I’ve been writing copy for websites for more than 20 years and, during that time, the look and feel of websites have changed dramatically. Who remembers the good old left hand menu and a narrow boxy-looking block of copy, with little tiny images?
Then bigger screens gave us more space to play with. Search engine optimisation raised its ugly head and web creators demanded ‘keyword rich copy’ and 600 words per page.
The parallax effect became popular for a while with the text moving over a background image.
Then everything had to be mobile friendly and hamburger menus were invented.
However, most of my pet hates have weathered the changes time has wrought!
These are my top three – there are more, but you really don’t want to read an epic rant!
‘Welcome to our website’
This has never done anything for the website visitor, beyond – maybe – giving a warm fuzzy feeling! It doesn’t tell them anything about what the website has to offer. It doesn’t make them think ‘Yes, this is exactly what I was looking for’ – and it doesn’t improve your search engine ranking.
What you need are compelling, reader-focused headlines on every page to encourage your visitor to read on.
Things that move
The first time someone mentioned a scrolling marquee I had a mental image of a big white tent with text moving across it. However, in web terms this refers to those strips with text moving along them like a teleprinter. They use them on the TV on some news programmes. They aren’t as popular as they were, but I still find them on some sites. Some people use them for testimonials, but not all of them move at a pace that allows you to read what’s in them!
Something that keeps moving also distracts from the core message. People struggle to stay focused on the ‘meaty message’, their eyes are diverted by the moving text.
I once found a website that had a butterfly that flitted around the page from top left, finally settling bottom right. It was the company’s logo and, while I love butterflies, it really irritated me when it fluttered around every page I opened.
Things that move are a distraction. Even if it’s the main home page picture that operates on a slide deck with three or four images along with different messages about your business offering. I am not going to sit waiting for the next image to appear – and if the first headline doesn’t get my attention, I’m probably not going to hang around long enough to see if there’s a better one coming.
When I’m trying to read your message I don’t want some stop/start thing going on.
I once had a client who had some fabulous images of his holiday destinations on the home page on a slide deck. His problem was that he got lots of traffic, but people kept contacting him with questions – that were answered in the copy on the home page. The problem was that they were so distracted by the moving images that they found retaining focus on the text virtually impossible.
Eye candy
If you’re in the holiday business, you’ve probably got tons of fabulous images, but, if you’re in a business that doesn’t lend itself to visuals – like accounting or law – don’t fall into the trap of irrelevant images, just because they look nice.
Choose your images carefully – they should support the message, not just be pretty placeholders.
If you have a budget, get a professional photographer to take professional shots. If not buy the licence to use a photograph from a stock site – but be careful you don’t choose one that everyone else also has on their site.
