Most small and mid-sized businesses use Google Analytics – it’s user-friendly, powerful and, best of all, free.

An “out-of-the-box” installation of Google Analytics gives you a lot of great data when it comes to analyzing your organic search traffic. However, there’s a lot more to dig into – and the value can be tremendous.

In my experience most Google Analytics users and installations barely scratch the surface of what the platform can do.

Here are 10 ways to pimp your Google Analytics installation and get the most out of your SEO data:

1) Pull ranking data directly into your GA reports.

André Scholten posted at Joost de Valk’s blog earlier this year explaining how, using Custom Filters, you can pull ranking data directly into your Google Analytics profile.

As of now granularity is limited to the results page – so you can’t tell precisely where you’re ranking (just on which page). However, Andre recently posted again on the topic explaining that Google is testing a new AJAX version of their search engine. I’m not seeing this in my results as of now (I’m in NY, USA), but if you see a hashtag (#) in your results you are likely on the AJAX version – which allows you to set a new custom filter and track ranking down to the position.

Even with only page ranking data it’s helpful to have this information right in Google Analytics (it shows up in the Visitors > User Defined section).

Alternatively you can drop your keywords into a tool like SEOBook’s Rank Checker, which will check your ranking position (and the URL of the ranked page) for multiple keywords.

Note: if you’re going to set up a Custom Filter as above you’ll want to create a new Profile for your website first. Why? If something goes wrong and you end up filtering too much data it’s gone for good.

2) Filter your branded terms

Not that branded or navigational terms are a bad sign – in fact, they tell you a lot about how your off-site marketing is working. And some returning users navigate by dropping your URL into a search box (a bit backwards, but hey, it takes all kinds).

But non-branded terms are often where the real opportunity lies in growing your business through increasing search traffic.

When you’re viewing a keyword report you can filter out branded terms by using the “Filter Keyword” box at the bottom of the report. To filter multiple keywords separate terms with a pipette |, as below:

The “Filter Keyword” box is also great for focusing on a group of keywords based on a root keyword. For example, if the website you’re working with offers accounting services, you can select “Containing” from the drop-down menu and enter “Audit” to include only keywords containing that root word. This is great when you’re separating keywords into branches during your research.

3) Compare date ranges

The best way to growth trends in your search traffic is to compare time periods.

Google Analytics includes a handy feature that allows you to compare date ranges. Just click on the date range at the top right of your report, check the “Compare to Past” box and provide your comparison date ranges :

This is very useful for demonstrating growth over time:

Even down to the individual keyword level:

4) Visualize the “long tail”

It can be tough to explain the benefits of the long tail of search traffic. SEO consultants are used to clients focusing on those few broad keywords they want to rank for. However, any SEO worth her salt knows that the real value of search traffic is found in the long tail – those hundreds and thousands of keyword variations that, while they don’t each bring in a ton of traffic, combined make up the lion’s share of traffic and revenue.

Navigate to Traffic Sources > Keywords and click on the pie chart button to demonstrate visually the percentage of traffic (or revenue) that comes in through the long tail of search. You’ll almost always get a Pac Man shape – the biggest portion made up of keywords other than those top 10.

5) Set conversion points (”Goals”)

Google Analytics allows you to set a page URL as a “Goal” – which, once it’s set up and tracking properly, offers some crucial information. To set this up view the settings for your profile:

You can specify the steps that lead to your goal (great for checkout steps on eCommerce websites) which provides a nifty Funnel Visualization (great for identifying exit points in your checkout process):

Goals are also tracked against other metrics – providing some great actionable data even down to the keyword level:

The ability to track conversion rates per keyword is powerful. You can use this data to determine your most valuable keywords – then re-target your pages for the best terms.

Note: you can only add four Goals per profile (but you can create multiple profiles for your website).

6) Track visitor value

If you’re running an eCommerce site hopefully you’re tracking revenues with Google Analytics eCommerce tracking code. If you aren’t I’d set that up lickity split. The information is crucial if you’re looking to chop the dead wood out of your campaign over time (and shouldn’t you be?):

Even when your site isn’t a pure eCommerce website (such as a lead-generation website) it’s important to calculate the average value of a goal. Obviously you’re not going to end up with accurate-enough data for your accountant, but setting a goal value allows you to measure against advertising costs (such as pay-per-click campaigns).

To set up a goal value navigate to your profile settings and click to either add or edit a goal.

7) Mine keyword data for your PPC campaigns

Both numbers #5 and 6 above provide you with great per-keyword information in the way of identifying your truly valuable search traffic (and where it’s coming from).

This information is also a great place to start when you’re looking to launch a new pay-per-click campaign. Some of the guess work is already removed from the equation. When you can’t improve your organic rankings for keywords that tend to convert well and bring in revenue (or, at least, organic rankings are a long-term goal) you can make a well-educated guess as to how profitable these keywords will be in PPC.

For example, the circled keyword in the screenshot below is likely a good target for PPC traffic. Of course you’ll want to check the traffic potential, costs-per-click, etc, all against your profit margin, but with the conversion data already in play you’re way ahead of the game.

8) Use Advanced Segments to focus on search traffic

Normally when you browse to a section in Google Analytics, such as “Content,” you’re looking at traffic per page overall. The “Top Landing Pages” option, for example, will show you what pages had the most Entrances (or what pages were the first pages visitors landed at) along with Bounce Rate and other data. However, only a portion of this traffic comes from search engines. You have to drill into each page and then to “source keywords” to find out what keywords people used to find those pages.

Advanced Segments allows you to focus in on a specific traffic source or other dimension or metric. So you can, for example, view the Top Landing Pages report only for search-referred traffic.

You can also compare one segment against another. For example, the screenshot below demonstrates comparing Non-paid Search Traffic with Referral Traffic – you can view this comparison data across most reports.

To create your own Advanced Segment for inclusion in your reports look for the “Advanced Segments” link on the lower-left of your profile view:

Once inside the Advanced Segments interface, click the “Create new custom segment” link at the top right:

Then you need to pick what metric(s) and dimension(s) to filter your segment by. The possibilities are vast.

9) Combine ranking and traffic reports, sort accordingly

Here’s one of my favorite ways to find new content and ranking opportunities, step-by-step:

1. In Google Analytics, navigate to Traffic Sources > Search Engines > Google and select “non-paid” to avoid including any AdWords data.
2. Filter your branded keywords (see #2 above)
3. Change the “Show rows” drop-down from “10″ to “100″ – this will display your top 100 traffic-referring non-branded keywords from Google.
4. Choose “Export” at the top of the report screen, and select “CSV for Excel”
5. Pull up the spreadsheet in Excel
6. Remove extra formatting / rows
7. Select all 100 keywords
8. Drop them into SEOBook Rank Checker
9. When Rank Checker completes its report, export that to CSV, open in Excel and copy/paste the Google.com URL and Google.com Position rows into your Google Analytics spreadsheet
10. Sort by ranking (ascending) and then by traffic (descending)

What you end up with is a list of traffic-referring keywords sorted by ranking and then traffic.

The aim: find some keywords you’re only ranking on page two for (or thereabouts) but that still seem to refer traffic – then either A) create new content targeting these keywords or B) re-optimize your already-ranking pages for these keywords.

10) Track non-page-load actions (like RSS subscriptions)

One issue with the way Google Analytics tracks conversions is that it requires a page load event. That means Goals have to involve the visitor landing at a specific URL on your site (such as a “Thank You” page once they’ve completed a form or purchased something).

However, using the pageTracker._trackPageview() function you can make track just about anything as a page load.

For example, I’m tracking the “Subscribe” link at the top of the left column as a Goal. Every time a user clicks to subscribe to our RSS feed it’s recorded – and we can view this data in any of our reports to see where we tend to get the most RSS subscribers.

Here’s what this looks like in our source code:

For more information on using the pageTracker._trackPageview() function I recommend viewing the “Event Tracking and Virtual Pageviews” presentation at Google’s Conversion University.

More Resources

There’s a lot to get into with Google Analytics. Far too much to cover in a single blog post, and far more than I’d ever have the insight and ability to discuss effectively.

If you’re inclined to learn more about Google Analytics and Web Analytics in general I’d recommend the following resources:

• Conversion University – Google’s “IQ Lessons” for Google Analytics, intended for those who wish to test for Google Analytics Individual Qualification. I received my qualification earlier this year (I was #264 to do it). Conversion University offers a lot of great information, and the multimedia presentations make it easy to digest.
• Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik – Avinash is Google’s Analytics Evangelist and a brilliant blogger on the topic. This is a must-read blog for anyone interested in analytics. He frequently uses Google Analytics for his walkthroughs and examples. He also wrote Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and just finished writing his second book, Web Analytics 2.0, which isn’t out yet but is sure to be widely-read. This page on Occam’s Razor lists various Videos and Podcasts on Web Analytics and is worth bookmarking.
• ROI Revolution Blog – ROI Revolution is a North Carolina agency that specializes in Google AdWords, Analytics, Website Optimizer and Urchin – in short, they know Google’s platforms inside and out. Their blog reflects this, offering many useful insights into Google Analytics and related topics.
• Analytics Talk – Justin Cutroni blogs on various analytics issues, often focusing on Google Analytics in particular. A great blog worth reading and subscribing to.

The problems Flash creates for SEO are well-documented. I covered the topic in April.

Less-often discussed are the numerous reasons, other than SEO, that building a website with Flash is the lame sauce.

1) It takes longer (increasing costs)

It takes a developer more time to build a Flash page than an HTML page. Period.

Add fancy animations and interactive elements and development time skyrockets.

When you’re paying a developer, time = money. That doesn’t mean you cut corners to save time and lower your overall costs, but consider whether that intro movie is really adding value to your user’s experience. Chances are it isn’t.

2) Maintenance is more involved and costly

How often do you change something on your website?

Once a month? Once a week?

With a Flash-driven site adding pages or tweaking content isn’t straightforward. The developer often needs to go back to the original website file, navigate to the right section, make the change you’ve requested, re-export the website file and upload it to the server. They might have to tweak the ActionScript code (Flash’s programming language).

Compare this to making a change on a WordPress site, where you yourself can log in and make the change instantaneously – no coding or uploading required.

Depending on what you’re paying your developer for edits the costs here can really add up. If you plan to have your website updated regularly you’ll probably want to stay away from Flash.

3) Flashy doesn’t mean usable

You ever sit down with a salesman who’s on autopilot?

You walk into the room and he’s off and running, tearing through a script he’s practiced hundreds of times. Waving his arms. Pointing his fingers. Smiling widely. Not a care in the world for what you’re saying.

Flash websites are like that salesman.

You land at them, they start spinning around, dancing, lights are going off, music is playing – meanwhile you’re just looking for a phone number.

And forget about bookmarking pages or avoiding the song and dance the next time you return. Most Flash websites live on a single URL (the home page) and run through the same introduction every time the page is refreshed.

Flash websites are usually too busy showing off their tricks to actually serve users’ needs.

4) You lose the ability to track user behavior

If I had to pick the most important advantage of online marketing over traditional offline methods, I’d pick trackability.

The ability to track where your visitors came from and what they did when they arrived is so crucial. It allows you to optimize your online marketing spend, focusing on the traffic that pays the bills and chopping out the dead wood.

Most analytics platforms (including Google Analytics, which we use for UnstuckDigital.com) track behavior based on page views. In other words, every time a page loads, information about the last page, the time so far spent on the website, the referral source (how the user found your site), etc is all recorded (or re-recorded).

The problem? Most Flash websites load on a single URL. The home page. That’s it. So when a visitor hits your site and starts viewing pages, the most you’re going to track is where they came from and how long they spent. That’s it. Not enough information if you’re looking to improve your online marketing ROI in the future.

5) It’s a dog when it comes to load times

Flash is pretty intense when it comes to file sizes.

When you arrive at a Flash-driven website, ever notice the loading bar that takes 1-2 minutes to fill up?

It’s there because the website is loading every single page ahead of time. That’s how most Flash websites work – the entire website file has to be downloaded to your computer before you can see even a single page.

When your users are in a hurry (and online everyone is in a hurry 24 hours a day) your “loading…” sign may as well read, “piss off!” It says, “if you were looking for speedy browsing you came to the wrong place.”

6) Design updates are a nightmare

Outside of the general maintenance tasks (adding pages, fixing spelling, updating “news,” etc) a time will inevitably arrive when you want to update the look and feel of your website.

Guess what? Flash doesn’t make that easy either.

In fact, most Flash websites are better off developed from scratch when a major design update is called for. Can you say $$$$? (Me neither that’s not a word)

Now consider the proper use of HTML and CSS. A thing of beauty. Content and presentation totally separate. Not convinced? Head over to CSS Zen Garden and take a look. Every design variation there uses the same exact source code. Read that again. Same source code. The only changes are the image and CSS files.

7) Disabled users are banished

Ever hear of the concept of web accessibility?

It basically refers to building your website in a way that allows impaired users to have the best experience possible.

Users without strong-enough eyesight often browse using devices called screen readers that, you guessed it, read the words on the screen to them so they can read and navigate your website.

And Flash doesn’t play nice with these assistive devices.

Combine this with the fact that browsers can’t enlarge the type on a Flash website, and you’re talking about a web that is exclusive only to those with good vision.

There have been some efforts to require by law that websites are built accessibly. While that may be a long time coming to fruition the incentive of improving the experience of impaired visitors should be reason enough.

8) Browser navigation doesn’t work

Just a quick point on this.

You know the “back” button we rely on so frequently?

On your single-URL Flash website it’s useless it helps people leave and never come back. Since they’ll always technically be on your home page a quick click “back” sends them to wherever they came from. And my guess is that they won’t be in a hurry to return. Just a hunch.

9) Mobile users are up the creek

The mobile web is here.

The most heavily-used mobile web browser is the iPhone. That doesn’t look like it’s going to change any time soon. Something to the order of 25 million iPhones have been purchased so far. The BlackBerry is still popular as well.

And neither of these mobile devices support Flash.

Even when the iPhone gets Flash support (any day now, Apple!) without a wireless internet connection download speeds are slight at best. Your 2mb Flash website file is going to be overkill for a casual mobile visitor. Think they’re going to wait 15 minutes just to view your home page? Not bloody likely.

10) No semantic markup

Not sure semantic markup matters?

Three letters. S.E.O.

I know I said I wouldn’t mention it, but come on now. SEO is crucial.

Semantic markup is about reinforcing the meaning or topic of a page. Critical for SEO.

Flash files don’t contain semantic markup. Sure, Googlebot can crawl Flash (sort of) – but that doesn’t mean Googlebot can assume semantic relationships between page elements. In other words, it’s going to get a garbled bunch of content and little/no indication of what’s what. Not the best situation when your page is up against a few million others in a relevance contest.

A closing note to Flash developers: I am fully aware that there are (expensive) work-arounds to most of these issues. I started my web development career building in Flash. I love Flash as much as you guys. But let’s be realistic: the vast majority of Flash-driven websites do not offer solutions for the issues in this post. Most of them suck for the above reasons and more.

http://www.unstuckdigital.com/img/posts/flashlogo.jpg

Facebook sees the social network as the solution to search and decision making online.

Example: you need a new pair of running shoes. Instead of using a search engine to start your research/shopping, you turn to your social network – your colleagues, friends and peers – the people you trust. You value their recommendations, and they have no interest in “selling” you on a pair of shoes or particular shoe store.

Google sees the search and decision-marketing process as something to be solved more algorithmically.

Example:  you search for “running shoes,” and Google algorithmically calculates which web pages are most relevant to your “running shoe” keyword search – based on how many links point to those pages and other factors.

Is one of these models going to win the web?

Context is everything.

Not every need is something people are prepared to discuss with their social network.

That friend of yours who was sitting funny the last time you guys went out to dinner? Maybe he’s got a bad case of hemorrhoids. Think he’s ready to talk about it – to ask you what hemorrhoid ointment is the easiest to apply while offering effective relief? Not bloody likely.

Facebook doesn’t deliver on the desire for anonymity.

Things we don’t enjoy discussing in public:

• Deep fears
• Socially-unacceptable desires and behaviors
• Illegal activities
• Issues of low self-esteem
• Embarrassing medical conditions

Do you know of a social network online where the above is discussed with people’s real names and faces plastered all over the conversation?

We are vain and fearful creatures at times. Like it or not. We don’t parade our shortcomings. There are things we just don’t want to talk about. The Hollywood utopia where we all join hands and accept each other with open arms is a nice thought, but it isn’t reality.

There are times when we want to do our research outside the realm of the social network. When it comes to these issues our social network is the last place we’re going to set out to gather advice.

Web development projects can get expensive. There’s a lot at work behind a website. Hamsters on wheels, gnomes keeping the coal fires burning, which create steam, which turn the turbines…you get the idea.

But if you arm yourself with the right information, and take the right approach, you could stand to trim your costs down significantly.

Before you pick a developer and sign on the dotted line (right beneath the small print about your first born and burning in the fires of hell and all that) you’ll want to consider the factors that will contribute to the overall cost of your project and beyond.

There’s more to consider than the up-front price you’ve been quoted. Here are 7 ways to save:

1) Find a developer with chops and plenty of experience

Seriously. If all you care about is that it “looks pretty” and is cheap, you’ll get what you pay for.

Invariably when we take on a new client and set out to make a “quick change” or two I find myself cursing the soul of the original developer. I never had a tremendous sense of pride in my own XHTML/CSS code until I got a load of some of the bloated crap people have the nerve to pass off as code.

Here’s the deal: bloated and otherwise crummy code means it’ll take your next developer two or three times as long as it should to make updates. Not to mention it’s less search engine friendly.

So while you thought you were saving money going with the “cheap guy” you’ll end up paying the next guy for thrice as many hours as you should to swap out an image. Savings = gone.

2) Use Open Source platforms

This site runs on WordPress. We like it, because it’s easy to work with – and it’s open source (read: free). Adding a page or post doesn’t take any coding. After coding all day for clients  it’s nice to use a system that allows us to focus on content.

The Thesis theme makes WordPress better – we paid for that, but $87 is well worth it for the advantages Thesis gives you.

When you’re talking about a framework that is supported by a large community of developers it’s tough to beat the free price point. Combined with the fact that it’s pretty quick/painless (read: cheap) to get up and running on an open source platform there aren’t too many better ways to go – especially when your website doesn’t require advanced or custom functionality.

Research open source platforms that make sense for your project – then let your prospective developers know you’d like to consider this route.

3) Do your homework

You don’t need to become a developer overnight, but learning a thing or two about the ins and outs of quality development will help you make informed decisions.

Some things you should know about your next developer:

• Do they have a strong command of CSS-driven design? CSS makes your site more lightweight (faster loading times) and far easier to update down the line.
• Will they use comments in their code? This also saves time/money on updates and upgrades down the line.
• How many projects like yours have they handled so far? If you’re their first eCommerce project, for example, you might want to look elsewhere.

At some point you’ve got make your decision, but picking up some of the basics beforehand won’t hurt.

4) Get (and stay) involved

Probably the worst thing that can happen to a development project is the client falling out of contact. For whatever reason the website takes a back seat to other business issues. The developer can’t get in touch, and after a while they give up and stop calling.

It’s not your developer’s responsibility to send hired goons to your office to force your hand on those design approvals.

In fact, some web development contracts stipulate that after X number of months of unresponsiveness on your part the project will be closed and your deposit forfeited.

You initiated your project for a reason. Chances are your existing website (if you have one) isn’t quite cutting it for your business. You might not think it’s priority numero uno, but we’ve seen development projects boost our clients’ online sales by 40% almost overnight.

In other words, letting a development project drag is probably costing you business in the mean time.

Your website is truly at the core of your marketing plan – don’t let it fall by the wayside.

5) Don’t get Flash-happy

I’ll probably catch some flack on this one, but so be it.

Flash is expensive. I don’t mean Rolls Royce expensive, but all else being equal it’ll cost you more to build a Flash-driven site than one driven by straight HTML.

Combine the higher development costs with the fact that Flash is not generally SEO-friendly, and you may find yourself in need of a complete site overhaul not long after the first version goes live – at least if you have any interest in getting search engine traffic.

Flash-based websites also almost always take a lot longer to update (read: more expensive). Keep this in mind before you get all googley-eyed at the moving pictures.

6) Get your own hosting

There are plenty of developers out there who offer a “one stop shop” for your website. That means they’ll build it, host it, maintain it, setup your email and provide support on all of the above as needed.

Problem is, that usually comes at a price – a serious mark-up on resold hosting.

The developer’s argument is usually, “sure, we mark the hosting up, but we’re adding our layer of support as part of the package.”

Guess what that means.

It means when you call because your email is down your developer won’t know why, and they’ll have to tell you they’re “checking on it” while they hang up and quickly call the actual hosting company support line. Then, when they get an answer, they’ll call you back and relay the info.

Sound stupid? That’s because it is. Think you’re better off working directly with the hosting company? Now you’re thinking.

Note: some developers run their own powerful in-house servers – in which case the above doesn’t really apply. At all.

7) For that matter, register your own domain too

We’ve heard more than one nightmare story about less-than-honest developers who were “nice enough” to register their clients’ domains for them – then, when the client decided to go elsewhere, the developers refused to give up the domains. The problem: the developers registered the domains in their own name. The clients were stuck.

Breaking up is rough – but that doesn’t mean your ex gets to keep your underpants.

In one case a client was extorted out of $50k to buy their own domain back from the original developer. They were in deep with advertising and couldn’t afford to switch domains.

I’m sure there are legal ramifications of this, and if they took it to court I expect the client would’ve been awarded the domain in the end. But court cases are expensive.

I certainly don’t want to paint with a broad and ugly brush and scare the hell out of anybody. The vast majority of developers are truly out for their clients’ best interests. But why invite headaches down the road? It’s easy enough to register your own domain.

These are just some of the ways you can save costs on your next development project. Fellow developers: feel free to chime in with your thoughts (and disagreements) below.

You’ve got to love roundup posts that feature the best in web design. It’s inspiring to see what great designers can create when they’re firing on all cylinders.

But sometimes the bad stuff is even better.

Sometimes the lamest design teaches us the most – about what not to do when designing a website.

Amazingly, we still see people using the worst elements. Apparently the memo hasn’t reached wide enough circulation. So we wanted to do our part.

Here are 7 of the cheesiest web design elements we know of.

1) Flash intro movies

Sure, nobody minds waiting for 30 seconds while your products and generic/empty promo words flash across the screen. Especially when users are in a hurry – they always appreciate having to watch an intro movie or search for the tiny “skip intro” text you tossed somewhere at the bottom of the page.

Flash is impressive, sure – but it isn’t a novelty. It can get in the way. And just because you think your logo looks gnarly zooming in towards the screen with 3D effects that doesn’t mean your users will appreciate it.

You’ve only got a few seconds to grab a user. Don’t waste them on your cheesy Flash intro movie.

2) Chrome

Chrome on the web is not like chrome on your car – it doesn’t make you look cool. (Actually, I’m not sure chrome on your car makes you look cool either).

Unless your company makes custom chrome motorcyle parts you probably shouldn’t have chrome on your website. No matter how cool and impressive you may think it is, it’s cheesy and looks amateur.

3) The jigsaw puzzle

Commonly found on B2B websites. This motif is usually a lame attempt to symbolize a “solution” in the most generic sense. “Our service is the missing component to your business success!”

There’s nothing compelling about standard imagery like this. Go ahead and use it if you’re OK with playing it “safe” and don’t want to make waves. Break the mold if you’re ready to be remarkable. Your choice.

4) Animated GIFs

Yes, stare into my spinning @ symbol. You are mesmerized.

Thankfully animated GIFs have become few and far between, but we still see them on small business websites and shake our heads.

Yes, you can add animated graphics to your website. But that doesn’t mean you should.

There are few things cheesier than the animated GIF – use it if you’re OK with prospective clients and customers laughing at you instead of engaging with your content.

5) The dude who lives in your website

I was in the market for a new bed a few months back. Not knowing better, I walked into a local Sleepy’s (the national bed and mattress chain) hoping to browse their inventory.

Not half a second after I walked through the door I was bombarded by an obviously-rehearsed sales pitch.

“Welcome to Sleepy’s, home of the mattress professionals!” In my face. Long story short: I didn’t buy a bed from that guy.

You might think it’s cool that Flash technology can have you walking right out onto your website. But you don’t belong there. Your users can read, and they certainly don’t want to watch you walk out of the white space every time they visit your home page.

“Hi there. I know you were trying to quickly visit our website and get a sense of what we’re all about at your own pace, but I’ve been lonely hanging out in the invisible margin of this page so I thought I’d walk RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU AND SAY HELLO.”

6) Lens flares

This is a sure sign of a Photoshop n00b.

May God have mercy on your web designer’s soul if she’s using this effect. Run screaming. Change your phone number. And the locks.

We still come across this one from time to time. It’s a bit like the old “Back Off!” spare tire cover featuring the cartoon Tazmanian Devil – it reminds us of the old days in a way that makes us giggle (but we’re not laughing with you).

7) The handshake

Three cheers for the most generic, “safe” business image theme ever created and grotesquely overused across the entire web. Almost as bad as [generic picture of pretty customer service girl wearing a headset].

Yes, in business people often do shake hands. It’s pretty much the standard sign of a professional greeting/agreement in Western culture.

And it’s probably the lamest category of stock photo you can add to your website. Nobody even notices these anymore. They’re bland and empty – the rice cakes of the design world.

If you or your designer have used or requested any of the above recently I am so sorry – not for this post, but sorry that your notion of web design is so shamefully outdated.

What are your most hated (or loved) cheesy web design elements?