Your website can serve as a unique and powerful marketing tool that can help you make money and enhance your brand. When done properly, it can lower marketing and customer acquisition costs. However, your site could kill your brand or sabotage your business efforts if done incorrectly. What are some common website design mistakes that you should avoid?
1. Your Site Has Too Many Ads
It is tempting to put a lot of ads on your site in an attempt to make money as soon as you launch. However, most people are blind to banner ads and are unlikely to click on them. Therefore, all they tend to do is slow down your site and make it look like you are participating in a money grab. It is also important to understand that your advertising choices will be limited when you first start, which means that the ads may not even be relevant to your site’s content.
2. There Isn’t Enough Information Above the Fold
When someone says above the fold, they are referring to the area of the site that people see before they have to scroll down. Therefore, you know that visitors will see everything that you put in this area. However, many website creators make the mistake of placing ads, email signups and other important components of their site toward the bottom of the page. Ideally, you will place email signup pages and your primary contact information right at the top of your site to gain visibility and attention for them.
3. Content Isn’t Informative or Relevant
The content that you place on your site should be interesting, informative and engaging. Your blog should have useful hints and tips that your audience will want to share with others on social media and other channels. Sales pages should have vivid product descriptions and provide easy directions for customers looking to make a purchase. While you certainly want to target relevant keywords, you don’t want to keyword stuff or otherwise create unnatural content.
4. Content Is Plagiarized or Reprinted Without Permission
A common trend recently is for sites to curate content. What this means is that a site will publish the first 100 words or so of another article and then link back to the original source. While there is nothing wrong with this, you should always give credit to others if you use their work. Failing to do is plagiarizing the work of another author, which could ultimately lead to your site being banned from search engine listings. It is also possible that your site could suffer from duplicate content penalties if other sources outrank you on Google.
5. Your Site Should Be Mobile Friendly
These days, an increasing number of people are accessing the Internet through a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet. Therefore, you need to make sure that your site can be viewed on such devices with ease. You should also make sure that links work properly and the site loads in a timely manner when viewed on a mobile device. One of the more uncommon website design mistakes committed by site owners is to create sites that look great when viewed on a laptop but lag or otherwise disappoint on other devices.
6. Is Your Site Name Easy to Remember?
It is important that your site name is something that people can remember easily and can also spell with ease. The Internet is full of name creation wizards that will help you create a name that is catchy and easy to type into a search engine. A catchy name will help set you apart from other sites and make your brand stand out from the hundreds of other sites and blogs being formed each day online.
7. Do You Remember to Backup Your Site?
You never know when your site could be hacked or otherwise compromised. If your site is forced to be taken down, you could lose your customers, readers and any SEO value that your content had. However, by backing up your site and site files regularly, you may be able to restore your site to a previous version and be back up in a matter of minutes. Depending on who your web host is, your site may automatically restore itself to a previous version if something malicious happens.
A properly designed website can draw massive amounts of targeted traffic that can convert into sales or followers. Whether you are starting your own blog or have an established company that you would like to grow through an online presence, a website can make it fast and easy to reach your target market each and every day.