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Hello one and all! Can you believe we’ve already finished the first month of 2019 – time really flies!
Today, we’ve decided to collate a selection of the most common web design mistakes we see, and why it’s a good idea to cleanse your website of any of these techniques in 2019 once and for all. Without further ado:
1. Modal windows have got to go!
Modal windows are on-site pop-up overlays. They don’t open in another tab or window, but rather within the page of a website itself, like a layer over the top of the page. Usually, they require a click or two to get rid of and are commonly used for promoting special offers or email subscription forms.
The use of modal windows has been incredibly popular in recent years, but nowadays, things have changed. Arguably, these pop-ups are now frequently regarded as more of a nuisance than anything else. Some of the reasons it’s time to stop using modal windows include:
- According to Moz; Google’s mobile guidelines “now state that if an overlay or a modal or something interferes with a visitor’s ability to read the actual content on the page, Google may penalize those or remove their mobile-friendly tags and remove any mobile-friendly benefit. That’s obviously quite concerning for SEO.”
- Have you ever quickly closed a modal window without even looking at it? Perhaps you found it a little annoying to have to do that? You’re not alone. Ad blocker software is more popular than ever as people become less and less responsive to obtrusive advertising attempts.
- Modal forms and other forms of “spammy” sales techniques can have a negative impact on many users, disrupting trust in the website they are browsing. If you look at the websites of successful businesses (for instance, Apple, Amazon, JB Hifi etc) you will usually find that they do not use modal forms in their sales funnels.
2. Putting too much content or excessive styling in your website’s header.
Now and then, we find websites that focus too much on cramming every little detail into their header areas. Some take it a step further by increasing the size, brightness or font weight of the text in this area to ensure it is eye-catching and easy to access.
While it’s important to keep your contact details, logo and navigation in easy reach, some users may find it a little aggressive or obnoxious to include too many details in your header, or to present them in a distracting or disrupting way.
Our recommendation is to keep your header as clean and minimalist as you can, and keep the formatting in line with the rest of your website. That means no big, bold fonts or stark colours if they doesn’t otherwise match your website’s style.
3. Sliders for the sake of sliders.
Many people believe that a slider is an essential part of any good website, but these days, this is really no longer the case. Sliders can slow down a website’s load time significantly, and how often can you say that you have sat and watched a slider the entire way through, or even past the first slide?
We have a whole bunch of other options to consider nowadays, including full-screen images, parallax effects, CSS animations or even video (though, keep in mind that video will have a decent impact on page load times too).
For inspiration, take a look at the websites of some of your favourite brands and products and check out what’s on their homepages. More often than not, particularly in 2019, you should find that sliders are on the out and static images are in!
That’s it from us for this week. As always, if you have any questions about this post or our shared hosting, VPS, reseller or dedicated server plans, simply call us on 1300 MY HOST (694 678) during business hours, or submit a ticket through our Support Portal and one of the crew will be in touch!
