by Guest Contributor, John Johnson of Approveme
Website owners need to have basic knowledge about the designing and developing part of a website. We understand that it’s a technical filed as far as business is concerned however having basic knowledge is surely going to help and go a long way. Same ways a designer, developer or for that matter a online marketer needs to have at least the basic understanding of the things that go into the basic fundamentals to provide the best to the online community. A website goes through numerous hands before it is presented to the online community.
Designing Mistakes on business websites that cost a business dear
Poor Navigation with a flashy design
Every page of the website should be three clicks away from every other page. A user should not be frustrated by clicking all across to find the information or the page he/she is looking for. Your navigation should be seamless. Have all the important pages listed in the main menu. The design, along with links and drop downs you have there on the home page or other pages should be soothing to the users eyes. Have a good understanding of your niche and target audience beforehand. If you are building a website for a retired age group the website colours need not be too flashy you can have a sober look that appeals to your target audience.
Call to action buttons missing or misplaced
Call to action buttons are the norm these days and need to be placed at a point where they are visible to the users all the time. Anytime the user needs to take some action like call you or email you or even connect you via facebook or twitter they should be able to do it instantly. Many website designers miss this point and users have to scout or look them up for their phone numbers or social handles. Not having call to action buttons at vantage points on the website may lead to a loss of business which turns out to be a big loss. Apart from that the missing or misplaced call to action buttons will present a very unprofessional impression on the users visiting the website.
Compatibility with mobiles and tablets
Mobiles and tablets have become the order of the day. Websites that are mobile optimized see more traffic compared to websites that do not have a mobile version. Apart from that the conversion rate among websites having a mobile and tablet version is quite high as compared to websites that do not have one. Website owners and sometimes designers in an effort to save a few bucks do ignore the importance of a mobile version which makes them lag behind the competition in that particular niche.
Developing Mistakes
Too much use of JavaScript
Too much JavaScript may ruin the prospects of the website in the long run. Since search engines the primary traffic drivers do not take JavaScript too kindly thus the use of JavaScript should be minimized.
Heavy Applications in the website with poor hosting
Heavy images, coding, or applications need to be supported with the best host with an excellent bandwidth. Website owners and webmasters tend to try to save money by getting hosting from cheap host providers who will not really have the infrastructure to support your website. Not choosing a host that provides your website enough disk space and a good uptime is the biggest mistake you are going to regret for life. Have your website analysed from a professional and select the best plan that suits the traffic and the data you have there on your website before actually hosting it.
Marketing Mistakes
Not setting the Meta properties of the website
This is something that majority of the website owners tend to ignore and then cry hoarse that their website is not being indexed by the search engines. A great design, content and functionality of the website will only be good when the search engines are going to notice it. Never try to set the meta properties yourself unless you have proper knowledge about doing it the right way.
Plagiarising Content
Search engines are smart and know where someone has copied the content from. The search engines will not let your business flourish and will drive all traffic away if you have copied content on your website. Spend wisely on a content writer and get all your content written from him or her, content that is original, fits your bill and interests your users.
Make sure to avoid the most common and silly mistakes (silly because they can be easily avoided) while finalizing a website for your business. Take care of your business website now and it will take care of your business in future.
Author Bio – John has been writing for freelancers advising them on the latest technology, plugins and how to manage their life being freelancers. John is a consistent writer for Approveme from the past couple of years.
Approveme helps making lives of freelancers easier with easy to use tools and plugins that will cut their time of doing repetitive tasks time and again and dealing with stuff that is more important at a particular moment. Flagship products of Approveme are Digital Signatures and Electronic Signatures which help freelancers across the world to sign documents and contracts from remote locations or on the go. Connect with Approveme on Facebook and stay updated on the latest tools for freelancers.