I love web sites. I loved them before I designed them. I like using them, reading them, watching videos on them, almost everything.

I also like carnivals. Cotton candy, fried products of all kinds. But I hate carnies. Always yelling at passer-bys who are just trying to enjoy the carnival. What jerks.

Unfortunately, there are carnies on the web as well. They are website elements that distract from a great web experience. I'm talking about things like scrolling marquees, flashing banners, music and other related items.

Often I see scrolling marquees on "professional" websites. This trend probably started sometime in the late 90's when little animated clip-art images on your website were all the rage. I have to admit, one (and only one) of the sites I designed back in the early days did feature some animated clip-art images. But are they really that useful?

If any elements do enhance your viewer's browsing experience, then they're a good thing. If they don't then you shouldn't use them, and get rid of them if you already have them.

So it's time to bite the bullet.

Scrolling marquees? Ugh. Background music? Yikes. Tons of ads? I'm out of there!

Simply as a viewer of websites, I can tell you that I despise all of those things. Let's face facts. People are looking at your website to (hopefully) read your content. Don't distract them with scrolling marquees, or, for that matter, animated pictures, blinking text or music. If they want to listen to music, they'll already have a CD on.

Instead, keep your website simple and clean. Make information easier to find by leaving off distractions. Although animations and sounds can be appropriate in a few cases (musicians' websites spring to mind), they should generally be avoided.

Tim is the owner and senior web designer at T&S Web Design. His company has developed and maintained website for dozens of small businesses and organizations. Tim also maintains a blog with free website advice for small business owners, GetASiteOnline.com.