Creative Designs

Avoid these mistakes and your site will be steps ahead of your competition.

1. Not planning your site
Before you even have a website, you must have an idea, a focus. Why do you want a website? What are your plans and goals for the site? Sit down and draw out a map of possible pages and ideas for your site. Include your site's purpose --whether it is to sell more product or make the public more aware of your issue -- whatever it may be. Build your site from it's strong foundation (your goals) and you'll have a better, more solid site.

2. Failing to put contact information in a plainly seen location.
This could be disastrous. If a customer doesn't see this information, they can't contact you. You should consider a 'Contact Us' button or link from your Home page. Even better, make a link to your email address in your header or footer, somewhere that will show up on every page. Even if no one ever contacts you this way, just the presence of this information comforts edgy customers.

3. Broken Links
Do you enjoy clicking on a search result only to get a Page Not Found Error? No one likes them. Check your site statistics at least once a month (if not more) to make sure you don't have bad or broken links.

4. Outdated Information
A sure turn-off to a potential customer is the presence of old information. If it's July and your website is announcing the 'new' products available in February, your site just lost major credibility. Make sure your information is up-to-date. Consider adding a 'Whats New' button or a Business Blog.

5. Too Many Font Styles and Colors
This is a huge pet-peeve of my company. I've had people ask me to review their website and the first thing I notice is 4 different fonts. It looks bad, unorganized and unappealing. Different colors may attract the eye for a short time, but constant flashing or otherwise bright fonts (and graphics!) become annoying. Beware, this is a sure-fire way to scare people away from your site!

6. Orphan Pages
Every website has a heirarchy, a sort of tree that branches out from the Home Page. While most of your visitors visit you through your home page, there are times when a page further down interests someone, and they may copy that link and send it to a friend. This is where you need to pay attention. That friend may like what you have to offer, but they can't find out how to contact you, or how to get back to your Home Page. That's an orphan page. Every page on your site should, at a minimum, have a link back to your Home page. I would suggest adding a contact link at minimum.

7. Frames
Frames at one time were the talk of the industry. They were the original Content Management System (CMS) for your site. Nowadays they are few and far between. If you are Designing a site, don't use frames. Newer technologies such as server-side includes are much more common and accepted. Your pages look fresher and those silly bars don't get in the way.

8. Disabling the BACK button and excessive Pop-Ups
Have you been to a website and decided that it wasn't the information you were looking for? When you clicked the BACK button, did you suddenly get a barrage of windows (or, pop-ups) to your dismay? These things rarely actually work, and worse off, the reason you hit the BACK button is because you DIDN'T want any more information from that site. Don't break the BACK button. There are other ways to get your user's attention.

9. Slow loading pages
While personal and hobby sites may normally be slow, there should be no reason for your business or other professional website to be slow loading. Today's Internet surfer won't wait long for information from your site - there are too many others with the same thing! Make sure your pages load quickly. If the server is slow, consider a different host. If your webpages are full of applets or large graphics, consider a page/site reDesign.

10. Using Leading-Edge Technology
While the Internet is all about new and fancy stuff, don't be the first to do it. While it may 'look cool' to you, you ultimately need to decide if it actually enhances your user's experience. Do the flashy cartoons make your customer more apt to buy from you? Probably not. How many of your customers have to install a Plug-In just to see your page right? Do they have to upgrade their browser to contact you? Not good. Wait until the technology is either more of a standard or gone - you'll save face with potential and future customers.

About the Author

Will Hanke is a self-proclaimed geek who owns and operates Lighthouse Technologies (http://www.techlh.com), a web development and hosting company based in ArnoldMissouri. For questions or comments, email him at will@techlh.com. And buy yourself a good virus program so he doesnt have to fight your emails with anti-virus spray.

posted by lks  # 4:17 PM 0 comments

Once upon a time there were two web Designers. One was Tom Tortoise and the other was Harry Rabbit.

Harry was one of the fastest web Designers the forest had ever seen. He could churn out a site in no time while Tom consistently worked late into the night trying to get his work done.

One day Harry met Tom at the local Spareducks for coffee.

I bet I can finish the Stork Appreciation site before you can finish the Stop and Smell the Roses site, Harry said with a slightly evil chuckle.

Well, I dont know, Tom said slowly.

Ah, thats what I thought. Youre a chicken, Harry replied.

OK the first one to reach the top ten with their respective keywords will be the winner, Tom said.

Harry readily agreed and slurped down his Espresso con Panna. Like a shot Harry was off to work on his newest website creation. Tom took his time and finished his Espresso Lungo with just a hint of caramel.

The next morning Tom arrived at work to continue Designing his website when Harry called and said, Silly tortoise, you should never try to outdo a rabbit. I worked late last night and the website is done. I sent you a link. Check your email.

Tom listened to the rabbit cackle as he hung up the phone.

Tom took his time making sure every page, Meta title, photograph and article was SEO friendly. He made sure he submitted information to the main Internet directories and he quietly watched as his finished website rose in the search engine rankings.

Then came the morning when the site was ranked in the top ten. Thats when he called Harry, Did you notice I won the contest?

What contest? the rabbit bellowed.

Tom explained and the rabbit was fit to be tied.

Its like my dad always said, Harry, Slow and steady, wins the race, Tom replied.

The moral of this fractured fairly tale is that simply building a website is not enough to ensure that people will visit or that search engines will take notice.

Like the childrens story, the individual that is methodical and consistent in web development and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will likely do much better in the long run than a hastily prepared site that lacks a cohesive purpose in online marketing.

Do everything you can to optimize your website with specific keywords or phrases and watch your site visitation statistics improve.

Scott Lindsay is a web developer and entrepreneur. He is the founder of HighPowerSites and many other web projects.

Make A Website in minutes with HighPowerSites or Build A Website with BuildAGreatSite.

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posted by lks  # 7:52 AM 0 comments