Why Homepage Sliders Are like Sugar (or Champagne, or Maybe Even Cigarettes)
By Abi White, Copywriter & SEO, 29 January, 2020
Homepage sliders are conversion killers.
Sliders look good, the idea of them feels good, but they’re no good for your website. Think of them like the junk food of web design. Although we love them, just like sugar, or champagne or <place your favourite naughty thing here>, they’re pretty bad for your website’s conversion health.
In fact, no matter how good your imagery or copywriting or SEO is, sliders aren’t much good at all. (In 2020, this is old news, btw, but you’re totally forgiven if you hadn’t heard…)
So now you know I’m not just an SEO and professional copywriter, I’m a horrible killjoy.
Pff, what would she know?
Good question. What would I know? The thing is, I didn’t come up with this; I just read the research. And you can too, by visiting some of these fancy-pants sources like Nielsen or Notre Dame or CXL.
But don’t get depressed - if this is news to you, it’s good news, because now you have a better chance of making a web page that converts. Zippy-do!
I do like and trust Peep Laja a lot. Please listen to what he has to say, cause he’s the bomb. But I’m curious: is it just me or do others wonder if he’s either a really nice guy or a bit not-so-nice? Too harsh? Thoughts? Maybe he’s both…
How did this even happen?
(And ‘everyone’s doing it, so it must be good, yes?’)
Actually, these days, fewer people are using sliders – and you’ll notice some of the big e-commerce brands that total slider junkies have also got with the program.
Like everyone else, I used to love a good homepage slider, but that was over eight years ago. I had an international online store back then, so I loved them as I thought I could sell more stuff - and they were so modern. Baha! (And the new owners still use them. Bahahaha)
Everyone thought sliders were so clever:
“It’s like maximising your real estate!”
“ More bang for your buck!”
“We can get, like, so many messages in...”
And best of all…
“Now those uppity little jerks in each department can all have their say.”
Hallelujah.
But then, a handful of terribly clever people tested their usability and discovered something shocking.
Sliders don’t convert.
THe Neilson experiment
User task: "Does Siemens have any special deals on washing machines?"
“SUMMARY: The user's target was at the top of the page in 98-point font. But she failed to find it because the panel auto-rotated instead of staying still.”
- Neilson - Auto-Forwarding Carousels and Accordions Annoy Users and Reduce Visibility
It’s tragic.
Truth is, I still grieve. I still hate this fact, and even though I’ve argued that sliders-are-no-good-and-besides-we-have-the-research-to-back-it-up ever since 2013, sometimes I weaken and want to break my own rules.
But I won’t. Here’s why.
1. Banner blindness
You’ll often hear this term bandied around on conversion copywriting websites. Nielsen Norman Group conducted some eye-tracking studies and found that as soon as the readers thought they were reading an advertisement, their eyes moved away from that area on the screen. So all that hard work you’ve done, selecting a beautiful image, crafting some wonderful copy that’d be elegantly placed on the page by your gorgeously talented graphic designer goes down the toilet.
2. Bad for SEO - in lotsa ways
A: Multiple H1s dilute your message to the robots. With the page message moving rapidly, what’s a good robot to believe?
See, ideally, an H1 should appear before any other header tag, and best SEO practices state that ideally – I said ideally – you should only have one H1 per page. (Okay, you will won’t fall apart if you have a couple, but most of the time...)
B: Poorer page load time. Sliders can slow things down significantly if you’re not careful, and site speed is a super sexy search ranking factor.
C: Wasting valuable SEO real estate with big empty images that look like ads (see point 1 above)
D: Usability issues - although strictly not an SEO issue, I’m plonking it here because if people are frustrated with your site, they bounce. NOT good for SEO.
3. Confusion
Meaning: they divide the user’s attention. (Aka: too much going ON = nothing going IN!) Human beings like to concentrate on one thing; it’s very hard to concentrate if you have to focus on several things.
Continue reading after the image…
This is the hero image on the homepage of Mecca as of 29 Jan, 2020. Mecca change graphics more often than I change my mind (just kidding, maybe, maybe not) BUT they stick with ONE static image.
4. We don’t respond well to movement
In caveman times, we were wired to react suddenly to movement – it signalled potential disaster, like something big and nasty preying on us. Consequently, we react with anxiety. Same thing when we see the slider. Anecdotally speaking, I can’t stand even leaving a browser tab open with a slider on it. Here I am, trying to concentrate on my work, and THIS THING KEEPS BLOODY MOVING WILL YOU STOP THAT RIGHT NOW PLEASE.
5. They take up valuable real estate
I know, I know – this was one of the reasons we liked them because we thought they were maximising real estate. So confusing. We thought instead of one great line of conversion copy, we could get four or six in. But when Eric Runyon of Notre Dame University did some clever click analysis, he discovered that only 1% of visitors clicked on a CTA on a web page slider.
Well, that’s disappointing.
6. The user no longer feels in control
Everyone likes to feel like they’re in control (not just that creepy ex of yours), and web viewers are no exception. So why are you bombarding them with multi-messages – many of which they have NO use? And, what if they want to take their time and read slowly, but the freakin’ slider keeps moving? Very frustrating.
This is why it’s best you don’t use sliders on your website.
So what are you to do? It’s simple…
“Work out the value proposition of your website–or web page–and use that instead. ”
What’s a value proposition?
Ok, providing you’re not a professional copywriter (who should know this stuff), that’s a very good question. I like to define a value proposition as a summation of who you are, what you offer (and how people benefit from it) and what your point of difference is (and therefore why people should choose you).
So go for it.
And if you end up in a meeting having arguments over this stuff, just flick them a link to this page. Huzzah! You’re welcome.
References:
Image Carousels and Sliders? Don’t Use Them. (Here’s why.) Peep Laja
Auto-Forwarding Carousels and Accordions Annoy Users and Reduce Visibility - Nelison
How to Use Image Carousels the Right Way [2020]?
Carousel Interaction Stats, 2013 Runyon