Most people who create a website will make obvious mistakes. When you have a business associated with your website, these mistakes are more than an inconvenience, they can be costly. Avoiding the most common mistakes from the beginning will set you on the path to success.
Not Investing In Your Web Design
It's easy to understand why some people stick with free or low-cost options when creating a website. They might want to start a blog or other small business venture and simply do not have the funds, or they might have an established brick-and-mortar business and simply want to have an online presence. Unfortunately, going the least-expensive route can easily create problems. Unless you have a background in web design, the free templates available from your content management system will never look like the sample. Other services, such as a drag-and-drop interface, may be a burden on your website resources and have the platform likely has limited functionality overall. At minimum, you may need to invest in a premium website template so you can achieve the aesthetic you want without draining bandwidth and storage space. Of course, it is ideal to have your website professionally designed, even if you must start with a few pages and have your website expanded later.
Hurting Your Visitor's Eyes
One of the most common mistakes is having fonts or colors that are harsh, annoying, or difficult to read. When you are starting to design your website, forget what you want for your website. Start by doing fundamental research on fonts and colors that are generally acceptable for website design. You may also want to look at other successful websites and see what they are doing. For your typography, it is best to choose fonts that may seem boring, but are easy to read and are commonly found on different websites.
Avoid fonts that must be downloaded to your browser. Although they might expand your options, you must remember that everyone is not using the same browser, so downloaded fonts may not show up at all or become distorted for other users. For colors, warmer colors are often avoided because they can be harsh, even if you turn down the brightness of your screen. Nothing is wrong with standard black text on a lighter colored background. Be mindful of stark-white backgrounds, which can appear just as harsh as yellow.
Not Having An Intuitive Layout
Your layout should make it easy for visitors to navigate all areas of your website. An intuitive design usually incorporates elements that visitors will expect when they visit. For example, most visitors are expecting the main header to be across the top of the page, not on the right or left of the screen. Your header should also be clearly labeled. For example, most websites have a contact page, which is often a separate menu option, or it might be a drop-down option under the "About" page. Your contact page or contact information should not be hiding in the bottom footer and/or have an email address linked that is nearly the same color as the background.
Avoiding obvious mistakes in your website design will make it easier to create a user-friendly experience and help you reach your business goals.
After struggling for years to become more visible online, a friend of mine mentioned online marketing. We started working with them to get things taken care of, and after redoing our website, boosting our online visibility, and doing what we could to add more meaningful content, we were well on our way to improving business dramatically. I wanted to start a new website that centered around online marketing, so that other people could see just how important it is for online companies. Check out these posts for awesome tips on improving traffic online. Check out these helpful posts for great information.