I recently polled our readers over on Instagram asking what they dislike when visiting blogs and creative’s websites… I thought it was so helpful while working on our updated website that I thought it would be a good read for creatives too to help make their online homes more reader friendly.
A List of Things that Readers Find Frustrating When Browsing Your Site
- Print that is too small to read
- Constant Ad Popups
- Ads that make it difficult to scroll
- Too many ads
- No visible search bar
- Hard to search by one word / when the searchable words don’t match the blogposts
- Video ads
- Navigation being hard to find or navigate through the site
- Repeated subscription popups
- Websites that aren’t optimized for mobile
- How to get back home or back to your website if I click on a link
Takeaways
I know ads are essential as they are a source of income- maybe try to scale them down or be intentional about where they are placed so they do not interfere with the content.
If you have a subscription popup, make sure it only popups one time. I find that it is best to have a canvas on your site where people can easily sign up on their own without a popup prompting them to take action (which mostly leads to them trying to find and press the X)
Search Bar is KEY! Make sure it is either in your header, navigation, or somewhere that is easy to find on your desktop or mobile.
Also, make sure your navigation is easy to find so your readers can move around your site and explore easily.
Put as much effort into your mobile site as you do your desktop site since most of your readers will be viewing your site from their phone.
When linking outside of your site, try to link with ‘open in new tab’ checked so it is easy for your readers to stay on your site.
Are you looking to revamp your website?
We will be launching our newly revamped website soon that I am honestly so excited about! If you have been looking to revamp your site- check out this page
