Examples of Bad Websites
There are countless examples of embarrassing website designs and development out there. These are the latest examples we have discovered. For each site below we provide a brief analysis to assist you in avoiding the same pitfalls.
After looking at the websites and critiques below, please visit our free advice area.
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Sedona Psychic
Frontpage AND keyword fun - what a lucky day! If you were searching for "2012 consciousness technologies" or "quantum physics," this site might pop up in your search results. If you really were searching for quantum physics, we believe there's going to be some disappointment.
This cosmic twinkly site has got to be from 1998 or so. That's the year that the 'modern day' Lost in Space movie came out. Perhaps that was the inspiration for the design?
Sedona, Arizona is a magical place, judging by the overwhelming number of psychics and their crazy websites. This is just one of them.
C.A.T.S.
Today's bad website is for an organization called C.A.T.S. Fooled ya! It's not about cats at all! It's a website for a tall person club, or in today's parlance, peoples with bonus verticality.
The club accepts members over 5'10" for women, over 6'2" for men, which leaves us wishing they'd had requirements for their web developer - such as 'must have actual skills' or 'know someone with web development skills' or 'have seen a modern website' at the very least.
The thumbnail pictured is only the landing page, we invite you to click on through to a mishmash of page colors and styles. Animated gifs, flashing stars, a link to a website where you can make your own jeans, as well as where to buy shoes and furniture that'll fit these folks. It's a fun site, it's simply lacking any sense of design and consistency.
All About Holes
Today's bad website is an odd one. The name of the company is All About Holes, but it's not obvious what it does. It could be about pothole repair? The inappropriate apostrophes (possessive instead of plural) under the title don't help.
Reading the content on the landing page doesn't help clear anything up, especially the part in tiny blue italics. People - if we can't read what you've written, don't bother writing it.
Very little on this website is dated more recently than 2010, so perhaps this site is for a company no longer active. The purple and orange color scheme is also quite dated, if in fact it was EVER trendy. Points for the cute traffic cone favicon, though.
"Advanced" Poly Packaging
What IS it with companies that call themselves 'advanced,' then present a website that is definitely not? Today's old website is in serious need of updating. Even the text is silly: "futuristic" bagging technology.
A few things that aren't futuristic - the design, a News page with none on it, and a location map image (an image!) instead of the standard Google map with the ability to plot directions from anywhere. It's also not responsive, nor has it been optimized for mobile use.
Even if your company is really, really good at what you do, if your online 'face' is dated, potential customers unfamiliar with your business will assume you are too.
Virtual Stamp Club
Checking the definition of "virtual," we find that the primary definition is "almost or nearly as described, but not completely." Now that we know - it does accurately describe today's bad website.
It's not a stamp club - how could it be? It's a website. Maybe it's about virtual stamps...but no. It's just a mess. Colors, fonts, styles, mixed backgrounds, ads - it's all over the place.
A lot of navigation choices go to pages under construction, some take you completely away from this site with nothing but your back button to anchor you. A link to the VSC shop goes straight to CafePress - with no stamps in sight.