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Here are 6 common web development mistakes that compromise the quality, functionality and usability of a website.Avoid them at all costs!
1. Directionless Navigation
Users shouldn’t need a trail guide to find the information they need on your site.If you make them click too many times they’ll click directly over to someone else’s website.Clean, simple, intuitive navigation is critically important to a successful site.
2. Filling up every inch of space
Putting too much graphical or textual information on a web page is a recipe for disaster.The eye cannot take in and process large amounts of information at once.Whitespace/negative space is more than just a good idea, it’s critical to the overall balance, aesthetics and readability of a page.
3. Broken links
Nothing screams “I don’t care about my site or my customers” more than broken links.They cause users to lose interest in your site and lose faith in your marketing message.Always be sure your links are up-to-date.
4. Too much text
Writing for print is very different than writing for the web.Big blocks of detailed text are website killers.Users do not read paragraphs of information on the web but rather scan pages for key words to take them closer to the information they seek.Using headings, highlighted keywords, subheadings, bulleted lists and a simple writing style will ensure your visitors find what they need and enjoy the journey.
5. No call to action
What do you want users to do when they visit your site?Contact you for more information?Call you for a free quote?Sign up for your monthly newsletter?Buy a trial size of your new product?The action you’re hoping for needs to be explicitly stated on the site as a call to action such as “Call now for a free web design quote” or “Click here to get your free trial-size hand lotion.”And if your site is supposed to generate sales calls, it should feature the company phone number prominently on every page, not just buried on the contact page.
6. Confusing links
Links are a very important element of a website so they should be easy to distinguish from other text elements.First, make sure your links stand out from the rest of your text either with color, underlining or some other attribute. Second, make sure regular text doesn’t look like a link.This means you should never underline text if it isn’t a link - ever.Users hate that.
So there you have it – 6 common web development mistakes that compromise the effectiveness of a site.