Current Fact and Figures to Consider Regarding Rotating Carousels

Harmless in theory yet futile in practice, rotating carousels are rapidly growing stale. Dubbed image sliders, rotating offers, and sliding carousels, these content-heavy revolving teasers are placed at the focal point of a website�s homepage. Strategically placing rotating carousels at the forefront has long led businesses to believe that they captivate audiences while educating them in the process. However, their inability to accomplish their sole function is why rotating carousels have been rendered useless.

Determining whether or not rotating carousels are ineffectual is ultimately subjective, yet there are number of statistics and professional hypotheses that advocate this notion.

Studies reveal that �only 1% of site visitors click on a homepage carousel.� Even more unsettling, only 20% of that 1% proceed past the first image. This puny conversion rate only further illustrates carousels� redundancy.

A study conducted by the University of Notre Dame is in perfect keeping with the aforementioned statistic In fact, because users seldom progress past the first image, it creates a �lopsided view� of the service.

What�s more, Jakob Nielsen, a Danish web usability consultant, likened rotating carousels to the moving images inherent to advertisements. Statistics show that humans are predisposed to ignoring advertisements. As such, we subconsciously disregard anything that bears a striking resemblance to ads.

Carousels also have a tendency to reduce site speed. This rings especially true for those who incorporate full-screen slider images into their carousels. Any web owner worth their salt is well aware that subpar loading times can be a kiss of death. In addition to tampering with loading speeds, carousels can sully the design layout as well. This setback is especially evident on mobile devices.

The real clincher is the detrimental impact carousels can have on SEO rankings. Google�s crawlers don�t rank text in images, and the H1 tags found in carousels do not complement SEO efforts.

While there are certainly those in favor of carousels, in large part due to the information they display, there are a number of data-driven outlets that can be utilized instead. Hero layouts, targeted homepages, and videos are among the few.