Pop-ups, what else!

In a survey conducted by Tayloy Nelson Sofres for Hostway.com in July, almost 35% of the 2,500 respondents said that pop-ups are their pet peeves on the Net. They also find annoying the requirement to register and login before viewing the website (17%) and the installation of extra software to view the site (16%).

The rest of the website characteristings that US adult Internet users find the most annoying include:

• Slow-loading pages (9%
• Dead Links (5%)
• Confusing navigation: hard to find pages, too many clicks (4%)
• Content that is out of date (3%)
• No contact information available – web form only (3%)
• Music or audio that plays automatically (2%)
• Inability to use the browser’s back button (2%)
• Ineffective site search tool (2%)
• Overdone sites – unnecessary splash/flash screens or animations (2%)
• Text that moves (1%)
• Opening a new window for a link (0.3%)
• Poor appearance – colors, fonts, format (0.3%)

So what’s the implication if your website exhibits one or two of these annoying characteristics? The same survey respondents said that they are “extremely” or “somewhat” likely not to visit the site again (75%). Another 3/4 of the respondents also said they may unsubscribe from the website’s promotional messages (or possibly newsletters). Many also said that they might not purchase from the website or view the company in a negative manner.

And here’s the kicker: only 25% said that they plan to complain to the company! For every single negative feedback you receive, think that there are 10x or 20x more folks who had the same exact negative sentiment but did not bother to notify you.