I see it time and again. A website has great blog posts or any other type of good content. When sharing the link on their social media platforms and other channels, it attracts plenty of people who are curious to see what they have to say. They click on the link... and then they leave. What happened?

See the cartoon - that happened. The reader gets bombarded with questions and other popup windows, often before they're even half-way through the text. Sure, some of them are obligatory in certain parts of the world. However, that doesn't mean there aren't more user-friendly ways to inform about cookies and ask for consent.

Not to mention the voluntary noise like requests for newsletter sign ups and shares. I can't even count the number of times I was asked to sign up to a newsletter before I read enough of an article to decide whether it was a good one or not. Why would I sign up to something I'm not yet convinced about? Asking for an email address too early does more harm than good.

So what's the alternative? Approach your website design from a user perspective. Have a look at other websites. What annoys you? What works well? What would you want to see differently? What makes you decide to sign up for their newsletter? Take all those learnings and implement them on your own website. If you still feel clueless, why not hire a UX designer? It can make the difference between someone abandoning your website before even reading what you offer, and becoming a hot lead. That's worth hiring a professional, isn't it? And it makes the work for us content writers a whole lot more satisfying!

By the way, if you enjoyed that cartoon, have a look at https://marketoonist.com. Tom Fishburne is a creative marketer and his drawings are always spot on and very relatable.

What's your biggest frustration with the websites you visit? Share your thoughts in the comments below.