Examples of Bad Websites

After a lengthy internet search - okay, it was a few minutes, actually - we learned that the Bond character is about entitlement, sex, and violence. He can appreciate fine wines, shoot adversaries in cold blood (and with a certain pleasure), and acquire information on his enemies by seducing their mistresses, who usually end up dead as a result.

The recently-submitted bad website for the James Bond 007 Museum doesn't bring to mind any of these traits.  If this website was a movie character, it would be an annoying motormouth that you couldn't wait to get away from.  Kinda like Jim Carrey.

It doesn't take a professional to see the issues with this website.  After outwitting decades' worth of villains, let's hope Bond doesn't lay down and die of embarrassment.

We've all heard the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words", right?  Unfortunately, the image used as the main focal point of the lastest bad website is not worth anything.  Distorted, blurry machines on a shop floor aren't going to present your facility as modern and capable. 

We know nothing about 'injection molding machines', but a quick Google indicates they can cost between $12K and $150K.  Spend a tiny fraction of the cost of one of your stated '8 machines' on a website, and you'll likely get more paid use out of them. 

People - spend some money on your business website.  Yahoo! SiteBuilder is not the way to go.  If you have a REAL business, charging REAL money for your products or services, don't cheap out on the one salesperson that works for you every day, all day, and all night every night.  Please realize that the overwhelming majority of people (in fact, who DOESN'T?) look up a company online before deciding to do business with them.  Don't leave yourself hanging out there with an embarrassing or homemade website.

When it comes to bad websites, some of them are easy to spot.  This newest entry has obvious problems, such as the use of what seem to be wingdings in the header for some reason.  The url is also different from the name of the business, which could be on purpose.  Notice the url is what a person might actually search for to find this service business.  Shady?  Or just tricky?  Most of the images are broken too.

To be fair, this business has a lot of good reviews on a popular review site that begins with a "Y" (not going to give them any free referrals, though you can probably guess.)  Replacing keys, getting you into a locked car or apartment, and providing many other locksmith services - they seem to be good at.  Web design, not so much.

UPDATE:  Good for you, American Lock and Key - congratulations on your new website! 

Sometimes, a website is submitted that is just plain ugly.  Some poorly designed websites are confusing or busy, with slipshod or absent navigation.  Quite a few are all-Flash websites, believe it or not there are people out there still excluding all iPhone and iPad users.

In this case - the website for this company strikes us as disappointing and lonely more than anything else. It's a substantial company, we checked.  Earnings, according to a popular and common website used to look up company data lists an annual revenue in the range of $10-20 million.  Yes, we said 'million'.  So why have this sad, nearly empty website?

The navigation, which you'll have to click on the thumbnail to see, is weird.  The buttons are dual-purpose. If you click one, the label changes.  History changes to Fabrication.  Galvanizing changes to Fabrication.  And so on.  Weird...and ultimately - not doing anything to impress website visitors.  Your website should speak for your company - and this one's saying "Help!"

You'll probably find it hard to believe that this latest "worst website" was made by a web design company. 

A WEB DESIGN COMPANY. 

Take a few moments to let that sink in.  This recently submitted boogersite is awful in its own right - but to rely on it to sell the design services of the company which created it is an utter failure.

There is no navigation, except for an invisible link to an Index page just below the half-picture of what may be computer monitors on the landing page.  Why in the world would you hide it?   Who knows - the site says right on it that it was last updated in 2009. 

Let's hope "Chris" has found something better to do with his time - because we're betting he does not have a career in web design.  At least not a successful one.