Web Design Mistakes

I have written this article having fallen foul to many of the mistakes listed here myself. I'm not an expert web designer just an SEO guy with a fair amount of web project experience - references to google ranking factors were taken from Google Webmaster Channel & Blog. This is in no particular order, Please see also my articles on SEO myths & google ranking factors for further supporting information.

1. Lack of Instant Appeal - if it looks poor it probably is - seek independent opinion on your website from people outside your company - it's probably will differ from your own/your staff opinion! According to web stats you have less than 8 seconds to keep visitor attention!

2. Dated or Poor Quality Photos / Graphics/ Design - these make your site look cheap uncared for & convey the wrong message about you & your attention to detail - you could well be the victim of the back button
Useful resources:
http://www.w3.org/Conferences/WWW4/Papers/53/gq-intro.html

3. Not Answering your Visitors Most Likely Question - Say you are an estate agent your visitor probably wants to see the list of properties you have for sale or possibly may want to sell their own home - make it easy for them to do this from the index page.

4. Poor Page Text Content - insure your text content includes your keywords and is selectable - ie not set in flash or in pictures - whist keyword density has been ruled out as a factor, it's still wise to ensure it appears naturally where appropriate

5. Too Few Pages - Inbound linking to pages matching a was confirmed by Google as a factor hence if your site sells shoes your landing pages might be brown shoes, white shoes, leather shoes etc whilst not essential for all sites its advisable to correctly structure landing pages.

6. Lack of Website Security - could leave you or your visitor exposed. There are many aspects of a website & web server that have to be secured. Any website which captures data & processes transactions should be security checked. Web server security also needs to be kept up to date on a regular basis.

Useful resources:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/security/?p=424
http://www.acunetix.com/websitesecurity/website-auditing-wp.htm

7. Missing or Poorly used Titles - title tags are still being overlooked & where these are filled often not done so correctly - Titles should be maximum 65 characters in length as further words are not shown in SERPS. Keywords targeted should be used in naturally in title - Google have confirmed that title is a raking factor

8. Missing or Poorly used Description Meta - Google have done a U turn on these - at first they discredited the description meta tag now they say that is being used more than before. Description meta shouldn't really be any longer than 150 characters - can be left blank as google will use 'snippet' - however it's advisable to fill it as it's the only piece of text other than title that will appear in the SERP - please note google have reserved the right not to use it - however I haven't seen that enforced yet

9. Too Much Focus on Keyword Density - this has been ruled out as a factor - whilst google have confirmed there is no keyword density factor obviously they have not ruled out keyword presence.

10 Too Much Focus on Code Quality - Google have commented that code quality is not a factor & have suggested thinner code - so coding errors as long as long as they don't affect usability are not a problem.

11. Poor use Anchor Text in Menus/Page links - such as 'more info', 'click here', 'products', 'our services' don't help with indexing your website so using keywords within the anchor text is beneficial to both user & search engine - confirmed as a factor in Google

12. Missing Keywords in H1 H2 H3 H4 - missing keywords in headings doesn't help your visitors or search engines. Keywords in headings is rated as one of the more important Google ranking factors.

13. Poor Page Theming - as of November 2000 Google started using page theming as a method of indexing websites. This a combination of factors that relate to a theme. This includes titles, headings, proximity of keywords, position of keywords on page, keywords in outbound links

14. Invisible/Missing Contact Details - there is nothing worse than a website where you have to hunt for contact information. This is bad for visitors especially if your primary objective of the website is to receive a call.

15. Poor Positions of Keywords - sometimes referred to as keyword prominence should be used wisely in titles, headings & menu structures

16. Poor use of Page & Directory Names - this again is all too common, if a page is about web design then name it 'web-design' or 'web_design' and try to avoid joining words: webdesign. Correctly named pages are a small part of the Google algorithm.

17. Lack of Keyword Targeted Landing Pages - Say if the business you are for is a web design company - its is good practice to write separate pages about web design related specialties such as PHP web design, ASP web design etc.

18. Image Based Navigation - whilst most designers are aware of this nowadays, there are still a few 'ready cooked' website generators that use this element - it's unnecessary at best & poor at worst.

19. Single File Flash sites/ Flash Intros - whilst Google have confirmed they are getting better at reading flash - they have also confirmed that single flash files may be poor for direct links to page content - hence this is not advised & neither are any flash intros most people find these annoying nowadays.

20. Using Frames - Frames are a way of presenting website content from another site however are a problem for web spiders who would have indexed these sites already - hence it's an element which is not advised. These days you can present another website within your own page using AJAX

21. Large Image/Media size - it's advisable to reduce any photos for site to load faster and host media such as video on a CDN to improve performance.

22. Thick Code - such as excess javascript & css should be moved to external CSS/java files to clean up code.

23. Limited Website Structure - If your website consists of only a few pages then its OK to write in vanilla X/HTML - however professional designers nowadays use PHP or ASP - hence headers & footers & other page elements can be easily amended without having to make multiple page changes & of course the other benefit is a massive choice of functionality. Many sites today offer CMS built in either PHP or ASP

24. Poor Keyword Positioning - Lack of attention to keyword location may lower your position in SERPs - has been confirmed as a secondary Google Ranking Factor

25. Poor Keyword proximity - ie keywords consisting of 2 or more words - the position of these words relative to each other is one of the more important factors according to Google

26. Poor URL Structures - especially in database driven sites - designers are advised to present keyword-based URL structure - Google have confirmed this is a secondary ranking factor.

27. Not using Keyword Highlight - using bold underline strong occasionally on targeted keywords & keyword in lists apparently is a secondary ranking factor & should be used in moderation

28. Stop Words in Titles - such as: a, and, the, in, this, it, who, at etc - are all words that are not indexed in search engines hence are not recommended to be used in titles.

29. Wall of Text - Avoid making your website look like a wikipedia entry, be short, to the point and break up long paragraphs with related images/media.

30. Javascript Menus & Links - avoid Javascript driven menus/links - whilst Google have admitted they are better at indexing these, best to leave out - where this is not an option a sitemap is highly advisable.

31. Flashing Images/text - makes sites look cheap, dated & unprofessional. Visitors are quite capable of working though your site without these. On the flip side make sure your links are easily identifiable by colour/underline.

32. Spelling Mistakes - obvious really - but it is an important factor that affects the quality of a website. Make sure that your page names, links text, & headings etc. do not contain spelling or grammar mistakes.

33. No Call for action - this could be as simple as leaving placing a phone number on every page or lead capture for a freebie you offer or an easy place to find your cart/checkout - fail to do this & your CR will suffer.
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Your comments welcome

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Article was written by Chris G. an SEO consultant for the professional web design team at artviper.net. He has achieved P1 ranks for website design münchen, webdesign münchen in google.de, 'professional website design' in Google.com