Don’t Make These Five 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. People are looking for information not how good your web designer’s Flash skills are – give them what they are looking for.


Not all of your visitors will have mega broadband connections and what will appear quickly to some will take an age for others and will more than likely have them clicking the back button through frustration. 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.


The second mistake is trying to make your website look like a catalog with hundreds of links to different products on the front page and subsequent pages. 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.


There are several studies of online marketing which demonstrate that too much choice often ends up as no choice and this will not make you any sales. This has been linked with information overload which you want to avoid at all costs. A better solution is to create categories for your products and a good search facility so that your visitors can find what they are looking for.


The next big mistake is not to have your site optimized for search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. Writing for visitors and not for search engines is a view held by many web design experts. It is true that your visitors should be your priority, but it is also fairly easy to optimize your content for the search engines as well.


You are a plumber in London and you want to target people who want your services there. As an example we will choose the term “Plumber in London" as the keywords most will be using. So it makes sense t o optimize your site for these keywords. It needs to be in the title, description and mentioned a few times in the main content. By doing this you will provide assistance to the search engines and they will understand that you are offering plumbing services in London.


The fourth mistake is having too many images on your web site. The more images you have, the more likely you are to avert your visitor’s attention from your core message and your page will be slow. You could end up getting your site penalized in the top search engines if you have too many images. You have seven seconds to interest your reader according to many online surveys. 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. Your web site should be your shop window where you want people to buy what you have to offer, contact you for more information or join your email newsletter list for further communications. You can get your web designer to produce a fancy design but write the content yourself or hire a good copywriter to do this.