Browsing the web today is a lot like walking through the jungle – you have to find the true path between loads of fake ones, and even if you do, the path is filled with sneaky vines, scary spiders, and lots of mosquitos to annoy the hell out of you. This applies to pretty much every niche market out there, along with the type of information you are looking for.
No matter if you’re looking for uplifting life stories, casino slot machines or even the latest online coupons and product reviews, you’ll likely stumble upon some of these – well-intentioned “features” that annoy the hell out of you with your every visit to a news outlet or blog. So, if you have a blog, please, in the name of all internet users, avoid implementing these on it.
Mixed-up typography
The goal of every blog is to stand out and be unique – but don’t try to do it by mixing up your typefaces. Choosing ugly, barely readable fonts for your posts in the name of the style is bad enough. Don’t make it worse by using more than one typeface in your posts – and on your blog, in general.
And, as a bonus, make sure to choose the right colors for your text and background. If your readers have to force their eyes in order to read what you have spent so much time writing they will slowly give up reading it entirely.
The big picture
Today, most of us have a speedy internet connection – but some bloggers still try to abuse it by embedding huge pictures in their blog posts. OK, your camera/smartphone takes high-definition pictures that are wonderful – but this won’t make downloading them any faster, and most importantly cheaper if I visit your page on my phone.
Before uploading a picture, resize it, optimize it, and crop out any unnecessary details. There is free software to help you with this, even when you want to resize entire batches of pictures quickly and easily.
Auto-play
I understand that you’ve just discovered this handy widget or plugin that lets you embed your favorite playlist/radio station in the sidebar. But for goodness’ sake, don’t make it play automatically! Whenever I browse the web, I like to listen to music – the type I like, at the volume I like it – and your auto-play sound, no matter if it’s an up-and-coming indie band or a news anchor, will annoy the hell out of me. Even worse, if I browse in silence (because I focus on work or something) and forget to turn down the volume on my speakers, your auto-play video or music can scare me shirtless. And don’t expect me to return to your website after that.
Have a fast loading website
All of the mistakes above are pretty annoying to anyone that might come across your site or looking for value in whatever it is you have to offer. However, one of the most annoying things out there, is to have a slow loading website. There are many factors that come into play that can slow your site down, such as having too many site plugins or choosing a slow web host. Be sure to optimize your site as much as possible, and even set up a CDN if needed. Nothing is worse than having a slow website, and this is also something that Google can push your site down in the search results for as well!
Now that you’ve had the opportunity to read through some of the best ways to make your website or blog experience even better, it’s time to make sure you aren’t currently making any of these mistakes.