Many web developers and SEO experts have reviewed about the effect of using sliders on website. So, if you are still in love with sliders, you can consider a little review about it, since it provides more disadvantages than benefits. First, applying sliders will provide you no value for SEO. In fact, it can reduce your site speed as it will slow down your site by loading extra JavaScript. Besides, sliders also will prevent your user from reading the good stuff (your content) immediately. As a result, it will most probably account for less conversion as well.
For all these reasons, many developers still insist on dealing with sliders to their themes. After all, some people still think that slider less themes is “outdated”, but this is not true. The main reason why slider is not good for your site will be explained in more detailed below.
Science and Experiments
For many years, studies have shown that sliders should be avoided. Below are some facts which are derived from some science research.
- They push down your content,
- Only 1% of the people actually click on a slide, which is almost and always the first slide,
- Sliders don’t always work well on mobile devices,
- Sliders confuse people, as you’re sending multiple offers they may or may not be interested in at once,
- It’s most probably as effective to use just one image instead of putting all
- People simply ignore your slider, because it triggers banner blindness,
- On that same note, visitors just don’t get the message because they will skip the messages in your slider as they consider it advertisement or promotions,
- They slow down your site, negatively impacting your SEO and conversion rate.
Focus
Mostly, people love sliders because they don’t know which product or picture that they will display on their homepage. Therefore, you should have a better focus on the right (static) image or message. This will give a better direction about what to choose to your visitors or clients. For that reason, you should know what your own business is about. Then, you also should know what product or picture that will be good to be displayed in the front page. Only by this way, you can provide a better site’s appearance and more convenient user experience.
SEO and Conversion Rate Optimization
In terms of SEO, sliders will push down your main content, plain and simple. Moreover, many sliders are big enough to fill out any screen. This causes the content not able to be visible above the fold. In addition, according to a CRO expert, sliders kill your conversions, so with slider you will get less sales than without slider.
Mobile Websites and Sliders
Including sliders on your mobile website is really convenient. You can add more content without making the page becoming too long. However, you should accept the fact that slider is not flawless, especially when it comes to mobile sites. Here are some pitfalls you’ll experience when using sliders to a mobile website:
- If your slider isn’t responsive, it will ruin your otherwise responsive website. This happens all too often, unfortunately.
- The same goes for sliders running on JavaScript. Why add JavaScript for something people will treat as a banner or simply skip to get to your content instead?
- Image sliders tend to load the desktop site images not optimized for mobile speed or in fact, ruining it for phones on 3g or less.
So, the bottom line is what sliders provide isn’t worth it with disadvantages that sliders may cause to your site. Hence, it all depends on you, whether you want to display it on your site or not. However, we strongly suggest avoiding and learning how risky it is for your site.