In the worst case, the most
annoying thing about captchas is that when they are not implemented properly,
there is data loss. Consider the case when your captcha is next to illegible
and/or when after the captchas is filled incorrectly, all the data on the form
is wiped out and the mad user has to start from scratch. What do you think -
how many of the users will bother to refill the form just to buy something from
you, for example?
Captchas are bad from usability point of view and as already mentioned, if they stop search engine spiders from indexing pages behind the captcha, they are bad for SEO as well. However, the real damage is done when you consider conversions. Captchas simply kill conversions and probably this is their worst disadvantage in terms of SEO.
Lost conversions matter more than spam. Spam might be irritating but it doesn't kill your business the way lack of conversions does. While the results vary from site to site, when captchas are on, this could decrease conversions big time. For instance, if you have a captcha on a newsletter signup form, this could cut your subscribers in half because many users won't even bother to try their luck with the captcha. If you have a captcha on a shopping site, this might spare you some fake orders but the number of frustrated customers will be times higher than this.
Captchas are bad from usability point of view and as already mentioned, if they stop search engine spiders from indexing pages behind the captcha, they are bad for SEO as well. However, the real damage is done when you consider conversions. Captchas simply kill conversions and probably this is their worst disadvantage in terms of SEO.
Lost conversions matter more than spam. Spam might be irritating but it doesn't kill your business the way lack of conversions does. While the results vary from site to site, when captchas are on, this could decrease conversions big time. For instance, if you have a captcha on a newsletter signup form, this could cut your subscribers in half because many users won't even bother to try their luck with the captcha. If you have a captcha on a shopping site, this might spare you some fake orders but the number of frustrated customers will be times higher than this.
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