A website is a very powerful tool to promote your business online. However, when you are quite new to web development, you are more prone to make errors along the way. To help you avoid them, find out below the biggest mistakes people make when building a website.
- Improper domain name – You should pay a special attention to your domain name. Choose a catchy, easy to remember domain name related to your business. As most people are likely to forget long names, it’s better to pick shorter domain names. It’s also advisable to perform a key word research and try to include top key words into your URL.
- Inferior design poor functionality – Having a website is useless if no one can access it with much ease. Superb design is predominantly based on consistency. Menus must appear in the same location on every page. Links must have the same color and typeface. There must also be a visible logo at all times. It’s also important to define your target audience and incorporate their preferences.
- Very complex or too slow – While flash animation is fascinating, it may be too complicated for some visitors. Although visual appeal matters, it must complement with functionality and ease of use for the average user. Plus, a more elaborate design usually takes longer to load on many computers.
- Static site – Format, design, and content are all time-sensitive. As technology is dynamically changing, there will constantly be new tools available to make websites look and perform better. Don’t build a website and forget about it. Update content from time to time as you see fit. And maximize new applications to make the site look and work better.
- 404 error messages and broken links – Verify if all links on your site work; find faulty or inappropriately labeled links, as you’ll most likely lose visitors quickly if they see a “404 file not found” error message. If you have a big website, you may want to add a form so users can report a broken link. Doing so also lets users know you are in control of any issues they may encounter.
- No contact information – Users and potential clients need to be able to reach you easily for any questions, concerns, or suggestions. Having a “Contact Us” page is similar to having a business card, which should be accessible from any page of your site. Moreover, make sure to actually attend to these messages either personally or via an auto-responder.
- Disregarding statistics – Visitor traffic data and reports are available for your site, which may be obtained from your web hosting provider or offered by a third-party. By constantly tracking your statistics, you can aptly modify your marketing and design towards those frequent visitors, or determine weakness based on which target market you are not attracting.
- Free or too inexpensive hosting – No matter how enticing these services are, remember that the success of your website largely depends on the stability of your chosen web service company. An efficient host provider should have virtually zero downtime, and offer services like technical support, etc. You may want to read testimonials about the web host company you’re eyeing on or perhaps take advantage of their free trials (if there’s any) before making your final decision.
- Neglecting spiders – Search engines utilize spiders to find your website. Ensure that your pages are carefully designed to rank high on search engine results; this process is called Search Engine Optimization or simply SEO. Choose only ethical SEO techniques so as not to be banned by search engines.
- Not hiring an expert – Creating a website is not for everyone. Avoid do-it-yourself methods and get a professional to build your website, especially if you’re a beginner. Though it may be rather tempting to let your friend’s computer savvy son set up your website, you should think twice of such a decision. There are reasonably-priced web designers and companies who offer customized services to give your website a professional look and feel it deserves.
These are the top 10 biggest mistakes people make when building a website. Do veer away from these at all cost to guarantee a well-designed website you and your audience will love.
