Homepage sliders, also called carousels or slideshows, are among the most popular website features. Many website themes include them by default. But sliders aren’t right for every website, and they should be used with care. Here are the most common problems.
They slow your page down. A slider loads several large images at once, often before the visitor sees anything else. Some slideshows take many seconds to load, especially on a phone. Every extra second increases the chance that a visitor gives up before your message even appears.
They can hurt your search visibility. As we saw in the last post, sliders often replace real text with images. When headlines and offers live inside pictures, search engines can’t read them, and the page loses the content that helps it rank.
Visitors miss the message. “I didn’t have time to read it. It kept changing too quickly.” That’s a common complaint. Usability researchers at the Nielsen Norman Group have found that auto-advancing carousels annoy users and reduce the visibility of the content on them. Most people see the first slide and little else, so slides two through five often go unnoticed.
Too many offers, fewer clicks. If each slide carries a different special offer, you’re asking visitors to choose between messages that disappear before they’ve finished reading. A single, clear offer usually gets more clicks than five rotating ones.
They push important content out of view. Many sliders are sized badly, taking up a third or more of the screen. The essential above-the-fold information we’ve discussed in this series, such as who you are, what you offer, and how to contact you, gets pushed below the slideshow and out of sight.
They’re a poor fit for B2B sites. Business buyers usually arrive with a specific need and want to find information quickly. For most business-to-business websites, a clear headline and direct navigation work far better than a rotating slideshow.
They’re easy to get wrong. Sliders come with many settings for timing, sizing, transitions, and mobile behavior. People tend to get them wrong, developers included. Getting a slider just right can take hours.
None of this means sliders are forbidden. But if you use one, it needs to earn its place. In the next post, we’ll look at when a slider genuinely works.
