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Is Your Website Losing You Money?
Common Website Errors You Absolutely Must Avoid
What classifies an effective website? The majority of
people ( especially web designers ) will have their own views on this topic, but ultimately
it boils down to three main factors.
Content : There must be something on your website which
will interest visitors and draw them in - preferably so that they will keep coming back time
after time.
Navigation :
Your site must be easy to move around. The accepted web design rule is three clicks to any
page on your site.
Layout : Your website must look visually attractive, but
this should not take away the content or navigation. Make sure your site isn't
unneccessarily slow. Since there are different websites for different purposes outh there,
it is difficult to give specific tips on how to construct a good website, but I can
recommend things to stay well away from. Here in no particular order, is the Top 15 of
website annoyances you should avoild:
- Flash into pages. These serve no real purpose
and they just waste time.
- Bad - or no - navigation. The most common
mistake is broken or no links, so make sure all your web pages are not only linked to
each other, but also back to your home page.
- Slow loading pages (usually due to oversized
graphics)
- Statements saying what screen size your
website is best viewed with (it should be designed to work with all browsers and screen
sizes).
- Use of 'Under Construction' notices
(amateurish and unneccessary). A lot of Service Providers will place a holding notice
on your domain name (which lets people know that a site is coming) until you are ready
to upload your site files.
- Typographical and grammatical errors on your
pages ( a sure sign of a rushed and shoddy site). Always spell check and proof read
your pages before you upload the files.
- Use of too many visible frames. They can make
your web pages look a mess when viewed with certain browsers/screen
sizes.
- Not making your website compatible for Mac
users. A significant number of people use Macs - so don't ignore that
fact.
- Images without Alt tags or height and width
settings (your webpage may look wrong when using certain browsers).
- Broken or dead links. Site updates (it makes
it look like you don't really care about your site).
- Background music which starts automatically on
entry to page. even worse if customer can't turn it off. Unles you are selling music on
your site - it should be avoided.
- Flashing and scrolling text in great
quantity.
- Use of animations (very nice....but do you
really need them?).
- Use of bright text on a dark background (hard
to read). Dark text on a light background is much better.
- Overuse of Java, applets
If you'd like examples of bad web design - then try the
following sites
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