As a follow up to yesterday's post on how to judge a business by its website, I have compiled of list of website don'ts. When I see these on a website, I wince because they don't bring any value to the website and may actually turn off potential customers.

Don't have a landing page that says "enter here." Why are making your visitors go through one more step? What is the point in this?

Don't have a flash animation that takes eons to load. I am not on your website to see how clever your website designer is with animation...I am there to get some information about you, your product or your service.

Don't have music (unless you are a radio station, DJ or band). Nothing is worse than clicking on a website only to be serenaded at full blast...worse if you are visiting the site while in a library or in a quiet office...

Don't use white lettering on a black background. It is very hard to read. And it looks like MySpace somehow.

Don't overload with text. Websites that are crammed to the max with text give me a headache. We need some graphics and some white space.

Don't have confusing navigation.

Don't hide your contact information. Sometimes one has to dig deep to find a phone number or an email.

Don't have excessive graphics/animation: Some websites literally scream for attention.

Don't overload. A website is not an online encyclopedia about your company. It should provide enough information but not overload your visitors.

Don't waste space. Just like in architecture, wasted space is bad for your real estate value. If you have a page with just a line on it, maybe you don't need that page?

Don't insult your visitors' intelligence. For instance, if you have a page called clients--you should list actual clients. I f you have a portfolio, it should point to work you have done.

Don't be redundant/wordy/needlessly complicated.  Some website owners seems to believe that the more words on the page the better. They repeat and say things in complex ways.

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