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A well business website design that is built and marketed professionally is sure to bring in many leads and sales. If done badly, your website may receive little to zero traffic and nobody will see it. Below we discuss the biggest design mistakes you must avoid when having your website built.
1. Use relevent title tags. When a website is built, you should use meta title tags to describe what is on each website page. Whatever you have in the title tags also appears in the blue bar at the top of the window. Be sure to include some of the your target keywords in the title tag to help people when they are searching online.
2. Don't fill your webpages with ads. Doing this will will both alienate and distract your visitors - and they may even leave your website. Make sure you try and keep webpage advertisments and banners that flash to a minimum. This then leaves your customers focused on the important parts of the page.
3. Keep website navigation simple. Most websites have links on the left or top of the page to get around the website. Keep it simple and follow the same navigation that your visitors are already used to, and don't make it difficult for them to get around. Remember that your visitor is used to getting around a website in a certain way.
4. Dead links on webpages. When a visitor clicks on a "dead link", they get an error message and get very frustrated. Make sure all the links on your website work correctly - and that they point to the right place. Remember that having dead links on your pages can also get you penalised in the earch engines.
5. Using macromedia flash on the page. While Flash has a place for gaming sites and concepts that cannot be done easily with animated GIF's, you should also consider using java or javascript which is more widely supported. In general, Flash take too long and most people have already left the site as they do not have the patience to wait.
6. Lack of a Search Box on your website. For a website with many pages, it is extremely important to allow users to search the site without having to find pages by going through every link.
7. Using PDF file links on the website. Using PDF files can good in the case of putting your glossy company brochure online, but it is better to ideally put the pages in HTML web format. More people will see the information then, as if site visitors don't have Adobe Reader installed, they will have to install it. In our experience, people usually click away instead of trying to download it. Keep the use of PDF's to a minimum.
8. Visited web links don't change colour. Make sure links already clicked by your visitor on the website change colour and show as visited. People surfing the web get used to a link changing colour once they have already clicked it so keep it familiar to them.
9. Messy text formatting. Break the website text up into nicely formatted paragraphs, seperated and spiced up with the occasional picture. Too much text blocked together makes visitors "switch off" and close a website if they see too much. Keep your site consistent and clear . Consider using bulleted lists, headings, highlighted words, quotes, and subtitles.
10. Use a good-sized font. Using small fonts can make pages difficult to read. In many cases these days, blind people are also now reading web pages with screen readers, but also those with poor vision. Make sure your website is W3C compliant so that the latest screen reading technology can 'read' them.
1. Use relevent title tags. When a website is built, you should use meta title tags to describe what is on each website page. Whatever you have in the title tags also appears in the blue bar at the top of the window. Be sure to include some of the your target keywords in the title tag to help people when they are searching online.
2. Don't fill your webpages with ads. Doing this will will both alienate and distract your visitors - and they may even leave your website. Make sure you try and keep webpage advertisments and banners that flash to a minimum. This then leaves your customers focused on the important parts of the page.
3. Keep website navigation simple. Most websites have links on the left or top of the page to get around the website. Keep it simple and follow the same navigation that your visitors are already used to, and don't make it difficult for them to get around. Remember that your visitor is used to getting around a website in a certain way.
4. Dead links on webpages. When a visitor clicks on a "dead link", they get an error message and get very frustrated. Make sure all the links on your website work correctly - and that they point to the right place. Remember that having dead links on your pages can also get you penalised in the earch engines.
5. Using macromedia flash on the page. While Flash has a place for gaming sites and concepts that cannot be done easily with animated GIF's, you should also consider using java or javascript which is more widely supported. In general, Flash take too long and most people have already left the site as they do not have the patience to wait.
6. Lack of a Search Box on your website. For a website with many pages, it is extremely important to allow users to search the site without having to find pages by going through every link.
7. Using PDF file links on the website. Using PDF files can good in the case of putting your glossy company brochure online, but it is better to ideally put the pages in HTML web format. More people will see the information then, as if site visitors don't have Adobe Reader installed, they will have to install it. In our experience, people usually click away instead of trying to download it. Keep the use of PDF's to a minimum.
8. Visited web links don't change colour. Make sure links already clicked by your visitor on the website change colour and show as visited. People surfing the web get used to a link changing colour once they have already clicked it so keep it familiar to them.
9. Messy text formatting. Break the website text up into nicely formatted paragraphs, seperated and spiced up with the occasional picture. Too much text blocked together makes visitors "switch off" and close a website if they see too much. Keep your site consistent and clear . Consider using bulleted lists, headings, highlighted words, quotes, and subtitles.
10. Use a good-sized font. Using small fonts can make pages difficult to read. In many cases these days, blind people are also now reading web pages with screen readers, but also those with poor vision. Make sure your website is W3C compliant so that the latest screen reading technology can 'read' them.
About the Author:
To find out more about Business Website Design, visit Tom Andrews's site. A great business web design really can transform your business online.
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