Have you ever been to the Microsoft website? Unfortunately I have.  Even for an expert in all things internet, I have a hard time navigating it.  It’s painfully difficult.

I remember the last time that I was searching for some information there. It was nearly impossible and every minute that I wasted made it more and more painful to continue.  Finally I broke.

“Excuse me, Microsoft.  I’ll be right back.”  I pushed my chair away from my desk and stepped over toward the door.

Immediately I began bashing my head into the door frame until my face was bruised, bloody and swollen.  After several minutes of mercilessly smashing my face into the door, I finally reached the point where the pain in my face was more than the pain of navigating their site.  I returned to the desk and tried to continue my quest.

Visiting some sites is simply more painful than getting a root canal with a plastic spoon.  Is your site like that? No, really.  Is it?

If you’re wondering why nobody visits your site then maybe it’s because it’s so painful for people to visit it that they would rather play leap frog with a unicorn.  The guys know what I’m talking about on that one.

Don’t get your feelings hurt thinking about this.  We all have to learn and grow.  That’s part of life.  In fact, that’s why Site Sketch 101 exists… to help you transform your site into something beautiful.  Just study, work hard, and get better.

9 Ways to Numb the Pain

Here’s a few things to think about that can massively improve the quality of your site and result in way more visitors returning to enjoy more of your content.

• Clean up that messy sidebar…people don’t want to know what your cat had for breakfast.
• Get a new template…something not from the stone age.
• Reduce your categories…5 or 6 is more than enough.
• Drop some breadcrumbs…Hansel and Gretel had it…well…
• Don’t overload it with flashy things…we’ll probably just get dizzy.
• Keep it simple stupid…unless your writing for lawyers.
• Break up your paragraphs…a paragraph should be 6 or less lines.
• Throw in some sub-headings and images…it’s like providing cliff’s notes.
• Get those ads out of your article…or I’m headed back to the door post.

This is just a quick list.  But hopefully you get the point.  If you’re here at Site Sketch 101, then I hope that it’s to find out how to fix up your website or blog. I’ve laid out in cold, hardcore, brutal honesty the way to take your site to the next level.

Group Discussion:

What other things can you think of that have made website painful to navigate?  Is there a pet peeve that bugs you?

Don’t hold back.  I want to hear what you have to say.  This is your chance to rant and rave.  I want your feedback.  Let’s go.