Four Super Simple Things You Can Stop Doing on Your Site. Today.

I've remarked before on how many blogs focus on what you should be doing with your web strategy, while never telling you what not to do (like in Don't Drive Your Mass Email Campaign Off a Cliff).

Here are four basic things you should (and probably do) know, and can stop doing on your website, TODAY.

Even if you are a web guru, it's very possible that you have people who submit content for your approval... these people are trying to sabatoge your career by slipping these things by you. I think it is a game they play.

So, before you blow me off, realize I see these problems ALL THE TIME. As in, this very minute. On my sites... and probably yours too.
 

1. Stop saying "CLICK HERE"
Solution: Make your linked text short and actually describe what they are clicking on.

Stop treating your users as if they still can't figure out what a link is. The equivalent in real life would be this:

If you really feel the need to instruct people on how to use the series of tubes we call the internet, tell them how to use your QR code. You can still get away with that.

For now.

And if you don't know what a QR Code is... CLICK HERE.

I'm sure you could go on one of the sites I administer and find an instance of "Click here" (I'm telling you, my content generators are toying with me), but trust me, I'm hunting those links down like Sylvester Stallone in Rambo.

Rambo does not endorse my site, but probably would if he used the internet.
 

2. Stop using "cool" late-90's HTML and grahics.
Solution: Let the past stay in the past.

Unless you think saving a Word document as HTML makes you a webmaster, don't use obnoxious graphics, animated gifs, or the blink or marquee tags.

Why not?

Visit this site, and please let me know if it was OK with you.

You read that URL right. That is a Warner Brothers site. There is somebody in Accounting who knows this is out there and is keeping it alive to teach us all an important lesson.

Why no, I don't know who keeps paying the hosting fees for Space Jam.

I'm actually bringing this up (aside from the fact that I really love Space Jam) because I saw this graphic the other day and almost fell out of my chair.

Once I saw it, nostalgia whisked me away to a time where AOL was king, you could hear your 56k modem connecting to the internet from 2 states away, and everyone had a stock-ticker and weather gadget on their site, even though their business dealt with neither stocks nor weather.

See, this stuff IS out there, and I hope that you are one of the people who are making these pages... and that maybe you'll stop.

3. Stop using big images and resizing them in your browser
Solution: Get a program and resize the image to the size you want

Uploading a large image and simply resizing it via your image uploader (by changing its dimensions) doesn't actually make it smaller. I can't count the times I've clicked on an image in an email to see the properies say "2560px x 700px, scaled to 350px x 95px" (wonder what thats look like? Get the image properties of our friendly accountant above). And don't even think about resizing .gifs.

A VERY easy way to check if your images are optimized is to install the Page Speed add-on from Google. Not only will it give you good insight into your page, but it will actually provide you optimized images.

Or, you can drop half of your monthly salary on Photoshop.

4. Stop writing so much
Solution: Stop writing so much

I get it. You have a lot of great stuff to say, and what better way to let people know than 31 paragraphs of 10 point text.

In most cases, it will be much easier for your users to get around if you simply (and hopefully graphically) get your point across and move the details off to links (see issue 1 above).

For a totally random example, I googled "website maintenance" and clicked on the first two links.

The first link gave me a quick rundown of what they do, with the option to read more once I found the peice that interested me.  I felt good... and informed... and I was really glad that woman was giving me the thumbs up.

The 2nd link I think gave me the history of the internet... I couldn't read it, even though I really wanted to so I could more effectively critique it for you. I know, bummer.

Note: Out of curiousity, I clicked on another of their links to see if it would give me something more to work with. It didn't.

If you didn't get anything from this, leave your site address here, and I may just scower it for a "click here" or oversized image.

That's right, the gauntlet was thrown.