web design mistakes to avoid

What ever you do DONT make these mistakes when working on your website. Its mistakes like this that can have dire consequences not only for your website but for your business as well. Far too many companies become complacent with their approach and understanding of the web design process leading to issues for their online marketing, sales and inquiries down the track.

1. Probably the biggest mistake a business owner can make is to look for the cheapest web design company to design their website. The process they go through to find these designers is via a search on Google, which will show may design studios offering cheap template design solutions for next to nothing. There are just so many problems associated with this, but the most important one to take out of this point is that you are getting a site for your business that looks the same as all other sites. There is absolutely no thought put into the design process. All you get is a site that has been put together in 1 day that has nothing to do with your business. If you are happy with this solution then thats OK, but if you want your website to work for your business then you cannot go down this path. A cheap web solution will only mean that you end up ditching the site in a couple of months when you see how useless it is and how ineffective it is in driving new business leads. Economic times are tough and hard and its good business practice to save a few dollars where you can, but being tight fisted when it comes to your online marketing is a huge mistake. I have seen this happen time and time again where business owners are shell shocked to see their new website and there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. After all they paid next to nothing for it and when they try to make any amends or adjustments they are met with answers like 'sorry we cannot make any changes within this budget'; 'any more changes will be charged at our normal rates'; 'we only offer a template design and we are unable to make any design amends'. It is these kind of responses that will lead to you business failing online as a result of having a sub standard, amateurish website. The general public are now far to internet savvy to be seduced into buying your product or service if they dont like the look of the website. Spending a bit more time on this phase of your business will reap rewards for you down the track.
2. Not getting a professional copywriter to put the content together for your website is not a great idea. Most people have not been to a web writing course or do not have a degree in English so the thought of actually having to write content for a website is terrifying. But, to save a bit of money, most business owners will have a go at it and this is where the problems begin. For instance, an you write content that grabs the attention of the internet user within seconds of landing on the home page; clearly explains your offering. People come to a website looking for answers and if you do not tell them exactly what you do very quickly then they will leave your site and look else where, and this means your competition will get the inquiry; seduces them with well worded content that makes them want to buy; is very search engine friendly. Most people do not know what SEO is and therefore are unable to write web content that caters for these search engines. Not abiding by SEO rules means that it will be highly unlikely for customers to find you online. This is a monumental mistake and can lead to big issues later on when you want to get your site ranked; get to the point quickly with out waffling or sending out mixed messages; having long pages that users need to scroll down. Guess what , they wont. They will just get bored and leave the page unless this information is super interesting or vital to some piece of research they are working on. Information is best if it is contained within 1 page and above the fold. Anything below will just be ignored. A copy writer will be able to take all these variables into account and produce web content that will work extremely well for your business. To offset the copy writing cost you may like to use this content later on other marketing and sales materials such as brochures, flyers and company profile documents.
3. Dealing with companies online and not going to meet them for a face to face meeting is going to cause problems if you are conducting this in the virtual world. Dealing in the virtual world means that the web designer will most likely not be able to get the correct brief needed to have a thorough understanding of your business. This is just such an important step in the design process and get lead to a he said/she said scenario if things go pear shaped.
4. One big web mistake is the over use of photo library images. Companies that use royalty free images are not fully utilising the full potential of what a website can offer. Real, true to life images of the business and employees has much more impact and tells people so much more about you than random images that mean absolutely nothing and have no relevance or substance to your business. You dont even have to go to the expense of using a professional photographer. Just get as many images as you can from your digital camera and let the web design agency do the rest. Its not hard and should really be and important part of your website and all marketing material.
5. Keep the web interface simple is an important step in making the user experience as enjoyable as possible. Over complicating the home page with: too many call to action boxes, flashing images, lengthy complicated copy, irrelevant images, difficult to find contact areas, over complicated navigation processes – will all lead to the users exiting the site. Remember the KISS principle and stick to it. The easier and simpler the site is the better it will be in the long run.
6. Thinking your website needs to have all the colours of the rainbow is another common mistake. Its not necessary to hit the users with the a full colour pallet. Limit the colours to your corporate colours and remember that people do not need to see more than 2 or 3 colours per page. It confuses them and will dilute the message you are trying to convey. This is especially true if you have an information based website where the user needs to find what they are looking for with a minimum of fuss and noise, especially music or odd sounds.
7. Directing people away from your site. A huge no no. getting people to leave your site is no what its about. You need to keep them within your site. Best way to overcome this is to take snippets of information and paste them within a page of your site. External links are also bad for SEO as you bleed page rank externally. If you must have external links put then all on 1 page and title it links page or resources page.
8. Having adverts or badges on your site. This just cheapens everything and you look like a directory. If you must have ads put them discreetly away from the main content so people dont get annoyed. An advertising banner down the bottom of the page is probably the best position. Cluttering the home page with random ads is a sure way to loose customers and annoy readers. This is especially true is the ads are animated and take the attention of the reader away from what is really important and that is your website.
9. Dont make users sign up and register to get into the site. Capturing their information for marketing purposes later on is all well and good but dont make it a necessity for them to get into the site. Its annoying and most people do not want to divulge information unless they get something in return. Be sure to note that if they do sign up then you dont hit them with spammy emails without firstly getting their consent. People are getting bombarded with unwanted emails daily and the worst thing you can do for your name or brand is to further compound this. Just because you may think its a great idea, does not mean your future clients will.
10. Engaging a web design company that has no clue about search engine optimisation or SEO. Be sure to check out their own ranking for terms like graphic or web design to see how they rank their own site.

Author: Steven Waldberg

Steven is a director of Hopping Mad Designs and loves five things in life: web design, graphic design, SEO, online marketing....and Yoga.
He has been at the forefront of designing websites and creating brands for all types of businesses throughout Australia as well as working alongside many companies on their search engine optimisation and social media strategies. Steven is an web industry veteran, alternative thinker and a seasoned blogger with over 16 years at the helm of Hopping Mad Designs.

Tags: web design