subject: Avoiding Mistakes In Your Website Design [print this page] Every website is unique in its needs and purpose- and your website design should reflect that uniqueness! What works for someone else may not work for you! If your web page fails to secure good results, find out whether you are making any of these mistakes!
1. An unsuitable page title- your visitors find your site through the searches they conduct. An important part of this search relates to your page title. It helps attract new visitors and also helps existing users locate your site for repeat visits.
A search engine will typically display the first 66 characters in a title. If all your pages start with the same words, you will reduce usability for users favoring multiple windows. Long tag lines on your homepage are also a bad idea! You need to be short and focus directly on the purpose of the page!
2. Going against conventional designs- innovation is good! But you do need to maintain some predictability when you are thinking about your website design. Visitors LIKE pages that look familiar- and very few appreciate a huge red pop up against a yellow background!
When you are predictable in your design, you make the visitor feel more in control- and that's GOOD!
3. Opening a new browser window-most website designers do this in order to make the visitor stay on. But think about this-not only are you taking over his machine in a hostile manner, you are also making it inconvenient for him because he has to manage more windows at the same time!
He may even become confused because he hasn't NOTICED the new windows opening up! There's a simple and better way - just let them use the 'open in a new window' command on their browser!
These mistakes can hamper an otherwise perfect website design- so avoid them as far as possible!
