4 Reasons To Kill Your Home Page Carousel

Carousels (or homepage sliders) became popular because they were a quick fix for two constant dilemmas: "How can I cram all of my content into a small space?" and "What content is the most important?". They are used to provide a solution to both of these problems, while keeping content above the fold.

Technically, a carousel provides some solutions for your marketing woes, however, don't think for a second it's a good idea. It's lazy. A huge part of content is determining what is relevant, what action people should take from it and how to test and improve your marketing efforts. Ditching your carousel forces better content and design decisions. Still not convinced? Read on...

Source: http://shouldiuseacarousel.com/

1. Only 1% actually click on your carousel image

Ok, so you've put all of your important content on the homepage slider. High fives all around! Problem is, only 1% of users actually click on the banner image. That means that out of 100 people coming to browse wine on your website, only one will actually click on that $0 shipping promotion. To make matters worse - of that 1% who do actually click your slider, 89 times out of 100 it is only the first image. So, why are we still using carousels?

2. Carousels distract visitors

Too much movement, too many images and too many offers. Carousels distract visitors from the main reason they visited your site - to find out about your winery, or (more importantly) to buy some wine. Don't bombard visitors and distract them from purchasing. Instead, choose your most important piece of content and display that on your homepage as a static image.

3. They kill conversion rates

Because sliders look like advertisements, your customers will ignore them. If someone comes to your website to buy a bottle of Pinot their friend recommended to them and they're inundated with random images on an annoying fast scroll - they may not complete their purchase. They may navigate to your wine page, or worse, just leave altogether.

4. Design matters

Keep content fresh for your visitors. Good design is important, but a lot of website design is personal opinion. Try it out for yourself and see what gets the most hits. Either way, the carousel has to go. If you absolutely must keep the carousel - switch from auto scroll to manual controls and try to keep the number of slides to a minimum. Make your customers' experience a top priority!