Bad website design

Website design mistakes to avoid

Have you ever visited a site and just left?
What caused you to leave?

Here is a list of some mistakes to avoid when you are planning your website:

• Don't make pages too big to download quickly
• Don't make your navigation complicated
• Don't use "buzz words": focus on giving your visitor good service and usability
• Don't use busy backgrounds
• Don't use music without first warning your visitors!
• Don't assume everyone can see your images
• Don't use frames - don't tell your visitor "Your browser doesn't support frames"
• Don't use specialty software or plug-ins that visitors have to download before viewing your pages - many will simply leave
• Don't use animated graphics just for decoration
• Don't use non-standard link styling
• Don't disable the "right click" button
• Don't break the "back button"
• Don't tell your visitor their browser doesn't support Javascript or doesn't have Javascript enabled
• Don't design for a single browser - don't tell your visitor their browser isn't the best one to view your website
• Don't make your page too wide - don't make your visitor scroll sideways to see all the page
• Don't use the same page title on every page of your website » more about page titles
• Don't forget the "alt" tags on images
• Don't forget "title tags" on links
• Don't make your pages too dark
• Don't just use "Click here" - give your visitor some idea of where they're going
• Don't steal images from other websites
• Don't copy text from other websites
• Don't duplicate the content of one page on another
• Don't use large blocks of unbroken text
• Don't use pop-ups
• Don't use hit counters
• Don't assume everyone uses the same size monitor as you do
• Don't assume everyone sees colour in the same way as you do
• Don't assume everyone uses Internet Explorer
• Don't use free email addresses
• Don't stuff your page with keywords » more about keywords and keyword phrases
• Don't have links that point right back to the current page - so that nothing happens - it's really irritating
• Don't put "Under Construction" - the WWW is always "under construction"!

~ You can probably add to this list !

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If you have more questions or you need more help or advice, please contact us and we will endeavour to help you ~ without any obligation.