What will you learn?
This session will provide you with a good basic understanding of the types of Web Design mistakes you can avoid.
What can you expect to learn?
- Most common web design mistakes made
- Secret hints on what website professionals don't want to tell you
- DIY tips for your website to help improve performance
Who is it for?
Businesses thinking about increasing their traffic online and improving on page optimisation.
Transcript: Web Design Mistakes to Avoid
Welcome to our webinar on the web design mistakes to avoid. My name is Dominique and I am your online marketing expert here at Web Central. Now just before we get into it, there is a little bit of housekeeping to get through. Our webinar will run for about 15 mins or so and throughout the webinar we will have Ollie our website design expert, available to answer any questions you might have throughout the presentation. At the end I will leave the webinar open for 5 minutes or so and we will continue with questions. We will also automatically send you a copy of the slides and a recording of this webinar by close of business today so if you don’t receive it, please contact me, my details are on the reminders you will have received for this webinar. Also, please let me know if you experience any technical difficulties throughout the webinar, by asking a question in the box located on the top right hand side of the screen.
Ok, today we will go through the 6 most common mistakes that businesses make when designing their websites, we also give you some hints on what you should be asking for when working with web designers.
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So the first web design mistake to avoid is that you website is not polished. This tip is a great one to start on and something very close to my heart. I started my career in retail management and it was my responsibility to ensure that my store front and front windows were constantly tidied and updated. If they weren’t changed at least once every two weeks, customers would lose interest and the space would be wasted. The same principle applies with your website. Your site is an important sales channel for your business and as such it must be updated and look polished at all times. You wouldn’t allow peeling paint on your shop front, old products in your windows, or an untidy and unorganised reception desk in your physical business so why would you allow it on your website. It is so important to constantly manage, maintain and monitor your site. More and more consumers are using the internet to find what they want before they go to a store and buy or pick up the phone. So your site has the difficult job of convincing prospects or customers to shortlist you as they make an important purchase decision, even before you see or speak to them. So make sure it is always up-to-date, has a strong call-to-action and the contact details are easily accessible.
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The second mistake on our list is that your website design ignores search engines. It is really important that you design your site to be found in the big search engines such as Google and Bing. To understand more about what this means, it is important to remember that search engines operate in a text-based world. When search engine “spiders” are sent to scan a website, they read the content of a site which means that they focus mainly on text. So, it is really important that your website has plenty of it. This means, clear and concise headings, creative titles and content rich body copy. The text should contain keywords that are relevant and consistent with the overall website theme. Another point to note is the amount of pictures you include in your website. Although pictures prove to be very engaging and easy on the eye they will not be the deciding factor on whether or not your website is found in cyber space.
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Mistake number 3 is that your website design gives people a headache. This mistake is something that usually happens with over design. When businesses or designers want to make an edgy, exciting website that pulls people in with its marvelous tricks it can sometimes have the backfire and give visitors a headache. Things like maddening motion, gastly colour schemes, inconsistent look and feel, poor navigation and slow downloads all contribute to a poor website experience and should be avoided. Something I wanted to quickly talk to you all about that came from a recent experience I had, was colour and the use of colour on websites. The other day I was searching through a few sites to find a beautician as I am going to a wedding in another state and I have been given the task of making sure the bridal party has a place to be pampered etc.. so I was searching and I came across three different sites that I honestly could have mistaken for a rainbow… and not in a good way. So I had a chat to some of the web consultants here and got the skinny on what colours are good for what websites and a general idea of what they all mean. Green is the color of nature and health it can represent growth, nature, money, safety, environmentalism. Green is a relaxing color that is easy on the eye whereas dark green can be associated with being new or inexperienced as being green or a "green horn". Orange can stimulate the appetite and is good for food businesses, whilst blue can have the opposite effect. However blue is a really popular colour for websites as it is the colour of loyalty, trust, strength, and creativity. Purple and yellows can invite happiness and can be good for businesses promoting products and services for children and families but when they are darker and dimmer they can work better for older audiences. Black is a colour that works best as a complimentary colour and not a main colour unless you are promoting something very creative and emotion filled. Just remember, whatever message you are trying to communicate for your brand, all of the factors such as images, text and colours have a large impact on how it is perceived by potential customers. It is not something that should be overlooked. If you need help remember website and graphic designers are always available to answer your questions or give you some advice.
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Mistake 4 is mis-use of flash websites. Flash allows web designers to be creative and can have a great initial impact on visitors. However, websites should be built for practicality and web designers may not be telling you that flash doesn’t really fall in this category. Flashy flash sites are funky and fun but when you build your website, you need to ask yourself the most important question of all: How practical is my website? Flash brings many obstacles to a website user but here is a short lowdown on flash: You can’t copy any content with a flash site, this includes all of the text, headings, images and URLS. A flash website often doesn’t have a URL for every page, which means a user will not be able to bookmark a specific page or share the links I am sure you have all come across this, there are quite a few fashion sites that do this, and it frustrates me when I am looking through the different pages because for example, if I want to show someone a dress or top I like, I usually have to screen shot the image and copy it into an email along with the homepage URL. Other pain points with flash are the high costs associated with this type of site build, not being able to content manage these types of sites easily and not being able to view most flash sites properly on mobile devices and tablets. Now, whilst there are some pain points there are also good points so weigh up the pros and cons and if you have flash try to balance this out with text or put it as a feature of a page rather than have a full flash website.
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The last mistake is paying someone $150 an hr to make small changes on your site. You need to remember that web design has come a really long way in the past 2 or 3 years and it is no longer necessary to spend thousands and thousands of dollars on building a website, let alone maintaining one. If you are in the market for a redesign, opt for a website with a content management system. You’ll be able to easily update web content (product information, pricing, images, etc) at any time with a click of a button. Not being able to update your website yourself will decrease your ability to change content regularly which may also decrease your search engine ranking and bore your readers. Having a content management system is just as important for an information site as it is for an ecommerce site. If you have a CMS built in, you can create new content and constantly optimize your site without having to pay a web designer an hourly rate to do it for you. So remember to ask for a Content Management System (CMS) when building or re-building your site to avoid the unnecessary long term costs.
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So that brings us to the end of today’s webinar.. We hope this information has been helpful to you and that you have taken away some useful information about designing a website that is user friendly. Web Central are having an end of the month special on web design for webinar attendees. This means you can save 20% on a range of our web design plans. If you would like more info, or for terms and conditions please type “MORE INFO” into the question box on the top right hand side of the screen now. This offer is only valid until 5pm AEST [NZST] Friday 30th September. Thank you so much for attending today’s webinar and I hope to speak to you again soon.
Ok. So that brings us to the end of today’s webinar.. I really hope this information has been helpful to you and I hope you can take away some useful information about designing a website that is user friendly. Now if you would like to learn more about a content management system for your website, you can type “help” into the question box on the top right hand side of the screen now and I can have someone contact you about what is involved. And if you would like any information about web design, you can contact us using the number on the screen. Thank you so much for attending today’s webinar and I hope to speak to you again soon.
