Examples of Bad Websites

Have you ever heard of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne?  A quick reminder:  a young woman bears a child out of wedlock, and is forced to endure public shame by wearing a red (scarlet) piece of cloth in the shape of the letter A.  Can you imagine this method in practice today? But back to the plot and its relevance to today's bad website.

Look at the footer of this site.  It's nothing but keywords. This practice is so old and useless it's laughable.  But let's call it what it is:  shameful.  Checking on the company taking credit for this unfortunate gaffe we find a parked domain at GoDaddy.  

SHAME!

Isn't it kinda cute?  This old website was 'last modified' in 2005 - so maybe it's not even for an active company any more.  That was THIRTEEN YEARS AGO!  When you have text on your site that tells how long you've been in business, it's better to say 'since YYYY' because that will never become outdated.  When you say 'for XX years' it's immediately outdated when the calendar year changes.

There's really not a lot here.  You can try the nav buttons, but you'll get very little reward for doing so.  Then, you'll need to use the back button to return to the landing page, as the nav doesn't carry over to the subpages.

"Finally!  A Princess Di collectible plate!" said no one ever.  But that's what's front-and-center on today's bad website.  Horrors.  Is there anyone in your family that's been fooled into buying collectible plates, thinking they'll increase in value?  Actually, the only thing they increase in is DUST, if you're unlucky enough to live in a house where they are on display.

Hoarders Collectors gather round, this o-l-d style website has something for everyone.  But that's not the point, is it?  Submitting a website to us as 'terrible' or 'poorly designed' is.  There is an actual company claiming credit for this creation, maybe it was one of their first efforts.  It's certainly not featured on their portfolio...

If you have a website, congratulations.  But it is also your responsibility to keep it fresh, clean and appealing.

Today's bad website came with this commentary from the submitter:  "There is NOTHING NOT wrong with it. This place sells classic cars - some with 6 digit prices and their web site looks like a Mediafire nightmare, straight out of 1997."

We took a look at some of the cars for sale - and if this business would just put a fraction of their profit toward a better website, imagine the increase in business!  Maybe it's a sales tactic - the cars look GREAT compared to the website they're shown on?

SIX separate sets of keywords aren't doing this Adobe PageMill website any favors either.  None of us here at boogersite has seen a mindspring email address in years.  Professional email addresses are @yourdomain.

It took quite a bit of searching, but what this website was supposed to be for is the "Western Burglar and Fire Alarm Association."  Unfortunately, the original website (.org) was hacked and is now a crazy hodgepodge of blog posts.  You'll have to click the 'translate' button to read any of them, but we'll spare you the task by telling you the text on the landing page reads: BEWARE OF THE PLACE WHERE SARAH KIM'S REVIEW IS SWEET.

We don't think you need to explore any further than that to understand that a secure website (and secure hosting) is paramount for any business.  Don't get sucked in by a cheap platform and hosting, it will cost you in the end.