Ten Design Mistakes to Avoid

Avoid these mistakes and your site will be steps ahead of your competition.

1. Not planning your site
Before you even have a website, you must have an idea, a focus. Why do you want a website? What are your plans and goals for the site? Sit down and draw out a map of possible pages and ideas for your site. Include your site's purpose --whether it is to sell more product or make the public more aware of your issue -- whatever it may be. Build your site from it's strong foundation (your goals) and you'll have a better, more solid site.

2. Failing to put contact information in a plainly seen location.
This could be disastrous. If a customer doesn't see this information, they can't contact you. You should consider a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even better, make a link to your email address in your header or footer, somewhere that will show up on every page. Even if no one ever contacts you this way, just the presence of this information comforts edgy customers.

3. Broken Links
Do you enjoy clicking on a search result only to get a Page Not Found Error? No one likes them. Check your site statistics at least once a month (if not more) to make sure you don't have bad or broken links.

4. Outdated Information
A sure turn-off to a potential customer is the presence of old information. If it's July and your website is announcing the 'new' products available in February, your site just lost major credibility. Make sure your information is up-to-date. Consider adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.

5. Too Many Font Styles and Colors
This is a huge pet-peeve of my company. I've had people ask me to review their website and the first thing I notice is 4 different fonts. It looks bad, unorganized and unappealing. Different colors may attract the eye for a short time, but constant flashing or otherwise bright fonts (and graphics!) become annoying. Beware, this is a sure-fire way to scare people away from your site!

6. Orphan Pages
Every website has a heirarchy, a sort of tree that branches out from the Home Page. While most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page further down interests someone, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay attention. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can't find out how to contact you, or how to get back to your Home Page. That's an orphan page. Every page on your site should, at a minimum, have a link back to your Home page. I would suggest adding a contact link at minimum.

7. Frames
Frames at one time were the talk of the industry. They were the original Content Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are designing a site, don't use frames. Newer technologies such as server-side includes are much more common and accepted. Your pages look fresher and those silly bars don't get in the way.

8. Disabling the BACK button and excessive Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you suddenly get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is because you DIDN'T want any more information from that site. Don't break the BACK button. There are other ways to get your user's attention.

9. Slow loading pages
While personal and hobby sites may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer won't wait long for information from your site - there are too many others with the same thing! Make sure your pages load quickly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site redesign.

10. Using Leading-Edge Technology
While the Internet is all about new and fancy stuff, don't be the first to do it. While it may 'look cool' to you, you ultimately need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy cartoons make your customer more apt to buy from you? Probably not. How many of your customers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to upgrade their browser to contact you? Not good. Wait until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.

About the Author

Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in ArnoldMissouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesn't have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.

---

Designing Professional Web Pages

If your Web site doesn't project a professional and polished... Read More

You Had Me At the Search Engine

You've likely heard of the movie, Jerry Maguire, with its... Read More

Website Creativity: Why It Matters Now More than Ever

If one more business owner tells me their website sucks... Read More

11 Steps to Sticky Web Site!

An attractive and user-friendly Web site is crucial to attracting... Read More

Web Design: How To Get Your Visitors To Stay

Remember the famous line from the movie Field of Dreams,... Read More

Do-It-Yourself or Hire a Professional Designer

Remember your vision for your company and the brand or... Read More

Building Your Website to Save You Money

Does your website make you any money? Does it SAVE... Read More

Transforming A Site From Good To Excellent

One of the challenges of moving a web site up... Read More

Got Web Traffic but Still Low Sales? Ten Ways to Selling Success - Part 1

Have you put a lot of effort, time, and money... Read More

404 Error - The Page Cannot be Found

A "404 Error" happens when the web server you are... Read More

The Testimonial Trick

One of the most popular methods of traffic generation is... Read More

Database Driven Website

The solution lies in creating a 'Database driven website', through... Read More

Make Your Web Site User-Friendly

You can create a website that attracts customers, not repels... Read More

To Flash, or Not to Flash

When considering whether or not to incorporate Flash into your... Read More

Why is a Logo so Important to Your Business?

Well, a logo for your business. Why is it important?... Read More

Building Your First Web Site?

Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some... Read More

3 Simple Ways To Dramatically Improve Your Website

Before you start worrying about marketing your website on the... Read More

Why Long Web Pages are Better than Short Ones

Many Internet sites that try to sell you something have... Read More

Building An Effective Furniture Sales Web Site

Web sites that feature products ? especially furniture or other... Read More

Stop Sabotaging Your Sales

Do your web pages, sales letters or personal presentations include... Read More

Website Design: Secrets Of Professional Website Designers Revealed

What colors do you have at your website?Can they make... Read More

Building Web Sites Using Web Templates

Gone are the days when you had to rely on... Read More

How to Use Sliced Graphics to Layout Your Web Site

The problem with designing your site as a graphic, is... Read More

Creating Personal Web Sites (Part 2)

This is the second part of a two-part article about... Read More

Differences between XP Icons and MAC Icons

The icons in an application are the soul of the... Read More

The Psychology of Color in Web Design

Persons engaged in website design, here's a scoop for you!... Read More

Hacked Off with CSS?

For those not familiar with CSS Hacks, they are ways... Read More

5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website

When designing your website, remember to avoid useless and confusing... Read More

If Content is King who is Queen?

It's been said again and again, when it comes to... Read More

Meta Tags ? An Introduction

A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far... Read More

Graphic Design Using Color

Color is everywhere and conveys a message even if we... Read More

Let Your Website Make You $$$ While You Sleep! and All That Other B.S.!

Well, you've got your product, started your home business, and... Read More

Why Content is King of Website Design

If there's one thing that most web site developers can... Read More