NOT THINKING ABOUT THE VISITORS NEEDS – Too many web designers are too concerned about how they want their website to look and not what the visitors will appreciate. You need to provide the information that the visitor’s expect, otherwise you will loose them. It is therefore important to research your visitor’s needs and expectations before your Web Design begins.

POOR NAVIGATION – Navigation should be consistent throughout, and is an important part of the visitor experience. The most important pages should be one click away at all times, while ideally no page should be more than three clicks away from any other. Having a navigation bar at the top or side of the website that is the same across all pages is recommended.

LARGE IMAGES – Large images can take a long time to load. Not only that, but they result in the whole webpage loading slowly. This frustrates visitors as they want the page to appear as quickly as possible and get on with it. This also applies to video and other large media files.

NOT HAVING EASY TO READ TEXT – This sounds simple but is something many get wrong; your text needs to be easy to read. It is no good having lots of informal text if your visitors struggle to read it. You need the right contrast in colour between the text and the background. If you wish to have a background image it is important to consider this carefully. Detailed images behind text can cause difficulties for the reader.

TOO MUCH OR TOO LITTLE TEXT – Either too much or too little text can work against you. If you have too much it can be complex reading, especially if you are going into much more detail than necessary. Visitors may just give up and leave. More of a common mistake is not having enough text. The problem here is two fold. Firstly, it doesn’t give your visitors (and potential customers) enough information on your products or service, and secondly it is bad for SEO purposes.

NOT THINKING ABOUT THE TEXT CONTENT – Too many worry only about the design of a website and making it look good. Depending on the nature of the site, the text can be just as important. It gives visitors the information they are seeking and this is often the real purpose of the site. It is amazing how many websites are grammatically poor.

OVERUSING FLASH – A fancy flash graphic is really what people are visiting your site for. Flash may look good, but seeing it as they reach your site is not going to make visitors stay; it is more likely that they will be turned away. If visitors have to wait for a flash graphic to finish they may leave the site, especially if on a splash page. Splash pages are rarely useful to visitors, and often just the designer looking to show off. This is not what the website is for.

UNDER THINKING OR OVER THINKING SEO – You do not want to design the website purely for SEO purposes. Doing this means it won’t be built for the benefit of your visitors, but for the benefits of the search engines. Text needs to make sense to the visitor not just be written for SEO. It doesn’t matter how high you appear in the search engines, if your visitors never stay on the site and it never gets you any business. However, it doesn’t matter how impressive or useful the site is if people can’t find it, so SEO does need to be considered.

TOO MANY ADVERTS – You may want adverts to generate some extra income, but remember this isn’t the main purpose of the site. For business sites it would be recommended that there are no adverts, but if you do choose to have them make sure they do not take over. If they feel the website has been taken over by adverts, visitors will look to your competitors instead. They will be visiting the site looking for your products, services or information, not to be taken elsewhere via adverts.

LACK OF CONSITANCY – Some web designers do not think about consistency and design each page with an individual feel. Although the content of your site should differ throughout, the look and design should be consistent all the way through.

Andrew Marshall ©