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Web Design Mistakes To Watch Out For
What are the top blunders your web designer should avoid when they are creating your new business web site?
Here are my thoughts on that… based on my “expertise” as a web designer since 1995… and presented here so small business owners have a better idea of what that person looking after their web site should really be doing for them!
1. First Impressions Are Important
While this is a probably more a “marketing” issue than a “design” issue, web designers should probably consider this one before anything else!
Can your visitors work out the primary purpose of your site in a few seconds? Seriously, that IS all the time you get… only while the page is loading… for a new visitor to decide whether they will explore further, or leave!
And this does NOT just apply to only your home page. Look closely at ALL your internal pages too, because that’s where around 80% of your traffic will arrive at your site!
If your message is NOT clear, your visitors will leave… fast! And there’s absolutely NO chance of fixing a poor first impression on the net!
2. Offering Far Too Many Choices
Offering too many choices/options/links on a web page will result in visitor confusion.
Avoid offering too many options which DISTRACT visitors away from whatever your PRIMARY page objective is.
If a visitor cannot work out what they are supposed to do next, they will do the only thing they can - leave!
Don’t make it too hard for them.
3. Terrible Site Navigation
Good web site navigation is essential for people to
- initially understand what your site is about, and then
- locate and use the information provided.
A good framework also helps with later planning on how to easily “extend” your web property without making too many major alterations!
So make your navigation simple, and consistent, on every page!
4. Failing To Put Your Visitor Into The Picture
If your web site is all about “we”… i.e. “We do this, we also do that!” Of it only raves about how good “we” are, then it will just not work!
OK - this is a marketing/copywriting issue more so than design, but it is something a GOOD web designer should address!
Concentrate your web site copy on addressing your visitor!
Explain the BENEFITS (to your visitor) of using your product/service, rather than dealing with the “features” (which are more a “we” strategy).
Put THEM the picture by using “You” as much as you can.
5. “Over-Designing” Your Site
While a site loaded with pictures may look really good, the conversions could be terrible (for all sorts of reasons).
A lot of “ugly” web sites have great conversion rates, which shows it is the MESSAGE that counts.
But whatever you do, a business site should still look as “professional” as possible, so don’t “ugly it up” deliberately!
6. Slow Loading Pages
Not everyone has fast broadband! There are STILL many users who have no option but to use dialup and/or slow ADSL with limited download allowances.
Put a limit on the total number of pictures/page, and optimize the file size of any graphics you use.
A fast loading page is better for all visitors. It helps form a good first impression because there is little waiting around for something to happen!
7. Poor Use Of “White Space”
Remember the good old days of print? Here’s a tip from then…
Make good use of WHITE SPACE!
Use white space to improve readability.
Use it to attract the eyes to elements you want people to click on.
Stop thinking you are paying per column centimeter with the web! It’s
The web is DIGITAL, so There’s no need to cram everything too close together - you are NOT paying per column centimeter anymore!
But remember… the space “above the fold”…
This is what a user first sees on a page without scrolling. That space should contain the main action/s you want your visitors to take!
So think long and hard about what you put there!
8. Colour/Font Choices Make Content Hard To Read
Unless you have a VERY good reason for it, PLEASE avoid DARK backgrounds & light text - it’s far too hard to read! Go for dark text (that’s black or dark gray) on a light background.
Black & white for content blocks usually works best!
And make sure that your font size is not too small either, especially if you have “terms of service” type pages which you want clients to read…
9. Using Non-Standard Link Colours and Styles
And speaking of colours… Changing away from the default link colors and NOT leaving them underlined, can reduce their effectiveness.
Unless there is a specific design need for it, stick closely to the DEFAULT link colors (blue and purple) and keep your links underlined.
It’s what people expect and are used to looking for. Change these at your peril!
10. Dead/Outdated Links
Make sure ALL your links - to your OWN pages, and to other sites - are working!
Nothing is more frustrating (and unprofessional) than referring your visitors to a link which is dead!
Remember to check your off-site links regularly. If visitors end up at a dubious link, it reflects on your credibility. Watch out for linked domains that have changed hands, or expired, and no longer contain content relevant to your audience.
11. Flash
Home pages which feature only a flash animation/intro not only annoy visitors, they are very poor for search engine optimisation (SEO) purposes.
While you can use small elements of flash in pages to make them snazzier (see caveats above), don’t have pages which are ONLY made up of flash elements.
12. Audio/Video Which Auto-Starts
Is any audio/video “in their face” as soon as visitors arrive at your page?
Think about letting your users START it themselves when they are prepared to listen/watch. Provide OBVIOUS volume controls so those using the net at work don’t get sprung!
Obviously, if your site focuses on music and/or video (eg fan pages, sites for musicians etc) then you can autostart because that’s what people are expecting to happen at such sites!
But all other sites… if it is not the norm for that audience… auto-start may not be good.
13. Cross Browser In-Compatibility
After all of that…
Check your web pages in different browser software, and on different computer operating systems.
See if there are any glaring problems that may need correction, otherwise some of your audience could be missing out, or get the wrong idea!
14. Forced Horizontal Scrolling
Not everyone has 18″ to 20″ monitors with super high resolution. So don’t set your web page up to work only with that type of monitor!
Aim for a web page display width around 800 pixels wide. Some people even suggest 1024, but because the eye is NOT good at reading WIDE paragraphs, it’s best to stay narrower than that.
Also check your site on different sized monitors for readability.
What’s Missing?
Probably a fair bit… I’ve endeavoured to stay with the common web “design” problems rather than including too many copywriting (use of bullet points etc), or even SEO (meta tags, anchor text etc) issues.
But if you have got something to add to this list - whether it be design, SEO or other “problems”, then go for it and comment below!
And yes… I KNOW this very site breaks several of these “rules”! I really MUST work on fixing them!
So please… add your suggestions, comments etc., to this post below…
Site updates, 301 redirects, and link juice
Once a page on a web site has been published on the ‘net, and indexed by the major search engines, one of the LAST things you want to do is to remove that page! But that is often what happens when a site is “updated”… navigation is restructured and page names/URLs are changed to suit the new “look”.
Any existing links to that URL are gone for good! Traffic to that URL will end up nowhere! Any PR (Page Rank) that page had is lost forever.
And YOU LOSE!
Unless you use 301 redirects to change any requests for old pages to the new address!
A 301 redirect tells search engines that the page has been REPLACED by another one, so they should adjust their records/index to show the new page… Which means you will continue to get traffic to “old” pages… And (given time) even Google will “transfer” the page rank of the old page to the new one.
This is something which does concern me immensely at the moment as I upgrade Come On Aussie… The site is well established, with thousands of pages indexed, and the main “category” pages have a PR of 4 to 5 with lots of incoming links I just can’t afford to lose.
As an integral part of this update, I’m implementing 301 redirects to tell the search engines which pages have been replaced.
Quite simply, that means ANY requests for an old page (eg the old “Latest Australian Web Sites” page that was at /categories/new_sites.html) will end up at the new correct URL (of www.comeonaussie.com/new-sites)
How long does it take for Google to pass on the Page Rank for this old page?
I’m not too sure… and cannot seem to find a definitive answer to that question… but so far it’s been a week since I did the redirects, and I’m still not seeing any of the PR5 appearing on the new page!
Because the rest of these pages have PR’s of 4 and 5, I’m waiting to see how long this takes with just one important page before I do the BIG update where I do a 301 redirect for the rest of them…
( I’ll let you know here how many days it takes for the PR to appear on the new page!)
Final Notes… Once you’ve moved pages, you really should try to contact everyone who has linked to the OLD page and ask them to update their links.
Oh… and if you DO actually need to remove a page completely, either:
1. do a 301 redirect to another (relevant) page, OR
2. make sure your 404 (page not found) error page is useful at helping people find something else on your site!
Resources: 301 redirects can be tricky - use this 301 redirect guide for help to do a 301 redirect properly, and pass on page rank & search engine position status from one page to another.
Reward Program Update
As part of the move to a new CMS, I’ve been looking at some of the freebies I’ve offered to webmasters to boost their ranking in our search results… specifically the rewards program, where you can get a free “Featured Listing” for simply linking back to the Come On Aussie web site.
Normally, listings are shown at Come On Aussie in the order of most recent ones first. So as a listing ages, it gets pushed further down the results.
But a featured listing is pretty cool… it means that whenever anyone searches for a keyword that is in your listing, or when they browse the category you are in… then your listing is one of the first ones to be shown under the “Come On Aussie Supporters” section right up the top of the page!
As part of my ongoing link-building campaign since 2002, I have offered “free” featured listings to sites who link back to me… It’s a very fair exchange I feel, and a great way to generate some extra “linkeage” for your site… i.e. your listing is permanently shown on a category page which probably has a fairly high Google page rank, so it’s going to attract some good interest from the Big G!
But there’s a problem….
In checking these sites for their reciprocal link… I found a lot of them had removed the link back to Come On Aussie!
The buggers 
I’m only half way through all the checking, but I reckon almost half of the people who agreed to link back to me, have pulled the link from their site… So I’ve downgraded their listings back to normal, and even removed a couple who should have known better!
While it’s probably to be expected with any reciprocal linking strategy, it is worrying that so many would take advantage of the opportunity and not keep their side of the bargain.
Others have done the right thing and have maintained their link for several years! Some even going all the way back to 2003.
So good on you!
I thank you for your honesty, and hope Come On Aussie can continue to create extra interest in your web site!
Remember… the web is all about building links, and both inbound and outbound links to and from your site are useful for you and your visitors!
A New Look For Come On Aussie
Welcome to a new look for your favourite Aussie web site directory…
We’ve moved many sections of the site to a new CMS (Content Management System) to allow us to do some snazzy stuff to make things work and look a lot better for our visitors and users.
So sit back and enjoy the new site… things might be a little “slow” to completely change over… because Come On Aussie is quite a big site… but rest assured we’re working feverishly to move the whole site over to the new look!
Oh.. and by the way… just in case you were wondering - we’re now using WordPress with a couple of plugins that allow us to access all our original data and routines.
I hope you like the way it’s all panning out!
Please let me know by leaving your comments below.
Cheers
Stephen Spry
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CHANGES ARE HAPPENING!!!
If you're seeing this message, then congratulations! You are one of the first people to see a "new look" Come On Aussie web site...All our pages do not yet support the new look, as it's a pretty big job updating the different sections on the site.
Rest assured... it's all happening, and will make your favourite Aussie web site search experience a LOT better!