Usability and SEO
Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz had a good post today about link building and getting people to link to your site. In his list of turn-ons vs. turn-offs in regarding design, the list of the negatives was topped by “obtrusive ads”. Amen.
Not only do pop-ups and Las Vegas-style ads suck, they discourage anyone from wanting to link to you. In other words, a crappy design and presentation can negate the effects of good content if the website is, as Andrew Goodman says, “in the hall of shame.”
Pop-ups, pop-overs and blinking banners have sucked for a long time. If only, in their infinite wisdom, the Corporate America decision makers would fall in step and realize that a business need not be tricky or sneaky to monetize a website, the web would be a better place to hang out.
Sphere It