13 Things To Remove From Your Website Immediately

After 20+ years of planning 1000+ website projects (and measuring performance in Analytics for each) we have learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t on websites.

In this video, we share a list of website elements and content formats that you should probably take off your website ASAP. They may be popular, they may feel like common sense, but everything on this list is here because of hard-won experience or real-world data and examples.

Here’s the list with jump links:

0:31 Vague homepage headlines
1:30 Generic navigation labels
2:40 Meaningless subheadings
3:25 Homepage sliders
3:55 Stock photos of people
4:30 Social media icons
5:12 Dates on blog posts
5:55 Long paragraphs
6:37 Press releases
7:40 PDF files
8:52 Testimonial pages
10:05 Email links
11:05 Dead end thank you pages

Are the exceptions? Of course.
Do you disagree with any of these? Let us know in the comments!

#webdesign #ux

[thestreamreader]

I leave most sites immediately that remove the date. Can't stand not knowing how relevant the content is to the present or if it was written with the past in mind.

[labas]

One of the first things I look for is the date of an article. Even if it's for comparing and contrasting. 😊

[ijstanley]

As a developer, it pisses me off when I land on a blog post that doesn't declare when it was written. Tech moves on so quickly that old posts potentially carry stale information that will be detrimental to absorb. I'm more likely to navigate away.

[seanwashere]

Agree with everything but I very much dislike when blog posts don't have dates. Everything is relative to time, it's easier to understand the content knowing the date it was created. I discount blogs that don't have dates more than ones that do and are just old posts.

[ahallock]

Disagree about dates and generic navigation labels. Familiar labels like Products, Documentation, Use Cases, Pricing help me navigate quickly to the area I'm interested in. And I hate blogs that don't include dates, especially for technical information.

[aqil]

1. Vague hompage headline
- Do 5 second test to analyze the homepage
2. Gemeric navigation label
- Navigation must be helpful, specific
- Use GA4 : Path Exploration, to know how user navigate
3. Meaningless subheading
4. Homepage Slideshow
5. Stock photo of people
6. Social media icon on header
7. Dates on blog
8. long paragraph
9. Press release
10. PDF File
11. testimonial page
12. Email link
13. Dead end thank you page

[derwaldbaer]

I disagree on the blog post dates. Content is rarely truly evergreen, and as a reader I want to know whether an opinion was a qualified opinion in 2013 or 2023.

[lysafulbright]

"Candy-colored exit signs"! : ) Great tips!

[CompletedReview]

Andy, I sat in your talk in ~2014 in SMMW in SD. I still use bits I learned from your talk that day. And it's helped me move up quickly in my marketing roles since then. Love your straight talk. Glad to find you on YT!

[juliaevans]

Really think you point about Thank you pages is spot on. What a missed opportunity to engage with the viewer who has just interacted with you !

[stephensandor]

So many great points. My favourite is putting descriptors in the navigation tabs. It’s got me thinking totally differently. Super helpful. PS I prefer forms and the fact that it takes a little more effort to fill out is a nice filtering process. If they can’t be bothered filling out a form they are probably not that interested

[deerhaven]

I'm so happy and relieved to see that the new website I created about a month ago for my small business follows all of these guidelines. Thank you!

[QuantumKurator]

I don't agree with removing dates on blog posts. If it is a technical blog and content is over a year old I generally won't read it. And if there are no dates, I assume it is old and wont read it.

[larryfarr]

Thank you very much for an informative, well-produced, thoughtful video that was enjoyable to watch. Your presentation style is spot on. Much appreciated.

[brucewilliamsstudio]

Thanks Andy, this is essential "must have" information and likely takes years to learn on your own. Thanks for the leg up.

[NoRosesJewelry]

pearls of wisdom for those of us who are NOT user experience experts! thank you, sir. 😊👍

[ikantdanz]

Very helpful, thank you. I was really hoping you would include those gigantic headers so many sites use these days. I hate those. If I have to scroll to see the first word on the website, I’m never going to see the first word on the website, because I’m already gone.

[LambrosHatzinikolaou]

Thanks for the post. I agree with everything you say except for the 7nth point. Dates on blogs. As a consumer of blog posts, I have to choose what to read and what to ignore from a SERP, with posts with no date falling into the latter category. I prefer fresh content to old one and when I'm not sure it is fresh I just ignore it. It’s difficult to hide the date of the content, anyway. One can check the comments or the source code to find out. If the content is old, an update would remedy it. So in this case, the blogger can show the update date instead of the publication date.

[gellirollz]

Very well done, said and in detail with examples. This was not a rant, this was informative content we need.. Thank you new sub!

[ThomasKnip]

Very solid advice overall! That last one for the "Thank You" page, nice!