Some websites really suck! So much so that we never go back there. Whatever it was that offended us in the first place made us want to click away. But what is the phenomenon to determine whether our site sucks or not? What gets us repeat visitors that crave our written wisdom and who has the telling power about the popularity of our site anyway?

For starters, our visitors are our judges, it’s that plain and simple really and if it weren’t for them we might as well pack our bags and leave (err computer)

For the purpose of this post, I put myself into the visitor shoe and look at what I want when I visit a site.

Content that is valuable to my needs: when I visit a site, I generally do this to learn something new. I simply haven’t go the time to waste valuable time.

Free tools are always received with gratitude, especially if they help me to become a better webmaster (hence more targeted traffic)

We all love secrets; secrets on how we can become better at what we do and learn tricks that help us to stay ahead of the competition. So when I discover a site that helps to to achieve this, I’m sucked in to go back there again and again. Until…

They piss me off with tons of advertising. There is no other word than that. I simply hate sites that are laden with ads. I realize that we are all here to make money. And that means we have to use any method given to help us do that. But if a site has nothing but ads, then I’m out of there in an instant!

Bling and flashy banners are great on personal blogs and websites for those who love that stuff. But they are so tacky and totally not applicable to a business site that is supposed to bring the owner money. A total turn off for me!

Is the owner caring about his/her visitors? I do look for the interactive aspect of the site owner. Does he reply to my comments? If yes, it means that he appreciates his visitors enough to care.

Does the site owner disguise his real name? I yes, he/she could miss out! I know from personal experience. How can you expect to network with others if you can’t be honest about who you are. We don’t need to know the color of toilet paper you are using, but it would be nice to find out a bit about you and how you came to be here (on the Internet).

Written stuff that is totally off topic; I have seen many sites that write about anything that they come across. From digs to their life to working as a gardener to trying to make money in MLM these sites are a mish-mash of many things and nothing in particular. If you want a site that really sucks, then these kind of sites are a sure fire way to achieve this.

Rankings; this is a biggie. I have a feeling that we are all impressed with site rankings one way or another. When I see a site ranking well in terms of Alexa, Google and Technorati, I normally do give them some weight by seeing them a competition to my own sites.

But having said that, it won’t make the site a good one just because they have some high ranking. I have come across many high ranking sites that do suck for several reasons as explained above and despite their high rankings I don’t see them a threat to myself in the long term.

Your site doesn’t just suck, because you are just starting out. We all start out sometime and we cannot hold somebody in account for this. But if you don’t write relevant content that attracts readers like me, then your site will suck eventually.

If you have anything to add to this, then please feel free to use the comment section below.

Monika Mundell, Creator and Author of Blogging Web 2.0

Filed under: Blogging