What’s worse than a pop-up? A delayed pop-up.

Experienced web designers and SEO experts both recommend against using pop-ups on your websites. They can be startling to the Internet user and, more importantly, are annoying. Some businesses have absorbed this message and decided that the way to use this attention-grabbing device without startling people is to delay it, allowing users to see the page for a few seconds before the pop-up hits.

It’s true that pop-ups grab attention, but it’s generally of the wrong kind. If you’re an Internet user, it is very startling indeed to feel that you’ve got comfortable with a website, only to have it throw something horrible at you as soon as you (more…)

It lurks in the shadows, bigger than Godzilla and more terrifying than the Blob. It sucks the life out of your site, ravenously consuming screen space. It’s… the Header Monster.

I often spot ludicrously large headers when browsing business sites, and it really makes me cringe. When I’m at work, these headers take up between a third and a half of the screen. When I’m out and about with my netbook, they take up the whole screen. I shudder to think what these sites look like on a mobile browser.

Giant headers have a lot in common with the old B-movie screen monsters like Godzilla and the Blob. For one thing, all of these are (more…)