Anyone can be a website designer nowadays, thanks to site builders that offer a variety of templates. You just have to drag and drop your content and images into a template and you’ve got a working website – haven’t you?
Unless you’ve got experience of building a website, then it’s always best to seek professional help. You can source great web design in Richmond or Rotherham, so there’s no excuse for presenting visitors with a shoddy site that fails to give them the information that they need. But if you’re determined to go it alone, here are some things to avoid at all costs.
Poor Navigation
Visitors aren’t looking for interesting navigation tools or exciting new menus. A visitor to your site wants to find the information he’s after as quickly as possible, so make it easy by conforming to navigation standards as seen on the majority of websites. Your visitors will thank you for it.
Small Text
Using a small font size allows you to squeeze more information on to a webpage, but if your visitors struggle to read it, then you might as well not have bothered. Fonts should be clear – probably larger than you might expect – and in colours that won’t clash or draw attention away from your core message. This is where a skilled graphic designer is particularly useful.
Busy Backgrounds
Creating a website background is an art in itself. It should complement your site without making itself too noticeable, so if it’s the main thing you see on your website, it’s definitely time for a re-think.
Incorrect Image Sizes
This is where the majority of amateur web designers come unstuck. Images need to be in the correct format and sized correctly in order to load quickly and display to maximum advantage. This could make or break your site, so seek professional advice at an early stage.
Lose the Bells and Whistles
Amateur web designers just love flashing lights, visitor counters and background music, yet all of these are guaranteed to turn visitors away from your site in droves. If you want your website to be taken seriously, then you need to tone it down, losing any extraneous details, no matter how exciting you find them. The more clean and pared back your site, the more visitors will thank you for it.
Horizontal Scrolling
If your content doesn’t display accurately on screen, you need to change aspects of your coding. Visitors aren’t prepared to spend their time scrolling from side to side to read what you have to say. They are far more likely to click away to your competitors’ sites.
Bad Grammar and/or Spelling
Your website should be beyond reproach when it comes to spelling and grammar. If you can’t get the spelling right on your company website, it doesn’t reflect well on your business ethos, so check and double-check to make sure that your content is word perfect.
Any of the above mistakes could end up costing you dearly in lost business, so check that your website is conveying the appropriate messages to your prospective customers.
