We all want a web design that shows we are better than our competition.
We want the web design to have all the bells and whistles possible to really make an impact on the visitors.
But many times having MORE is LESS..
..less customers
..less revisits
..less credibility
..and a few other things.

Here are 5 things to remove right now if you are doing them.

Live Chat

Most websites have contact forms and contact details listed on the site, a growing trend is having a live chat function built in as well.
While this might look fancy and super professional, it can actually turn customers away, and here’s why.

Think how irritating is it when you want to contact a company and click on a “Live Chat” button, only to be shown a “Support is offline” message..

Would you leave a message or will you just google someone else to supply what you are looking for?
That’s right! You would just google a competitor.

Of course having one is great but if someone isn’t there to answer quickly then the visitor leaves.
So if you can’t have someone always on standby for this feature then rather remove it from your website and save your potential clients the irritation of a “Live Chat” that’s not actually live.

Reboot Websites would rather advise our clients to get a Facebook Messenger feature instead if you really wanted something like this, so even if you are on the go, you can message via your cellphone quickly.

Social Pages

Yes, that’s right.. Social Pages!

Now here me out on this.

I know how everyone has been drilled into thinking that having a Facebook Page is mandatory in this digital age. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m part of the sheeple on this, but let’s be honest, when you see a company’s Facebook page and the last post was in 2013 of a Hooters golf day for the staff, a few things pop into my head about that company..

.. 2013?, ok they closed down.
.. Hooters? , can I really believe they are reputable?
.. I bet their prices are so expensive that’s why they can afford such nonsense.
.. better look for someone else that’s more on the ball.

People come to us all the time and tell us how they NEED social links for their sites only for those social pages to never be used and gather dust.

Do yourself a favour and press that “Delete Page” option in your Social Network.
Clearly you don’t have enough time to spread across all the networks so cut out what you neglect and concentrate on what you can afford to keep.

A good website design that’s always posting articles will generate far more leads than having dead social pages everywhere.

If you post often to your Social Pages then by all means , keep on doing what you are doing, but posting once a year is not on guys..

Pop Ups

Pop ups?
Just take me behind the barn and shoot me in the head.. rather that than me having deal with pop ups..

“Oh Look! An article I want to read!”
“No, I don’t want to subscribe.. I haven’t even seen the article.”
“No, I don’t want 50% off on encyclopedias, just want to get past the heading of this article, thanks.”

I hate them, you hate them and let’s not forget Google REALLY hates them.
Google actually marks down your SEO rating for every pop up you use.
Google regards these as intrusive to the user experience, I just regard this as poor web design.
Why put your potential clients through hell that you don’t like yourself.

Reboot Websites suggests that if you want to incorporate a newsletter subscriber list in your web design then rather have the subscribe function on top or underneath the article as a content block of the page.

Visitor Counters

Reboot Websites often receive requests to have visitor / hit counters put into the web design of business websites.
To be honest, there is no point to these.
Do you really care that you are visitor 3500 to a website? Nope!

These counters do nothing but add  “anti-trust / poor quality” subconsciously to a potential client, which is the last thing you want to do.

Rip that sucker out if you have one.

Google Adsense

Now this is a tricky one to cover.

Google Adsense is those ads you see on sides of articles. Not to be confused with Google Adwords, which is paying for your website to be higher in Google search results.

More and more websites are having a web design that has these ads placed everywhere.
Now if you have a normal website, by normal I mean something like a business website or an online store selling clothes, please for the love of all things good DON’T place these things into your web design.

It’s just tacky as hell and WILL make your business web design look cheap and untrustworthy.
No one is going to feel safe handing over any sort of personal information to you if they don’t think you are a reputable company.

NOW if you are a Blogger of some sort then I can understand why you would put Adsense into your web design. Blogging is a business model on it’s own so it makes sense that to generate an income you would use Adsense within your articles, but a lot Bloggers are taking it too far!

Articles from these bloggers are plastered with these Adsense ads everywhere.
It’s so hard to read these articles and a lot of the time you get confused as to what is actually the article itself. Some even bury the “Read More” button in a section of the page that’s COVERED in ads in hopes you miss click on the ad instead.

A Quality Blog will have the article clearly separate from the Ads, making sure their readers have a great experience in their web design, so the reader will come back for more.

..There you have it!

So there’s the top 5 things not to have in your web design.
There are quite a few more items not to do but these are simply the worst.

If you are worried that you might create a web design that won’t perform like it should then give us a call.
Our clients are treated like family and we work relentlessly to give them what they truly deserve.

A performing web design that ticks all the right boxes.

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