Clicks 'n Conversions Blog

This article was first published May 1, 2008 on the Tatum Marketing blog

A couple of weeks ago I gave an online marketing presentation for SoftwareCEO University. One of the topics that drew the greatest interest was “8 Factors that Reduce Website Readability”. So, I’m printing the list here for those of you who missed the presentation.

1. Graphics – especially a large billboard image at the top of your home page. Although (according to MarketingSherpa) 80% of business-to-business websites include a billboard image, visitors see it as a barrier to communication.
2. Too many columns – generally more than three. Mutliple columns make a page more complex and complexity makes it more difficult for visitors to find their way around the page. Also, wider columns – up to a point – are easier to read. Research suggests that lines over 65 characters in width become harder to read.
3. White or light type reversed out of a dark background. Black type on a white background is easier to read. Period. Even gray type on a white background – which seems to be very popular on blogs – makes reading more difficult.
4. Type smaller than 12 points. This is especially true if your audience is over 40.
5. Flash. Most technology marketers have stopped using spash entry pages (finally!). Web usability studies have repeatedly shown that visitors to business websites are extremely annoyed by these pages. More recently eye pattern studies have also shown that flash images on webpages themselves distract the visitor from reading the more important text. Interestingly it seems that a large percentage of the companies who use the billboard image mentioned in #1 compound the problem by including flash in the image!
6. Too many colors. Too many different type fonts. Too much going on. Simplicity is good.
7. Poor use of bullets and subheads. While business website visitors prefer simple text pages, they tend to scan or skim the pages rather than actually reading them. Bullet points and benefits-oriented heading ensure that your message is conveyed to the scanners.
8. Hard-to-find navigation and links. Visitors want to move easily around your website. They don’t want to spend time looking for the next link and they will click on the most unlikely places on webpages. Make it easy for them to take the next step.

So, what do visitors want to see? Tune in tomorrow for that answer.

Meanwhile, what annoys you most about websites? Leave your comments here.