Do you have ‘dirty magnets’ on your website?

The dirty magnet jumps up and down yelling: “I can help! Click here! Click here!” It promises everything and delivers very little. It undermines the integrity of the navigation system.

Great links immediately tell you where they will bring you. But even more important they tell you where they won’t bring you. A great link instantly says what it is and what it’s not. If you see a link called “Pricing” then you know that it is not “Troubleshooting.”

If you see a link called “Resources,” what does that mean? What is it? What is it not? What does “Knowledge Base” mean? What are “Tools”? And what are they NOT? If you see links called “Videos” or “Blogs” how do you know what you will get?

The classic dirty magnet is the FAQ. How does a customer know their question is frequently asked or not? How do they know what they’ll get if they click on FAQ? I once came across a website that had these two links: “Frequently Asked Questions” and “Most Frequently Asked Questions.”