Kathie Dior) Politics and Social Issues Riots in FranceOn 27 October 2005, riots began in a Parisian suburb and quickly spread across France and even to neighboring countries. In this three-part discussion, a reporter discusses the riots with two neighborhood elders in Clichy-sous-Bois who are trying to calm down the situation. Sà ©golà ¨ne Royal - prà ©sidente?Sà ©golà ¨ne Royal is a socialist who  worked hard to become Frances first female president. Learn about her platform and her struggle in this discussion. LETA et le Pays BasqueIntroduction to the history behind the ETA, the Basque separatist movement. Le CPEIn January 2006, the French government passed a labor reform law that sparked off protests around the country. Learn about the CPE and why it was so distasteful to French students and workers. MitterrandJanuary 2006 marked the 10-year anniversary of the death of Franà §ois Mitterrand, the first and so far only socialist president of France. Learn about Mitterrand and some of the people who loved him. French Culture Graffiti Graffiti does not necessarily equal vandalism. Its a means of personal and even artistic expression. Learn about some of the people and techniques behind graffiti. Le jardin des TuileriesLearn about the famous Parisian park, le jardin des Tuileries, as you work on your listening comprehension with this three-part discussion. Cest de lamour và ©ritable!Old age does not have to mean the end of living, or even loving. In this interview, a 90-year-old man shares his thoughts on how to get the most out  of life and love, at any age. La loi EvinLearn about the regulation of advertising of alcohol in France, and the reasoning behind it. Tourism, Shopping,  Travel Dining Out lhà ´tel ~ At the Hotel  Beginning-level French dialogue between a hotel receptionist and guest.   Le viaduc de Millau  Le viaduc de Millau  was completed in 2004. Learn about its construction and safety mechanisms. Au magasin ~ At the storeBeginning-level French dialogue between a customer and storekeeper. Au restaurant ~ At the Restaurant  Beginning-level French dialogue between a waiter and customer. Breakfast ~ Le petit dà ©jeuner  Beginning-level dialogue between a customer and waiter at breakfast.

Free Essays on George Meridiths Lucifer In Starlight

GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909) "Lucifer in Starlight† When one thinks of Lucifer, they usually envision a large red monster with a tail, breathing fire out of his nose; however, when one is asked what kind of personality Lucifer has, many different ideas come to thought. Some may say he is wicked. Others may say he is jealous. In the sonnet, â€Å"Lucifer in Starlight,† he is described differently. Throughout the sonnet the author uses a structure that is based on the order of primacy, an Italian rhyme pattern, and an undefined meter. He also uses artistic diction to create images, symbols, and a plot theme to help the audience better understand the meaning of his story. In fact, Meredith goes so far to describe the personality of Satan. In many sonnets, authors wrote about love, a feeling, or a place. Meredith took All those ideas farther and created a sonnet based on an event. The structure of the story, is based upon a method I call primacy. This means that what happened first is described first. It is just like telling a bedtime story. One would never tell a young child what happened last before telling him or her what happened first. Meredith did this to capture the interest of the audience. The readers already know that Satan will fail in all his attempts to destroy God, but the story beforehand creates suspense and curiosity. The rhyme pattern begins as an octave, â€Å"ABBAABBA,† form, but by the ninth line changes into a sestet, â€Å"CDCEED,† form. This was typical of the Italian sonnets; however, Meredith was English. When I first read the sonnet, the thing that caught my eye was the meter, or the lack there of. It seemed to me that he decided the story was more important than the meter or flow of the sonnet. This sonnet was written to describe Satan’s evil effort against God, and his inability to win. To analyze the sonnet, one must understand the context, or environment, of the situation. Mere... Free Essays on George Meridith's Lucifer In Starlight Free Essays on George Meridith's Lucifer In Starlight GEORGE MEREDITH (1828-1909) "Lucifer in Starlight† When one thinks of Lucifer, they usually envision a large red monster with a tail, breathing fire out of his nose; however, when one is asked what kind of personality Lucifer has, many different ideas come to thought. Some may say he is wicked. Others may say he is jealous. In the sonnet, â€Å"Lucifer in Starlight,† he is described differently. Throughout the sonnet the author uses a structure that is based on the order of primacy, an Italian rhyme pattern, and an undefined meter. He also uses artistic diction to create images, symbols, and a plot theme to help the audience better understand the meaning of his story. In fact, Meredith goes so far to describe the personality of Satan. In many sonnets, authors wrote about love, a feeling, or a place. Meredith took All those ideas farther and created a sonnet based on an event. The structure of the story, is based upon a method I call primacy. This means that what happened first is described first. It is just like telling a bedtime story. One would never tell a young child what happened last before telling him or her what happened first. Meredith did this to capture the interest of the audience. The readers already know that Satan will fail in all his attempts to destroy God, but the story beforehand creates suspense and curiosity. The rhyme pattern begins as an octave, â€Å"ABBAABBA,† form, but by the ninth line changes into a sestet, â€Å"CDCEED,† form. This was typical of the Italian sonnets; however, Meredith was English. When I first read the sonnet, the thing that caught my eye was the meter, or the lack there of. It seemed to me that he decided the story was more important than the meter or flow of the sonnet. This sonnet was written to describe Satan’s evil effort against God, and his inability to win. To analyze the sonnet, one must understand the context, or environment, of the situation. Mere...

The Humble Foot

The Humble Foot The Humble Foot The Humble Foot By Maeve Maddox For obvious reasons, the word for foot is one of the oldest in the language: O.E. fot, from P.Gmc. *fot (cf. O.N. fotr, Du. voet, Ger. Fuß, Goth. fotus foot), from PIE *pod-/*ped- (cf. Avestan pad-; Skt. pat, acc. padam foot; Gk. pos, Attic pous, gen. podos; L. pes, gen. pedis foot; Lith. padas sole, peda footstep). Like other body parts, foot has found its way into numerous idiomatic expressions. Here are just a few. foot the bill to pay for something, usually for something one would rather not pay for oneself: Ill go to the convention if the company will foot the bill. put your foot in your mouth to say something one regrets immediately (or should!): You put your foot in your mouth with that remark about her hat. have one foot in the grave about to die: When you had the flu, you looked as if you had one foot in the grave. to have itchy feet to have a frequent desire to travel: Hes not a good marriage prospect; he has itchy feet. to get cold feet to feel sudden misgivings about doing something one had planned to do: Its the morning of the wedding and the bride has cold feet. to get off on the wrong footto begin an enterprise by doing something inappropriate: Susie got off on the wrong foot with her old-fashioned boss when she told him she didnt make coffee. to get off on the right foot to start out doing everything right: The new fireman got off on the right foot when he saved that baby. to put ones best foot forward to present oneself at ones best: She bought a new dress and had her hair done because she wanted to put her best foot forward for the job interview. to land on your feet to come through a difficult situation without harm: Dont worry about Jack in this storm. He always lands on his feet. to drag your feet to be reluctant: Stop dragging your feet and mow the grass! to have your feet on the ground to have a practical outlook: His decision to put off the move until hes sure he has the job shows he has his feet on the ground. not to put a foot wrong to do everything according to rule and expectation: Mr. Perfect there never puts a foot wrong with the boss. to have feet that hardly touch the ground to move quickly: On the day of the church picnic, her feet hardly touched the ground. to put ones feet up to relax: Now that youve finished the project, you can put your feet up for awhile. to put ones foot down to take a firm stand: When little Jimmy kicked the dog, his father finally put his foot down. My foot! expression of disbelief: Abner Potts made a perfect score on the SAT? My foot! Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:What is the Difference Between "These" and "Those"?How to Punctuate Descriptions of Colors"To Tide You Over"

Project 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Project 2 - Essay Example This research paper is aimed at discussing community policing by providing its pros and cons and presenting a final decision on whether to implement community policing or not. The rate of crime in the United States has significantly risen over the past decade. Crime has become a topic of discussion and an important debate in a bid to solve the issue. The American society has started living lives full of fear of crime and hence it is the high time that better policing policies are implemented. The government has devoted a lot of funds to crime fighting, but it has not produced positive results. The society alone cannot control crime since they have no right to taking the law on their hands. Increasing police resource at this period of a global economic crisis has posed a great challenge to the government. The crime situation is, therefore, beyond the ability of the community alone or the police department alone. The situation calls for a collaboration of the community and the police departments in a bid to solve crime and disorder, and the collaboration is called community policing. Involving the community in controlling crime is the most dependable solution to the breaking deadlock of crime. The community has more knowledge about their neighborhoods and hence identifying criminal is very easy. It is expected that due to the current high crime rates, the community will be motivated to collaborate with the police so as to eliminate their fear or crime. On the other hand, the police are working under minimal finances and resources and hence they will be motivated to have the support of the community in accomplishing their mission. Community policing policy is, therefore, expected to work out well since the two major partnerships have a high need for assistance (Sozer, 2010). Community policing encourages collaboration between organizations, departments and the community and hence reduces their resistance and promotes

Process Paper on How to Choose a Cell Phone Plan Or How to change a Essay

Process Paper on How to Choose a Cell Phone Plan Or How to change a Tire - Essay Example However, shopping for a cell phone plan doesnt have to be any more complex than shopping for a new pair of tennis shoes. Selecting the proper cell phone plan is really just a matter of finding the provider that covers your area, provides enough minutes to cover your usage pattern, and includes any extra features, such as texting, that you might want to use. The first decision you will need to make when selecting a cell phone plan is to pick the best provider for your area. It is important to know that not all cell phone companies cover all areas. In addition, some services will have dead spots where a cell phone will not work. Local salespeople may be reluctant to tell you about poor coverage or known dead spots. However, the carriers websites usually have a map of the coverage that they have in the area, as well as any dead zones. There are also websites, such as mobiledia.com, that offers coverage maps, tower maps, consumer feedback, and links to the major carriers (Mobiledia). In addition, family and friends in the area can usually be the most reliable source of information. Once you have selected the carrier that has adequate coverage for your area, you can select the best plan that they have available that fits your specific needs. To select the best plan for your needs you will need to determine when and how often that you use your wireless phone. Most plans are sold with a limited number of minutes that can be used for talking through the week during the day. In addition, many plans come with free nights and weekends. If you do most of your talking at night, you may be able to have a plan that has fewer daytime minutes. If most of your usage is during the day, you may want to get more daytime minutes. Dont underestimate your amount of use. Remember, your cell phone is always with you and turned on. It isnt surprising that almost two thirds of the respondents in a recent survey said they use their cell phone significantly more than a

Environmental Conservation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Environmental Conservation - Essay Example An environment is made up of resources. Resources refer to existing means of supplying what is needed or a stock that can be drawn on. Renewable resources are those that can be regenerated at a constant level. This is because they recycle rapidly, is alive or has the capacity to reproduce and grow. Examples are water which can be recycled, organisms because they can reproduce and many others. These resources will always keep on regenerating themselves as long as the rater of use is less than their rate of regeneration and the environments are kept suitable. Non renewable resources are not regenerated or reformed in nature at rates equivalent to the rate of use e.g. oil. There is a special category of non-renewable resources which are not affected by the way we use them e.g. metals which can be recycled. Environmental conservation is defined as the rational use of the environment to provide highest sustainable quality of living for humanity. With rapid development, there is stress on most resources including human resources in the developed countries which are registering negative population growth rate. According to World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987), sustainable development should be development that meets that need of the present without compromising the ability of future generation to meet their own needs. The biggest problem facing the world currently is environmental pollution. This has brought about global warming. Gorge Philander (1998), says that, global warming is the rise in world temperatures. This is caused by accumulation of carbon dioxide gas and other air polluting elements that collect in the atmosphere and forms a thickening blanket trapping the sun's heat and causing the planet to warm up. It is caused by several factors with coal burning alone producing about 2.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. Several other human activities contribute to global warming. Growth o f rice in rice pads has been attributed as one of the greatest cause of carbon dioxide and methane gas which a cause global warming. Animal feacal materials are also thought to contribute a substantial amount of methane gas that contribute to global warming. This emission of carbon dioxide gas, coupled with depletion of forest cover of the world is the main cause of the problem. Human activities like clearing of forest and burning of charcoal are also contributing to global warming. According to John Houghton (1997), global warming is being evidenced in many ways. Disappearance or reduction of ice caps on major mountains of the world especially those along the equatorial region. There has also been evidence of rise in sea level with fears expressed that some coastal towns and islands may be submerged in the near future if immediate measures are not taken to avert the situation. Continuing global warming has brought effects like increase in diseases incidences and pests challenging agriculture, changes in populations and plant and animal ranges shifts, coral leef bleaching and alpine meadows disrupting ecosystems, heavy downpours and flooding drought and fires. These are considered as early signs of global warming. Its effects has been felt on every corner of the world with famous elnino and lanina periods of heavy down pour and prolonged droughts respectively, the Katrina hurricane in America and other