1. Dysfunctional Search Engine

All websites should include a small search box on the page because it is most convenient for the website viewers. If they are looking for something in particular throughout your entire website, they can easily click into the search engine box and type in the words for what they are looking for. Without having a search engine, the website viewers may get annoyed and possibly even frustrated which will lead them to venture off onto another site. What is even worse than not having a search engine on your website is having a search engine that just does not work probably. You must make sure that your search engine is something small and easy to use for all viewers of the website. It should also be compatible with the layout of your website. Having a complex search engine box on your website will only further confuse website viewers which actually defeats the purpose entirely. Avoid this common mistake.

2. Too Much Text

Who would think that too much text could be a turn off for viewer? While website viewers want to find out important information when they head to your site, they don’t want to have to read through several pages just to get to the point. Paragraphs on the website should be short and to the point. All sentences should be short as well.

Most importantly, the website designer should make sure the text speaks to the reader and catches their eye. How can you do this? Use bold or italic text to highlight some of the most important parts of the content that you are displaying on your website. You can also use bullet or numbered lists for certain information because it breaks down all of the different types of information and makes it so much easier to look at especially for those who prefer to just scan over the website. And the truth is, most people prefer scanning over a website instead of reading all of the content. Here’s an example of how to use a bullet list so that the content will be easier to read:

• Use Bold and Italics for IMPORTANT keywords
• Use bullet or number lists to sort through important facts
• Avoid lengthy sentences and huge paragraphs
• Keep sentences short and to the point

3. Small Text

As a website owner, it is important for you to remember that people of all ages will likely be checking out your website. Keep this in mind when you choose a font size for the text o your website. Small text, size 12 and under, is often too small for senior citizens as well as people who have vision problems. Keep the text at a size where it isn’t too big to look ridiculous but it isn’t too small that some viewers cannot read the important information that you are listing on your website.

4. Not User Friendly

The problem that a lot of website owners face is making their website user friendly. When a website is designed, the sole purpose is usually to receive as much traffic as possible. However, many people forget this when they are actually in the process of designing their website. If your website isn’t user friendly, viewers will be turned off and you will likely receive less traffic. There are several ways that you can make you website very user friendly and best of all, it does not really take much effort to do this.

• Add a search engine feature
• Create a navigation system that allows viewers to navigate through your website quickly and easily
• Create an FAQ section that answers questions that viewers have
• Use a decently sized font
• Provide detailed information and add pictures when necessary

These are just some of the ways that you can make your website user friendly. In fact, you may even want to create a section that allows viewers of your website to send in comments and suggestions on how you can continue to make your website user friendly. When you have a website, it is important to put the viewers first because they are the ones who can make or break your website.

5. Too Many Advertisements

We understand that as a website owner, you will need to advertise for other people and you may have affiliates whose advertisements you are placing on your website. It’s not that you can’t place advertisements on your website but placing too many of them all over a website can definitely be a turn off for most viewers. For example, if you use the Google Adsense program as a means of making money with your website, you will have the option to place advertisements on different areas of your website. If you place advertisements on the top of the page, bottom of the page, and on both sides, your viewers will feel surrounded by advertisements which definitely isn’t very user friendly.

Place advertisements on your website but do it in a tasteful manner. Sometimes, less is more and in this instance, that is definitely the case. Do not do yourself a disservice by placing tons of different advertisements on one page of your website. You can spread the advertisements out evenly through the different pages of your website. This will still allow you to display the advertisements that you want on your website without scaring your viewers away.

Conclusion

Avoiding these common web design mistakes is actually quite simple especially if you know how to prevent these mistakes in the first place. To run a successful website, you should make sure that your search engine box works properly, you sort through the text and use bullet points and numbers, keep everything user friendly, and avoid overdoing it with the advertisements. If you can avoid these mistakes, you can run a successful website.

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When designing your site with SEO in mind, it is important to provide usability for your visitors and accessibility for the search engines.  A proper design will ensure that visitors can get around with ease and do not run into pages that take too long to load.  You should also know that Flash and errors in HTML code could possibly prevent from search engine robots from properly crawling and indexing your site.  A good site structure is one that caters to both your visitors and the search engines.  As a website owner, achieving a site optimized for the search engines could be a challenge, especially if you lack design skills.  When this is the case, you may need to rely on third-party professionals.

Expertise is Key

Because these elements are so important, several companies have emerged to offer their services.  Some even employ both SEO experts and web designers, allowing you to kill two birds with one stones by having someone make sure your site is optimized, and another to ensure that its easy to navigate and use.  The key is to do your research and take a little time evaluating different firms.   The best company is one that responds to your inquiries in a timely manner with satisfactory answers.  Rather than making claims about how fast or where they can ensure your rankings, they are honest and confident that their expertise will deliver results.  In short, you want a reputable firm that has proven the ability to create designs that meet W3C compliance and posses an understanding of the latest web trends as they relate to SEO.

No Guarantees

Even when turning to a professional web designer, one should never automatically assume that shelling out cash will guarantee you a top spot on Google.  The internet has opened up numerous opportunities and because of this, the web is a very competitive arena. Chances are, there are thousands of entrepreneurs who share your ambition for succeeding online.  They could even be targeting the same market as yourself.  You can spend a pretty penny on web design but without optimized content and a good marketing strategy, your beautiful website will get buried in Cyberspace.

Expectations will constantly be higher as the web continues to evolve.  Your visitors expect more feature-rich content while search engines increasingly prefer fast loading sites.  For this reason, the proper coding and effective optimization of your site are crucial.  If you don’t get it right the first time, you could find yourself paying even more to get the right design.

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• January 18, 2010 – Search Engine Optimization – The Basics Explained
• July 24, 2009 – Avoid These Five SEO Mistakes
• January 16, 2012 – Top 4 Ways to Optimize WordPress for Search Engines
• September 10, 2011 – Common Advice in Search Engine Optimization
• August 6, 2011 – RankCheck.org – free tool to check rank of your website
• January 21, 2011 – Where is Google Headed?
• November 9, 2010 – How Anchor Text is Used in Search Engine Optimization
• April 23, 2010 – SERPs and Backlinks – The Keys to SEO
• September 23, 2009 – How Search Engine-Friendly is Your Domain Name?
• April 29, 2009 – Using a Generic Domain for SEO Purposes