Examples of Bad Websites

Bad website design – that’s what boogersite.com was made to showcase.  In some cases, the critique is technical.  In others, it’s purely visual: a bad color scheme, mismatched fonts or silly animated gifs.  In the case of this restaurant – simple common sense is all that’s needed to see what’s wrong.  Where is it?  What are the hours?  How about a menu?

None of these necessary pieces of information are present.  There’s a 42-image slideshow of food pictures, a phone number (thankfully), and links to the Facebook and Twitter pages for this restaurant.  Perhaps those pages show current specials and information?  Nope.  Neither has been updated in over 8 months. 

If you’re going to spend money on a website, you should have it developed by someone who can advise you on much more than the basics, which aren’t even present in this case.

No, it's not Easter, although this website's color scheme may have you believing it is.  Either that, or you have a sudden urge to try on bridesmaids' dresses.  Not that it matters, this 'design' company is currently "NOT Accepting any New Clients!".  They are booked "SOLID!"

Really?  We can't imagine there's a waiting list to get a lilac website.  UNTIL...we clicked on the Custom Banners link.  Everything suddenly becomes clear.  If you'd like to see years-old Custom Banners created for the 2003 season of child 'beauty pageants', you have definitely come to the right place. 

The pricing structure kind of makes sense now.  We've advised you often that 'you get what you pay for' is not only true but glaringly obvious when it relates to website design.  For the low starting price of $65, here you'll get a page including Music, a Guest Book (how quaint!) and a Site meter.  Too bad they're booked SOLID.

It's time to play the keyword game again.  A website using keywords of: reproduction horns, rainbow heads, bear rug shells, and blue wildebeest would be for what?

YES, another taxidermy supply site.  Why do you suppose we get so many of these sites submitted?  Are they all bad, or do we have an aging critter out there, ratting out all of the bad taxidermy websites?

Doing it yourself is indeed a money-saver when it comes to websites.  But are you really doing your business any favors?  Not for long, as it turns out.  Websites such as this one, created using FrontPage - are not going to be host-able for much longer.  Why not use this transition time to get a professionally made website, developed using technology that's more secure and certainly more sustainable?

At first glance, this website seems to be a fansite for showerheads.  But then, you notice that the red hard-to-read words are welcoming you to a website for an electric company.  Or, a company that makes parts for the electrical industry?  It's hard to tell, which is never a good idea.

The navigation options are weirdly in the middle of the page, and inexplicably include "Return Home" although we're already there.  Under "History", we learn that the company changed hands in 2001.  There's no news since then, and it's possible that's when the last interesting notable event occurred.  It's also possible that's when this website was created.

Here's a hint, if you insist on using one of those "build it yourself!" website crap-factories, don't include things like this in any of your page titles: <meta name='verify-v1' content='fqsN9DR0wcf9p75Nv8fX+cjofJH1tuwOSSd2pTofjrs=' />  A professional web development company would NEVER let you enter 123 keywords for a single page either.  !!!

One might assume that a website offering "free, objective information you can use" would arrange it in a manner that would make it easy for you to navigate.  That assumption, in this case, would be WRONG.

What a mess!   A page that takes 40 page-downs to get to the bottom is never a good idea.  Mostly links, this site offers information on everything from How Cell Phones Work to Azodicarbonamide in bread at Subway.  (Azodicarbonamide must be tasty, because Subway bread is delicious.)  Looking for information on frog deformities?  It's linked from this website.

This website claims to have been online since 1998.  In all of that time, while collecting link after link for alphabetical insertion on the landing page -  it hasn't occurred to anyone to investigate a better website design?