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.

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Houston Jewelry

Houston Jewelry has been in business for over a century and judging by their store, they have been very successful. If we judge them by their website, they are a complete and utter failure. If your love for the Better Business Bureau makes your heart go pitter-patter to the point that you must feature them above your own company logo - then for the love of Pete, create a decent version of their logo that matches the background of your website. All of the design elements on this page are floating in space with no anchor or connection to anything else. There is no color contrast to hold the elements together. The secondary pages look like they were thrown together. The menu changes from page to page and at times the links are unreadable. The one call to action (contact form), doesn't even identify the website and is simply a blank page with form fields. Over 3 1/2 years after this posting, Houston Jewelry has finally replaced their website.  Good job, Freddy.
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Casanovasadventures.com

 

It took us a few minutes but we have determined that this is indeed an ecommerce website. However, buying something from them would require some fortitude. The website is inconsistent in look and feel, which is a bad thing when you want visitors to buy things from your website. It is akin to giving $500 to a homeless man smelling like Cold Duck and expecting him to give you a brand new Swiss Army knife.

There are numerous examples of images that look like links and links that aren't links. The visitors to your site should be able to navigate and use your website after just a few seconds. If you keep moving elements or navigation, the smart users will leave. Shopping on the web is all about confidence and trust. If your customers are worried about the walls of the store falling down, they are not likely to spend an hour browsing your products.

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Sherwood, Logan & Associates, Inc

This wholesale plumbing website looks like it was done by a plumber in his mom's basement. This company is trying to convince their visitors that they should buy plumbing equipment from a company that doesn't care enough about their own company to present an acceptable image of itself. It's like a 300lb man showing up for a job interview in nothing but a wife beater and a g-string.

There is no branding, yet they felt the need to include an animated bar of color that serves no purpose. Next we have a list of items that look like a menu. They aren't. Most of the sub-pages feature incredible animated artwork including money going into a toilet.

Sherwood-Logan & Associates, Inc. has been in the wholesale plumbing business for 31 years and their website is related to the products that they sell - something that came out of the toilet.

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Jarke Corporation

Jarke's website is a colorful piece of crap resembling gaudy Victorian wallpaper. The logo looks more like an 80's hair band than a legitimate company selling industrial storage systems. The entire site is plagued by animated gifs. Seriously folks, the cheap animations are not fooling anyone. They are not cute and they make websites look like a bad porn site. If your website is representing a professional company, then the website should damn well look professional.

The information request page is a mess with fields all over the page. If you do not make an effort to make your forms attractive and easy to use, your users will not use them.

We will give them some credit for the kangaroo fact page because it is sooo cute and adorable, complete with more badly drawn kangaroos. We have never talked to a kangaroo, but would be willing to bet a pint of piss (Australian for beer) that a kangaroo would not endorse this website of its own volition.

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Stop Alien Abductions

Alien abductions are bad mmm kay? Apparently we are prime targets for an alien mind control attack and most of the world is oblivious to the impending peril. Thankfully, Mr. Menkin has been protecting brains for the last ten years. The testimonials claim that an ugly hat has changed their lives. In fact, they have reached a whole new level on the social outcast scale. We would like to think that this is a joke and the author enjoys making fun of the real kooks that believe this sort of crap. The truth is that as you read through the pages, it is clear that this guy is certifiable.

With such a brilliant and essential tool, we were shocked that Mr. Menkin would have such a horrible website. Aliens probably abducted the real website. There is no color scheme, branding or visual interest to the pages and the only alien photo is the decades-old alien autopsy. Surely one of the many abductees has a more recent photo. The navigation is done with frames which makes bookmarking difficult. Also, search engines will not be able to properly index the site.

 

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