When you decide to create a website for your business, there are many things to consider. It can be confusing to deal with the conflicting information out there about what makes a useful website, as well as matching it to your own vision.
As you work everything out in your mind, try to avoid making these mistakes.
1. Ignore Accessibility Rules
It is very important to understand accessibility rules, not only so that differently-abled people can enjoy your website, but also to help search engines better access your site.
2. Include irrelevant content
From images to audio to text, you want to avoid including any type of content that isn’t relevant to your audience and the message you want them to take away when they visit your website.
3. Contact information is not easily visible
Nothing is more frustrating than wanting to contact a company and not knowing how. Don’t hide your contact information from your website visitors. It is imperative that they can contact you.
4. Unnecessary landing pages
You’ve seen websites like this. The ones you have to “Click here to enter.“This is completely unnecessary. It can be an impediment to your audience finding the information they need and is absolutely a problem for search engines.
5. Includes automatic audio
Some websites have a sound that appears when the visitor accesses them, or if the cursor hovers over them, but this is also a bad thing. Let your visitor choose when the sound turns on and off so they don’t get irritated.
6. Not updating SEO regularly
Search engine optimization involves making sure the correct keywords, headings, subheadings, and information are on each page, as well as providing enough information outside of your page to help get links back to your page. Learn all you can about SEO to get the most out of this organic means of getting traffic.
7. Too many graphics
Graphics are important to a website and add to the look, feel and mood of your website. But you don’t want to have too many, as it will make your website load slower and make your visitors tired quickly.
8. Unorganized browsing
Learn how people tend to look at websites. When they read paper they read from left to right, but on websites they read it vertically and sometimes in an F shape. If you can understand that, you can put the important information where they’re most likely to see it.
