What Are The 5 Biggest Web Design Mistakes?

Using Flash on your homepage is just about the biggest mistake you can make in web design. Although Flash sites are often very sexy and have very good graphics, you have to consider what your visitors are searching for. They want information about your products and services and most couldn’t care less that you have a Flash site – many will leave without even seeing what you have to offer.


Even though high speed connections are quite common, not everyone has them and by adding Flash you will make your site slow to load and risk a lot of visitors going elsewhere. People expect instant responses these days and most web sites provide this so why would you want to be any different? For all your UK design needs go to web design UK.


Don’t create your site with links to everything under the sun on each page like a catalog and you will avoid mistake number two. This is the “show them all you’ve got scenario" where website owners believe that if they display all of their offers they will make more sales. Nothing could be further from the truth.


Many Internet marketing studies have revealed that where the visitor is presented with too many choices they end up making none. Information overload like this will overwhelm your visitors and they will look elsewhere as they don’t want to experience this. It is better to organize your site into product categories and help your visitors further by adding a search box.


The next big mistake is not to have your site optimized for search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Many will tell you that your message to your visitors is much more important than worrying about the search engines. While there is truth in this, it is quite easy to write for your visitors and optimize for the search engines at the same time.


If you are offering plumbing services in London then you need to think about what people looking for your service will type into the search engines. Let’s assume that the majority of people are searching for “Plumber in London". Well the web site needs to be optimized for this term. It needs to be in the title, description and mentioned a few times in the main content. That way Google and the others will understand that your company is a plumber in London.


Putting too many graphics on your site is mistake number four. Lots of pictures will slow down your site and more importantly will provide a distraction to your visitors so they may end up leaving without taking the action that you want. You could end up getting your site penalized in the top search engines if you have too many images. It is well known that you have around 7 seconds to engage your reader. Having too many images could mean that your site takes longer than seven seconds to load and your visitors will be hitting the back button in their droves.


Many people trust their web design to marketing novices who have no idea how to create compelling content which is the final mistake to make. The point of having a web site is to get your visitors to take action such as buying your product or service, joining your email list or picking up the phone and calling you. Just let your web designer do what they are good at which is the design work while you or a hired copywriter produce the written content.