Examples of Bad Websites

A website was submitted that was pretty bad - so we decided to see who was responsible for it.  Jackpot.  The 'designer's' website is worse.  From pages with nothing but lorem ipsum text to a portfolio full of no-longer-live websites, this isn't a company you'd hire if you wanted a professional website.  

Grammar and puncuation errors are everywhere.  "When business is not running nothing moves. to the high profile to the low budget trying to get on their feet, one thing is for sure we all need a little help."   or "The Logos the business colors come into play when you went to high school."  

Does this make sense to you?

Riddled with ads, today's bad website is presumably a resource for those wanting to take a road trip.  Sounds good - but this disorganized site has us already wanting to stay home.  The advertisements for mortgage rates get in the way, as do ones for Oral Care, and Spectrum.  Seriously!  Tone it down, we can't tell the ads from the content.  Well actually - the site's text and arrangement is so old, that the ads stand out as modern, colorful, and appealing.

"The World's Largest Ball of Twine" is such a cliche when speaking of out-of-the-way places, yet there it is on the landing page slideshow.

The tiny search box doesn't work (very) well, we tried "Dollywood" and it came up as the THIRD result behind a bridge in Colorado, and Lorretta Lynn's childhood home.  Weird.

Just when you thought keyword stuffing was finally dead, someone's pointed out a similar method.  By a dealer website provider!  Check out the paragraph in the lower left.  It's nothing but a  pile of text vomit, mentioning the name of the business, what they do, and where they are in a manner that doesn't make sense to human eyes when read.

Ken's Service Center  8 times.  Tires 7 times.  Auto repair 5 times. Hanover 13 times. Columbia 12 times. MD 23 times.

All that in a small paragraph, and linked to other pages within the website.  Cheap attempt at SEO, and it will fail every time.

"Candy Molds Made of Live Rubber" - YUM!  Anyone else's mouth watering?  We didn't think so.  At first glance, we couldn't tell what this website was for or about.  At second glance, we noticed that headline.  So they make candy molds?  Then why the photo of what looks for some reason like we're in the board game of Clue.

Strangely, this website is for a rubber company.  How can you tell?  Not from the landing page images.  Not from the menu options.  Recipes?  Testimonial?  (Just one.)  

Were we wrong to be expecting a website for a bakery which produced small cakes in the shape of houses?  Maybe for realtors to give to clients when they buy or sell a house?  Apparently we WERE wrong, but it's a cool idea.

What we have instead is mysteriouly still undefined.  What IS a "Small House Cake"?  Breaking a primary rule of web design here, we can't tell from the landing page.  Front and center is a Get Quote button.  For a cake?  Must be expensive.  Let's check the Gallery, and see what is really being sold here.  Guess what?  Nope.  Just the black and white landing page graphic repeated (for some reason) three times.

Let's hope that if this IS an actual bakery that they are w-a-y better at baking than web design.