Thursday, January 24, 2013
Top Web Site Mistakes
- Flash Web Sites - Creating a website entirely of Flash might look and do some pretty creative things, but search engines find it hard if not impossible to index flash sites. Even having a Flash menu will impede your SEO efforts. Flash also does not work on any “I” devices like the iPad or iPhone. This is not going to change. Flash web sites also depend on a user having software installed on their computer.
- Slow Load Time – If your pages take long to load users will be turned away from your site. Your pages can become slow with large pictures or bad code. The most common issue is images or pictures that are not properly sized before they are put on the web site.
- Page Names – When naming pages make sure they are in human readable language. You don’t want page names with lots of numbers and characters in (Eg. rlcomputing.com/detail?id=1). This does not help your SEO.
- Click Here – You do not need to use “Click Here” on your web site. People know what to do when there is a link. Links are a different color than the rest of your text and users know to click on it. You should link meaningful words to documents or other web pages.
- Splash Page – A splash page is something that users have little tolerance for now. They are wasted space/time. A splash page a graphical landing page with little purpose or functionality. Users want to get to their information quickly. Splash pages are just another layer they have to go through.
- Spelling Errors – There are just no excuses for spelling mistakes. Every program has a spell check. Make sure you use.
- Font/Text Colors – When creating your web site you want to make sure you font/text color has a high contrast to the background color of the web site. Typical black text on a white background is the best contrast. We do this to ensure that people with any type of visual impairment can view the text on your web site.
- Navigation – Navigation within a website should be seamless. Users should be able to find their way around easily. We all have gotten so used to browsing the internet that we have little patience for not finding the information we need very quickly. One of the fastest ways to lose a potential customer on your site is when they can’t find something. Users like the menu across the top of the web site. Users should be able to get to every page on your site from your menu. Don’t let them get lost.
- Unorganized Layout – People are creatures of habit. Most of the time it’s not worth trying to make our users think and work the way we want them. You site should follow web standards with the logo at the top of the site, then the menu, text and a footer. These are the bare minimum features and layout. If you have a search it should be at the top of every page.
- Complicated Registration/Contact Us Forms - Registration/Contact Us forms can be tricky. How much information do you require from the user? Gone are the days where a user had to enter a million details to register to your web site. Some web sites make most fields mandatory and validate the fields to the extent where the user is frustrated after a few tries. Remember, users visit a web site to acquire information. Not the other way round.
The worst mistake is Not having a web site.