Having a great design for your business’s website is one of the most important things you can do for your brand. Your website is usually one of the first things potential customers see when they research your business. Good web design can reflect positively on your business in the eyes of customers. However, in today’s digital landscape, once-popular design elements are now turning those customers off and could cause them to leave your site.
One such element is the use of image sliders or carousels on your homepage. While they are widely used in many design themes, today, carousels and image sliders can hurt your conversion rates. Keep reading to see why your image slider can be ineffective and what you should do instead.
Image Sliders Deliver Overwhelming or Too Many Messages.
Image sliders present multiple images and calls to action in the span of a few seconds. The user on your website might not have a chance to read the first slide before the second one appears. This can frustrate and overwhelm the user, and they can be tempted to click off of your site. Additionally, an image slider takes away from the other content on your website. Users will be so focused on the image slider that they won’t scroll past it to read the rest of your website.
They Can Affect SEO Rankings and Click-Through Rates.
Your SEO efforts can be hindered by having an image slider “above the fold” on your website. As mentioned before, users may get frustrated or overwhelmed by the amount of information on the slider, causing them to leave your site. According to research conducted by Erik Runyon, the Technical Director and a web developer for Marketing Communications at the University of Notre Dame, only 1% of users click on an item in an image slider. Additionally, 89% of those clicks came from the first image in the slider. Image sliders also push your website’s content “below the fold” and slow the load time, which creates a poor user experience. All of these contribute to a lower click-through rate and lower organic rankings on search engines.
They Affect User Experience, Take Up Space and Reduce Visibility.
We mentioned how image sliders push your website’s content “below the fold,” thus affecting your SEO efforts. Pushing your important content out of the way means that prospective customers won’t see it. If your website has a great offer for your products, a large image slider can reduce the chance that your offer gets seen. Additionally, one of the most important rules about user experience is that the user should stay in control. However, image sliders take that control away from the user by moving too fast or being too large or small.
What Can You Use Instead of Image Sliders?
Now that we’ve shown why image sliders are generally a bad idea, let’s talk about better ways to use that valuable visual real estate. The first thing you can do is organize your content more strategically. Instead of having a bunch of offers and images in a slider, organize your content into smaller, more digestible sections. Place your most important call to action “above the fold” in a static position to draw attention to it. You can also check out another of our blog posts for some more tips on how to improve your content here.
Another element you can integrate is video. About 98% of users say that they have watched a video to learn more about a product or service. Videos are a great way to engage customers and compel them to stay on your website longer and eventually make a purchase.
If you’re looking to update your website, then our web design team can help. We can build a website that fits your business’s unique needs, so you can leave a great first impression on potential customers. Contact us today to learn more about what we can offer your business.
