The Boring Website Checklist

Blog Categories:  Web Design  

Does your business website produce sales or snores? Review the factors that determine whether your site gets A's or Zzzzzz's.

Content

Boring: Lots of industry jargon only you can understand.

Rip-roaring: Plain English.

Boring: Corporate speak; words or phrases like "synergy" and "deep dive".

Rip-roaring: Plain English.

Boring: Long sentences that vaguely convey several inconsequential ideas.

Rip-roaring: Short sentences that sharply convey one important idea.

Boring: Product- and company-focused content.

Rip-roaring: Customer-focused content.

Boring: Expository, third-person writing.

Rip-roaring: Conversational writing that tells a story.

Boring: Content that takes itself way too seriously.

Rip-roaring: A lighthearted style.

Boring: Adjectives.

Rip-roaring: Verbs.

Design and Typography

Boring: Stock images that tell the same old story.

Rip-roaring: Custom images that tell your story.

Beyond boring: No images.

Rip-roaring: Images.

Boring: Bland color schemes.

Rip-roaring: Bold accent colors.

Boring: Overly wide or narrow margins that make reading difficult.

Rip-roaring: Line lengths suited for readability. (In the 600 pixel area.)

Boring: Uniformly styled headlines.

Rip-roaring: Distinctive styling for each type of headline.

Boring: Sites where every page looks alike.

Rip-roaring: Sites with unique page templates for various sections of content.

Boring: Long paragraphs with undifferentiated text.

Rip-roaring: Short paragraphs peppered with bold text and bullets.

Strategy and Structure

Boring: Sites without a call to action.

Rip-roaring: Sites that tell me what to do.

Boring: Deep page hierarchies that force me to click and click and click to find what I need.

Rip-roaring: Navigation that puts the info I crave never more than a click or two away.

Boring: Pages that take more than 10 seconds to figure out.

Rip-roaring: Pages whose purpose is immediately obvious.

Boring: Unsocialized sites.

Rip-roaring: Sites with a blog, social sharing and user-submitted content options (such as blog commenting).

OVER TO YOU

What have I missed? What makes a site boring to you?

Ready to Make Every Click Count?