Examples of Bad Websites

Show of hands, please:  Is it a good idea to show pictures of what you are selling on your website?  Maybe right there on the home page? Don't be shy, you don't even have to be a web design professional to answer.   Let's see...YES!   All of you raised your hands.   Of COURSE you should have pictures on your website, especially if you're attempting to rent or sell properties.

Next question:  Do you like to click on a navigation option, only to have to click another link to view the content?  Of course not.

Lastly - if a company has only two things for sale - would you assume they are relevant in today's busy real estate market?  Really, there's no chance of anyone finding this website by searching.  There are no keywords at all, no evidence of optimization whatsoever.

First of all, apologies for the unusually cropped thumbnail image of the website.  It's actually the 'designer' who should be apologizing for creating a website in unresponsive landscape format!  That's just the first sin of this bad website.

The landing page is made with mostly static Flash, weird spinny nav choices, blurry photos, inconsistent style from page to page, misspelled words...what ISN'T wrong with it?

These days, mobile device accessibility is not a convenience, it's a must.  If your website can't be viewed and used effectively on a smartphone, you might as well cancel your hosting, close the doors of your business, and sit down in your recliner to read your set of Encyclopedia Brittanicas.

The website being reviewed today is a statistical anomaly.  It's pretty old, made with FrontPage, still working, and is kind of cute.  IF you like little animated gifs,  blinky lights, and white text on a black background, that is.  WE don't.

A mishmash of "styles" and fonts is common on poorly-designed websites. Your eyes just don't know quite know where to focus.  The broken/missing video is a giant red flag.  If you're going to use prime, middle of the website real estate it would be great to make sure your featured video actually exists.

At least the information on the website seems to be up-to-date.  One feature that needs to come into present-day would be the Map and Directions page.  Yes, there's a map and typed-out directions - but being able to put your starting address into the common Google maps utility would allow you to get exact directions and drive-time. 

Judging books by their covers is a natural habit.  It might not be fair, but it's what we all do.  Judging bad websites by their poorly designed landing pages is also something we all do.  It doesn't matter if your content is accurate, up-to-date, and awesome - if the website uses an outdated design, a very weird color scheme, and looks like it was developed by an amateur, people are going to move on to the next search result.

Sometimes poor design is a result of a very low budget, but today's boogersite is the public face of a company doing very well, if reported earnings are to be believed.  A low budget is not even a valid excuse anymore, there are templates out there that are FREE - and used by many small businesses for a 'starter' website.

As long as you're on this odd website, check out the jokes page, and enjoy the names of the different 'webmasters' listed at the bottom of most pages - including (and we're not kidding) "spank-a-lank-a-ding-dong."

"Design" - or lack of it - is obvious on today's bad website but that's the least of its troubles. This website says "our business is built on honesty, integrity, and hard work."  The business, maybe.  The website?  FOR SHAME.   Ever heard of keyword stuffing?  Just highlight the white area below the content, and you will see the worst, most egregious abuse of keyword stuffing this reviewer has ever seen.  EVER.  It's a world-record 4133 keywords.  It's not 'illegal'...but it is embarrassing for whoever made this website.  Never mind that the About Us and Capabilities buttons don't even work.

By 2005, many invisible text techniques were easily detected by major search engines.  These days, keyword stuffing may lead to a website being banned or penalized in search ranking on major search engines either temporarily or permanently.  

DON'T DO IT. It's not worth it, and very hard to recover from.

If you hire a company to develop a website for your business, please make sure they know what they are doing.  Otherwise, you could end up on boogersite.com, just like this bad website.