Upgrade your website: 5 obsolete things you should eliminate immediately

When it comes to having a website, many companies consider only two fundamental pillars: design and programming. However, because maintenance is not highly valued, the website often becomes obsolete, and this causes a plethora of problems for the business.

An obsolete website means many setbacks which harm not only the company, but also the visits. For example, a study of large industries showed that more than 60% of visitors who decide not to make a purchase say that the main reason is the poor user experience.

Website maintenance is vital because it impacts the content, technological adaptation, mitigation of security breaches, positioning, and more. If you do not have time to make these updates, the best option is to hire web design experts to ensure the perfect operability of your website.

If you’ve read any of our other insights, you’ll know that we always offer DIY tips! So here is a quick list of obsolete elements of your website that you should remove immediately.  

Elements to remove from your website

User experience depends on multiple website factors, such as colors, mobile optimization, speed, etc. Therefore, to improve the user experience, you must follow the current trends and remove all the features that can could possibly cause discomfort. 

1. Large ads

One of the things that causes the most frustration, is seeing an ad that takes up the full size of the screen immediately. These ads are incredibly annoying because although they force the user to recognize the brand, they cause them to hate it after seeing this type of promotion. 

For this reason, more than 600 million devices worldwide run ad-blocking software. However, even if web visitors do not use ad blockers, the full-screen ad will go unnoticed. Today’s Internet users have gradually developed the so-called banner blindness syndrome and can therefore ignore ads consciously or unconsciously.

Users consider large pop-up windows and banners as obstacles to go through to see the content they want. Therefore, they choose to jump over the barrier and accomplish their goal. In addition, in the case of smartphone users, ads are often more annoying because it is more difficult for them to cancel an ad to go directly to the content. This results in the user often getting frustrated and leaving. Therefore, it is best to avoid giant advertisements covering the entire screen and resort to more effective digital marketing strategies.

2. Poor back buttons

The back button is one of the most recognizable elements of websites. Several studies have proven that the back button is one of the most used navigation elements after hyperlinks. It allows users to return to the previous page quickly and easily. 

However, many pages currently have complex layouts that generate confusion between the actual last page and its elements. Examples of such content are multi-page articles, accordions, and overlays. Such features can be distracting to users, and in these cases, the back button usually becomes meaningless. Therefore, because users have adapted back buttons as essential web page design elements, they must be aligned with the user experience.

3. Ads without real value

Digital marketing is the most important promotional channel for many companies. However, many advertising practices are not acceptable today and continue to be applied. Examples of these are ads that have no real value and are even considered ridiculous, such as:

• How to make over $1 million in just 3 days. 
• You will not believe the effectiveness of our diet.
• The pro moves your couch won’t teach you.

Although these advertising titles sound pompous and unbelievable, they are simply annoying. For this reason, Google’s Chrome browser will soon have pre-installed technology to block annoying ads that affect the user’s web experience.

4. Multi-page articles

An updated website allows visitors to navigate the website quickly and without interruption. As a result, users will not want to click the following page button every minute when reading quality articles. Instead, they want to maintain a steady reading flow until they reach the end of the post. Because of this, multi-page articles are one of the most annoying elements for users. You know what I’m talking about, the “top 25” list that’s on twenty-five separate pages!

Experts consider this so irritating, that they believe Google should severely punish the practice of pagination for articles. We agree with this opinion because multi-page articles take too long to click, reload, click again, reload again, and more. Even worse, many websites use multi-page articles for “how-to” posts detailing ten or more tips, increasing user frustration. 

5. Anything Flash

Flash is outdated in modern website design. This is because it is a technology that should not be used on websites as tablet and mobile traffic is constantly increasing(read: importance of mobile optimization). 

Flash does not work in modern browsers because its use is entirely obsolete. If you have a website 100% made with flash, you should start with a complete redesign process. For example, suppose you use some flash elements for menus. In that case, it is a matter of eliminating them and using the most modern technology (e.g. HTML5).

Improve user experience for business success

As a leading Houston web design company, we recommend opting for simple and minimalist designs in 2022. Simply because, the simpler the website, the better the user experience will be. The better the experience, the better the website will rank in search engines. 

Do you think your website design is outdated after reading this? If so, now is the time to change it! Improve the user experience by removing these five obsolete elements and get an increase in your web traffic volumes.

Position yourself as a leader in your industry, hire a professional!