At Townsville Nerds we design a lot of websites for the local market, Australia wide and overseas.
Although languages and times will change, there are timeless website strategies that never do. And I don’t want to give away to many secrets of how we are able to get our websites ranked well in Google, there are still universal construction rules everyone should follow to make the internet a better and easier place to use.
Below are a list of common mistakes I see every on professionally paid for websites.
Website Mistales
Bad Navigation
Poor navigation can be one of the most frustrating things on any webpage. Not knowing where to go next, where you are now and what will happen when you click on the link called next is to me the most annoying thing about a poorly made website.
All navigation should be clearly labeled and the text or images for it should be distinct from the normal text and headings on the page.
No Contact Details
There is no excuse for this. Having no contact details on a webpage such as an address, phone number or even email says one thing to your customers. “We do not want to be bothered by you and your business is not that important to us”.
Even if its just a contact form that hides your email address, have some way to interact with your customers.
No SEO
You may have the best website in the whole world, but if no one can see it, whats the point of having it? SEO stands for search engine optimisation and it is your websites way of telling the search engines like Google where you are and what you have to offer.
It is very hard for your customers to find you if Google cant.
Too Many Colours
We all like pretty thing. But sometimes designers and business owners through too much prettiness at you and too many colours blinds your customers. I like to stick to a theme of no more than 3 main colours plus black text on a white background.
Keep its simple and smart.
Not Responsive
Have you every look at a website on your computer and then looked at the site on your phone and it looks terrible. Thats because it is not responsive and does not change when you view it on different size screens and devices.
Now that everyone has a phone or tablet all websites should be designed to change when the device does.
In fact Google are now penalising websites in their search engine ranking if they do not have a responsive design in place.
Bad Links – Dead
Links that go no where are also penalised by Google. Just say you have a link on your site to your contact page and when someone clicks on it goes nowhere, there is no contact page in place because of an error or it has been taken down.
Not only does it look unprofessional, it will also get you penalised and demoted.
No Spam Prevention Strategy
Having your primary email address plastered all over your website might sound like a great idea to connect you and your customers, but less scrupulous spammers will use your email address for all sorts of mischief.
Sometimes having your email address hidden within a contact form is better for customers to email you to make initial contact before allowing them to know your direct email address.
Big Images
Big beautiful images might look great on your website, but might come at a cost of slowing it down big time. Optimising your images so they still look good and aren’t heavy for the user to download is the best way to manage the speed of your website with out loosing a good a design.
Questions to consider when building a site
- How many pages would you like in your website. Eg, The front page, Contact Us, About Us, Gallery, Product Informations, Prices etc?
- Do you have hosting, if so with who? Can you please send me any relevant information from your domain name host etc?
- Do you have any creatives made up, images, media etc?
- Do you want Emails with your website. Eg [email protected] and how many?
- Does the website need to be updated often, weekly etc. Is this something you might be able to do?
- Are you able supply text needed for the website, explanations, product information ect?
- Are you going to need your website to accept money? Or it it just for marketing and advertising?
- Do you have a colour scheme in mind already?
- Who is your target audience?
- Does your product/service have a social media presence to marry with?
- Does your product already have a privacy policy?
- If you have media already made do you have a favicon?
- Does your website need Video or Audio and if so do you have this already?
- What time frame do you require your website to be built?
Townsville Nerds love making website
We love making websites and have been for 20 years! First as a hobby and then as a business.
If you are interested in building a website please ask us for a free no obligation quote today on 0402 807 890.
