Attracting a potencial customer is hard enough. Grabbing their interest and retaining them is even more difficult. It's important to design your site so that user frustration is kept to a minimum, thereby maximizing customer retention. Below are some examples of what not to do when designing your website.

1. Bad Navigation

Nothing frustrates a website visitor more than a website that's hard to navigate. Complex or inconsistent navigation can cause users to feel helpless, confused, or angry, certainly not the emotions you want potential customers to be feeling.

2. Too Many Ads

Suffocating your visitor with ads that pop, flash, and fill the entire browser will only serve to enrage them.

3. Bad Content Structure

Bad content structure can destroy your conversion and retention rates. Make your content (especially your contact info) easy to find. It's estimated that as many as 50% of sales are lost because potential customer can't find what they're looking for.

4. Obtrusive Use of Audio & Video

Most people value their ability to choose what content to absorb. Having video or audio that loads automatically can potentially drive visitors away.

5. The Registration Requirement

It's often the case that forcing visitors to register before they can view content is much like a physical barrier. Barriers, such as forced-registration, may ultimately cause the visitor to go elsewhere for what they're looking for.

6. Boring Content, Boring Design

A dull website that has no purpose or interactivity will never create a memorable experience for a visitor. Data suggests that 40% of visitors don't return to a website after having a negative experience.

7. Poor Legibility

Bad typography choices, abrasive colors, and excessive typos all contribute to poor legibility and ultimately a poor user experience.

8. Lack of Frequency

You may have found the right balance of interactivity, design and content construction, those are all good things. But you may also need to keep your site fresh with new content.