Your Business website design shoudl bring in profits and leads if designed and marketed professionally. A poorly designed and marketed site will have the opposite effect and bring you little to zero website traffic and visitors. Below we discuss the biggest design mistakes you should avoid.
1. Use title tags that are relevent. The use of meta title tags should include your target keywords and also information about what the webpage is about. Remember that your title tags also appear in the blue bar at the top of the window and it what people see if they add the page to their “favourites”.
2. Filling your webpages with Ads. Don’t squeeze lots of ads and banners on your pages. Doing this will not only distract potential buyers, but also make them click the back button quickly and leave your site asap. If you do use ads, keep them to a minimum.
3. Don’t use a confusing website navgiation on your site. Websites usually have navigation links on the left or top of the page as simple text links. Don’t make it difficult for your website visitors to get around the website with fly-out menus and things that are different other websites; remember, you visitor is used to getting around a website in a certain way - don’t make it difficult for them.
4. Dead page links. Web page links that do not work are very frustrating. Check all your links work and that they point to the right place. Another good reason is that having dead page links can penalise you in the earch engines as well.
5. Using Flash on your website. Flash does have a place on computer gaming sites, but consider using animated GIF’s instead. Only use Flash when there is no other option, as visitors will have to have flash already installed in their browser to be able to view flash elements. The worst thing you could do is to design your website navigation in flash, which is surprisingly common - and stops your visitors from being able to get around the website. Also consider using javascript or java as an alternative to make your site more “interactive”.
6. Missing a Search Box on your website. Large websites can have many pages and it is important to allow users to search the site easily. Consider adding a search box.
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 text links do not change colour. Most web surfers are used to a link they have already clicked on changing colour once they have visited it. Keep link colours familiar to visitors and make sure they change colour once they have already clicked them. Put your reader’s interest in mind when designing your website.
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. Don’t use small fonts. Using fonts that are easy to read can make reading your website much easier for visitors. Remember that not all site visitors might have good vision. Also You should also consider making your site W3C compliant so that blind people can also read the text with a “screen reader”. Don’t use images that contain text, as screen-reading software will not be able to “read” them.
To find out more about Business Website Design, visit Tom Andrews’s site. A great business web design really can transform your business online.