Don't Make These Mistakes When Building Your Website

byjaneybird

230 followers

Updated 8 years ago

When we build our first website, it is natural for all of us to get excited about it and we should be! However, one of the biggest mistakes I see people make, is that they do not build the site with the visitor or end user in mind.

While building your website, ask yourself, what do I want people to get out of my site when they come here?

When doing a search on the internet, visitors are looking for one of three things:

2) They want/need to make a purchase
3) They want/need entertainment

Not too many viewers will go to your website because they want to see pretty graphics nor do they care about the photos of your new car or your last family vacation. (Setting up an About page is ok and even encouraged, just don't go overboard on personal information.)

So what is the answer to a well designed website that keeps your customers coming and coming back for more?

Simplify, simplify, simplify.

Keep it clean, clear and consistent. Make it very clear what your product is or what your website is all about. A visitor should be able to come to your site and know what it is about within the first 3-5 seconds of landing on your page.

Read through the following examples of designer mistakes, and try to avoid them.

Hard To Read Pages
Dark page backgrounds or patterned backgrounds make a page hard to read. A lighter background with darker text is always the best bet. While you may think that background image on your page is really cool, does it make it hard to read? If so, trash it.

Make sure you optimize your graphics on your page before using them, specify in your code the correct viewing size so your browser doesn't have to guess. Keep graphics to a minimum, maybe 2 or three on a page. This will help with load time on your site.

Page Size
Try not to use large amounts of text all on one page. Most people will scan through a web page, so try to break up the text. It not only looks better, it makes it easier to know where you are on the page. Use the different size headings and also links to break things up if necessary. Search engines also give different weight to page titles and headings

Spelling, Spelling, Spelling
All computers have some sort of spell checker on them.....learn how to use it.

Navigation, Don't Make It Difficult or Confusing
Make sure your navigation is clearly visible on all pages, and keep it consistent. Don't make the viewer hunt for the button or link to go to the next page they want to view. Be descriptive on the navigation of where you are taking them. Keep it simple.

Your online visitors will thank you. Good Luck!