Do You Make These Website Design Mistakes?

Do You Make These Website Design Mistakes?

There are many reasons why websites can make or break your business. A site is your online presence, and you write the address on your calling cards alongside your business phone number and business address.

When guests, leads, potential customers and existing customers visit your website, you expect them to be so fascinated or impressed by it that they cannot help but come again. You spend so much money on designing your land based store, so why not do the same for your website?

Many business owners are confused about website design. Should they do it on their own because it’s easy?
You may have heard that there is a software for creating a website on your own, and you probably have a copy. But what you’re worrying about is probably the design itself. Hiring a good website designer can be expensive, but you may not have an option if you’re not a creative thinker and you don’t think you can learn how to decipher html codes at once.

Here are some of the main mistakes that some business owners make when trying to build their own web presence by creating a website.

Mistake #1:  Taking the Easy Approach

Creating html or php pages may seem like an insurmountable challenge, so some businesses cop out by simply uploading PDF files instead of well-coded pages. PDF is a format that can be created just by scanning existing documents. These files can be read online when uploaded to the website’s root.

But people don’t expect to see an all-PDF website because PDF has become associated with ebooks and printable documents, not sites. A website that uses PDF instead of real html pages looks unprofessional and amateurish, to say the least.

Mistake #2: Using Too Many Blocks of Text

When a person sees a huge block of text, he skims the paragraph and looks for a better way to find the information he wants. Books can be written in this format, but the same does not apply to a good website. Use images to break down the text and use shorter paragraphs to deliver your message. Outline your thoughts and use bullet points or subheadings to emphasize something.

Mistake #3:  Complicated Web Design

An ornate website is great, if that is the image that you want to project. But ornate can be achieved using the basic design concepts. Don’t make the site so complicated that people wouldn’t know where to go next if they want to find something. A simple, interactive site can be a joy to visit.

Mistake #4: Not Mobile-Friendly

Website design in the past did not involve mobile features. Nowadays, people are becoming more reliant on their mobile phones for browsing online, and so you should go with this trend. Your website must be accessed by people who surf the web on their iPhone, Android, Blackberry or other smart phones.

Mistake #5: Doing It Yourself

Building a corporate site is different from building a blog. A blog can be created using a generic blogging software that came free with your purchase of a hosting contract. A company’s website should reflect your business. Unless you can fix errors on website pages without much ado, you may not be able to create a good-looking company website that will load on any browser.

A professional can do a much better job, saving you time and effort in the process. You just have to describe the job and how you want the site to be. Look at the portfolio of the expert you are hiring to discover what his design aesthetic is.