5 Common Mistakes When Building Your Website

Anyone can build a website. Even if you have no professional experience with web design or coding, you can still create your own website with ease. If you approach website building for the first time, you should consider a few guidelines that newbies are not always aware of.

Here are 5 common mistakes you want to avoid when building your website.

1. Annoying navigation

This mistake happens when visitors come to your website and don’t know where or how to find the information they need. Links are hard to find, buttons are not visible or they’re placed in the wrong spot.

There needs to be logic, intuition and a lot of common sense in how you organise your website’s navigation. You want your users to be able to find what they need in as few clicks as possible.

Keep header, footer and navigation bar consistent on each page. Make sure your visitors can easily access all the pages.

2. Too much clutter on the homepage

The homepage is the first thing your visitors see on your website. You want to use this opportunity to create a killer impression on them and guarantee they continue to browse it. If your homepage looks too packed and flashy, then your visitors might feel tempted to just walk away.

Less is really more in websites today. You can actually offer tons of great content on your website but display it in a simple and organised way as you possibly can.

Don’t use too much text, and if you want to use multiple images, go for a sliding gallery that depicts just one photo at a time.

3. No “Call-to-Action”

A call-to-action is a request from your website visitors to act, usually represented by buttons and links. Your website’s call to action depends on its purpose. Do you want people to buy, download, register, subscribe, view, share, follow or what not? Use a call-to -action to make it crystal clear.

4. Out-of-date content

Don’t give the impression that you tossed up a website and left it there. Show the world that you are open for business and active! People want to know that if they contact you through the website, you’ll actually answer them and give them immediate attention. They won’t bother to get in touch if your website seems abandoned.

Updating your website affects how you rank in search engines. The more recent your content is, the more often is gets indexed by Google.

5. Going live without testing

You need to check yourself for spelling mistakes, broken links, responsive issues and other small things that are so easy to overlook.

Go over the entire website by yourself, but also get another pair of eyes to browse through it and give you remarks. It’s not only a question of typos. An observer who is not familiar with the website will give you a fresh perspective and may offer valuable suggestions for the layout.

SOURCE: Wix