11 Most Common Website Design Mistakes To Avoid

When a web designer is asked what the most common web design mistakes are, many will answer that there are a lot of different ones. However, some of these mistakes are almost certainly part of the web design process itself. Knowing which ones you are making and why can help you avoid them and get your website on the right track sooner rather than later.

In order to identify some of these common mistakes, it is helpful to know the overall purpose of Search Engine Optimization and what exactly happens behind the scenes while you optimize your web pages for the search engines. While this may seem like a big topic, it’s actually very simple once you learn the most basic of information.

The most common website design mistakes that result in search engine rankings include submission of duplicate content, including meta tags and file names, incorrect file types, including too many opening frames or “empty frames,” inappropriate use of images, incorrect or blank coding, including JavaScript or flash files and using blank spaces instead of meaningful code. Many of these can be easily fixed with a few changes to the content itself, although others require more drastic alterations to your existing website. To avoid these kinds of mistakes, always check for yourself before submitting anything.

Although Google Analytics is an invaluable web design tool, it will not show you everything. It will only show you which keywords your visitors are using when searching for information on your site. The real power of Google analytics comes in the details that it provides, especially when combined with other tools from Google like the web design toolbar, Google website analyzer, and the full version of Google Page Analyzer. Knowing which keywords are being used to find your website and what those keywords mean is just the first step toward design an SEO-friendly website.

Long-Tail Keywords:

Another of the most common web design mistakes to avoid is using long-tail keywords, which are not widely searched by users. Unfortunately, a lot of websites make this mistake because they don’t understand the difference between a long-tail keyword and a general keyword.

An SEO specialist would know better than anyone else what a user should search for when looking for a product or service on a website. A good SEO will be able to identify the differences easily and provide an analysis based on how frequently these keywords appear in the overall search.

Overusing visual media:

The third most common web design mistakes to avoid is overusing visual media. Videos, animations, flash presentations, and other visual elements can greatly increase the overall SEO value of an existing website. Unfortunately, many website owners believe this because these flashy techniques can actually attract more traffic.

The problem is that flashy visuals can turn readers off rather than enticing them to stay and read your content. If a reader leaves your website without ever finding the information they were searching for, it’s considered a bad website. Avoid making all of these new website design mistakes.

Mobile Site:

The fourth most common web design mistakes to avoid is not making sure your website design includes a mobile site. Most people have their cell phones with them at all times, whether they’re at home, at work, or even traveling.

People expect their websites to look great on their phones and with smaller screens, they expect their site to load quickly and smoothly on almost any size screen. Make sure you meet both expectations and do everything you can to maintain the proper page load time on your mobile site.

Badly Designed:

The fifth most common web design mistakes to avoid are having a website that is badly designed. You might think this seems like a small thing to worry about, but it really isn’t. When visitors come to a website, they expect it to be easy to use and navigate. They don’t want to spend their time struggling to figure out how to get to the next section or landing page.

If your website is filled with graphics, poor spelling, and confusing navigation, it’s very likely your visitors will leave the website immediately.

Slow-loading sites:

According to the stats, most people don’t like to wait more than 5 seconds to see the website. If it’s slow, most will simply close it immediately looking for faster ones. This is why you need to make sure that your sites have good loading speed whenever possible.

Right Colors:

Do not forget to use the right colors. Most people pay more attention to the content and layout features on an existing website than the color. But, if you are using a new website for your existing web design then the color is very important. A dark website with less text is not attractive at all. You should always try to go for lighter colors so that it doesn’t look too bland and your visitors will have a good browsing experience with your website.

Not using Google Analytics Content Detail:

Most people are not aware of this, but Google Analytics is the best tool to get complete details about who visited your website, how they got there, and what they were doing while they were on your website.

By using Google Analytics, you can get the most accurate statistics on how people navigate through your site, what they are looking at, and what they were reading. But, if you don’t use this great tracking tool of yours, then you are making the most common web design mistakes.

Trying to redesign your entire site from scratch:

You can hire a professional designer who would be able to customize a layout based on your target customer base, theme, and goals for your new website. Or, you can also use various free tools such as Flexslider, Dreamweaver, Frontpage, Joomla, WordPress, HTML editor, etc., to create the basic layout. You can modify your existing website or start designing from the ground up.

Renovation:

Using long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are simply keywords that are 4 words or less in length. You might use these keywords for your keyword research and keyword optimization. However, when you are optimizing your site, you should never use long-tail keywords for your main keywords and focus instead on the more targeted set of targeted keywords.

Some examples of long-tail keywords would be “wet room,” “kitchen renovation” and “refurbishing kitchen cabinets.” Even though you have these keywords initially, you shouldn’t use them for your title, meta description, and even for the header of your site.

Social Media:

Although it may seem that social media is nothing more than a marketing channel, it can be a very powerful medium to market your company, especially if you incorporate the right techniques and work in the right manner.

For example, by using Facebook and Twitter you can reach a lot of potential customers through your business’s Facebook page and Twitter account. Your website should have a Facebook page and/or Twitter account so you can communicate with clients and keep in touch with them. Similarly, you can build a blog on your website and link it to your Twitter account or Facebook page.

Experience:

Designing the website for iPhones and iPad users. The majority of iPad users aren’t interested in searching for specific information on your website. They want a more customized experience where they can find what they are looking for while navigating to your site. Unfortunately, an iPhone or iPad user doesn’t typically have a keyboard and can get lost navigating to different parts of a site. If your design includes a mobile site or a mobile-friendly experience, then you’ll be losing potential business.

Conclusion:

In addition to avoiding common mistakes, you need to make sure that you incorporate analytics to measure how many visitors you receive on your mobile-friendly site each day. A well-designed mobile-friendly experience will not only be a good customer experience, but it will also generate profits for your business because it will draw new clients and retain existing ones.

All of the mistakes to avoid in website design and development can lead to a loss of potential business and profits. By investing the time and money necessary to create a mobile-friendly experience, you can attract visitors without spending a penny on SEO.