Is your Website Annoying Your Visitors?

An article published in yesterday's E-Commerce Time's website gives us a sneak peak at a survey to be published next week.  Hostway, a Chicago-based Web site hosting service, surveyed 2,500 people and found that website owners had better listen to what visitors are saying about their user experience, or risk losing them forever.

"The results of this survey are a clear warning to e-businesses," Hostway Vice President of Marketing John Lee said. "The Internet has matured to the point where consumers demand an easy online experience. Quite simply, consumers are warning companies, 'you're going to lose my business if your Web site experience is annoying.'"

Among the features that visitors find most annoying are:

• pop-up advertising (34.9 percent),
• registration log-on pages (16.7 percent),
• software installation (15.7 percent), and
• slow-loading pages (9.1 percent).

This is another clear example that your website HAS to be designed for the visitor coming to your site.  Website owners need to put their ego aside here.  Provide them with the information they are looking with a trouble-free user experience and be rewarded with lots of happy, repeat visitors.