There are several web techniques that are currently being used by web designers and webmasters to attract visitors in a bid to offer a pleasant user experience. However, not all of them may be suited to your specific website or business model and you need not use them just because everyone else is implementing them.
To begin with, Pop-ups just do not make any sense at all since almost everyone will have a pop-up blocker enabled and those that do not will hate you for getting on their faces. Mobile phone and tablet users too will not be pleased with a pop up since it can hamper their efforts to check your website content with ease. You should try A/B testing to find out if this method actually works for your website or just dump it.
If your website begins playing a video or audio or even a silent video in a loop as soon as any visitor arrives at your homepage then that too could be a bad technique. Most visitors would frantically search for a way to shut off the video or audio even as others merely bounce away to a friendlier and quiet site.
Many designers also love to slap on a sticky nav on the top or bottom or even on the side of each webpage. Again, these navs can prove to be irritating as they shove the displayed content on the face of each visitor while also occupying valuable space of around 150 to 200 pixels on each webpage. You should confirm if your visitors actually use navs as well as indulge in A/B testing before putting them up permanently on your site. The same applies for Auto-Sliders that may merely end up distracting visitors instead of actually helping your website.
If you have a lot of content on your webpage then you may get tempted to use infinite scroll to display all of it on a single page. However, this may not be such a good idea if your visitors are not intrigued enough to keep on scrolling or if you are not adding value to the content as your visitors keep on scrolling. Anyway, infinite scrolling does not make for very good SEO and will also tax most browsers in terms of size and speed.
Another bad web technique is to fill up your website with promo boxes and banner ads just because every other website is doing the same. You need to firstly confirm if your website really does need ads of other products and brands as well as the actual revenue coming in through such ads. You can instead focus on providing top-quality content as well as place your own ads that lead to different pages on your site.
Another bad technique is to merely slap on content on your website in a bid to impress search engine bots. However, you do need to ensure that the content posted on your website is unique, adds value to your site, and pleases visitors in addition to search engines. Bad quality content is really bad for your website since it will merely pull down your rankings while putting off visitors as well.
One cool technique that can set your website apart from others is vertical scrolling. However, you do need to firstly analyze if this technique is actually needed to display the content on your website as well as understand that this feature too makes for bad SEO. You will also need to optimize this technique for tablet and smartphone users as well as provide stop points in order to provide a stunning user experience.
You should also control the urge to engage in unbridled keyword tagging since you would only end up creating duplicate content and in turn get penalized by search engines. You need to make sure that keyword tagging only helps you to locate content and is used within pre-set limits.
Finally, you should stop treating your website as an app since both have different functions and goals. Your website should be optimized for pcs, laptops, mobiles, and tablets, while your apps should have the ability to cater to your users needs in a specific manner.
In simple terms, your website should cater to the precise needs of your target audience instead of merely trying to incorporate so-called wow features just because every other designer is doing it. Offering top-quality content, keeping navigation easy and simple and regular A/B testing will help you to hone in on good web techniques that result in higher conversions and revenues.
