We’ve all experienced Internet irritants. In fact, they seem to be fairly common across the web. Lots of time and effort goes into the creation of your plastic surgery website, so it’s important to ensure that it’s as successful as it can be. Part of that includes banishing all those little elements that can annoy your visitors and, worse, force them to go elsewhere. The following are some common Internet irritants to avoid:
- Scrolling. Horizontal scrolling is the worst scrolling offender. Users simply hate it when a page requires that they scroll from left to right in a standard sized window. It’s also best to keep pages as short as possible to reduce the need to scroll vertically.
- Tiny fonts. Fonts that are too small make reading nearly impossible. Keep your font at a good size for reading and keep it consistent throughout your site. It’s also best to avoid fixed font sizes so that users can resize the text as needed.
- Requiring information. Only ask for a user’s personal information when absolutely necessary, and make sure that the specific information that you’re requesting is pertinent. Users tend to react negatively when asked to provide information about themselves, whether it be their email address or other information. Also be sure to include a privacy policy guaranteeing that visitors will not receive spam as a result of the information they supply to you.
- Doorway pages. Doorway pages, flash pages and any other type of page that requires a user to click on something in order to enter your site must be avoided.
- Text, text, text. Avoid large blocks of text as they can prove very daunting and potentially boring for users. Break up text with images, and separate large amounts of text into multiple pages.
- Irrelevant FAQs. Base your FAQs on questions that you’re actually frequently asked. Don’t include questions that you want your patients to ask or think they should ask if they’re not actually asking them.
- Links with JavaScript. Keep your links standard and give users what they expect.
- Pop-up windows. Nothing more needs to be said about these, just avoid them.
- Lengthy URLs. Lengthy URLs are not only impossible to remember, but they are also impossible to email. If a visitor wants to email your site to a friend, you don’t want to discourage them from doing so with a URL that is simply too bulky to manage.
- No prices. This can be very difficult when it comes to a website for a plastic surgery practice. You can’t exactly list a price for a procedure because the cost will likely depend to some degree on each individual. Further, cosmetic surgery tends to be a high ticket item and you may not feel comfortable listing a price for fear of turning potential patients away. Nevertheless, one of the main things that people search for on the Internet are the costs of particular products and services. The best solution is to list averages on your website. You can get the average costs of procedures from organizations like the ASPS.