The Five Biggest Website Mistakes To Avoid 

Mistake #1 – Really bad website design

With the explosive growth of "do it yourself" web design programs, you don't have to be a professional designer to create your website. The problem, though, is that you might not know the difference between good website design and bad website design.

A bad design can kill your site's chances of success faster than you might imagine.
Good design is about much more than colours, backgrounds, and your logo. These are all important, of course, but effective design takes into account page layout, font style and size, and overall site layout. Your visitors shouldn't have to struggle to find what they're looking for on the site, and good site design will ensure this is the case.


Mistake #2 – Poor marketing and promotion

A website is just like any other business; you have to market and promote it if you expect to attract users. Search engine optimisation is often the first place you direct your attention, and that's probably a good idea, but it's not enough. You have to go way beyond search engines to market your site well.

This may seem obvious, but you'd be surprised at how many people don't include their website address on other materials related to the site. Brochures, business cards, letters, press release, promotional items, etc., are all places where you can easily put your web address. A good rule of thumb is that anything you create that's related to your web site, no matter how big or small, should contain your web address.


Mistake #3 – Wrong products, services, and target audiences

This is perhaps the single biggest mistake website owners make. For whatever reason, they offer a certain kind of products and/or services but fail to match their offerings to the needs of their target audience. You might provide the very best online gardening site around, but if your target audience is apartment owners in large cities, that's a really bad match.

Just the opposite occurs, too. You might have a particular target audience in mind but the products and services you offer aren't a good fit for that audience. For instance, you might really love working with college students and want to create a website for them, but if that website sells wheelchairs and electric carts, you've selected the wrong products for your target audience.


Mistake #4 – Not knowing where your traffic comes from

If you don't know where your website traffic is coming from, you will have no idea how to increase traffic even more. You might swear by the paid ads you've placed with a particular search engine, but if your traffic statistics show most of your traffic is coming from another search engine you're really just wasting your money.

The same holds true for your keywords and keyword phrases. You've peppered your site with the ones you think are most appropriate, but you have to check your decision against your traffic statistics. What keywords are people searching for most? Which parts of your site do visitors click on most often?


Mistake #5 – Old, stale, boring content

You probably don't like to watch re-runs on TV, so why do you think your website visitors would want to see the same content every time they visit your site? The answer is that they don't, and a large number of website owners don't pay enough attention to this. They allow their content to become old, stale, or boring, which is a great way to ensure your repeat visitors won't keep coming back for very long.

So don't be like the neighbour who still has his Christmas lights up in July. Update and change your content regularly so that it stays current, interesting, and keeps visitors coming back for more.