7 mistakes to avoid when making a high quality website

Monday, November 2, 2015

Not enough contrast

We have to be able to read your texts and images.

If, on your website, there are texts that are displayed over images, make sure that your text is either bold or has a good contrast compared to the image to make sure we'll be able to read it.

Bad navigation

Make sure your main menu is visible and easy to use. I would even recommend you make sure your menu isn't too long either.

A user shouldn't ask himself where he needs to go to find what he's looking for. Your navigation needs to be intuitive. That way, you'll prevent any user frustration and will greatly help lower your rebound rate.

Using bad or low quality photos

We already talked about this in a previous article, all the pictures you use on your website need to be high quality and represent your product/services.

Also, your pictures, especially the nicest and largest, shouldn't be hidden by buttons / texts / special effects.

If that's the case, ask yourself it these elements are removing the "wow" effect of these pictures. If so, you'll need to make some changes so that it doesn't.

Your website doesn't use grids

No, your website doesn't need to be straight, boring and completely aligned from end to end.

That being said, if your website doesn't use grids, it becomes a problem. Like newspapers, everything needs to follow the grid.

It allows your website to be well adapted for mobile phones as well as being more attractive to users. Nothing's worst than uncontrolled chaos.

Not having a responsive website

Your website needs to work on mobile phones and tablets!

 

According to statistics, in 2013, 6 canadians out of 10 have accessed the Internet on a mobile device. And you can bet that it's only been increasing since then because "Smartphone users have increased to reach 57% in Canada, which is more than the world average of 42%."

Missing links

Missing or corrupt links aren't only bad for your SEO, they're a source of frustration for your clients. If you want to bring your customers on another website or on a PDF or whatever, make sure your links work before putting it online.

Same thing for images. Make sure they're always available.

Sound that starts automatically

OYes, it's frustrating when you're visiting a website when, all of a sudden, you hear loud sounds of chirping birds! Some people get so irritated that they'll basically change website to find what they're looking for somewhere else. It's not because it caps your attention that everyone will like it.

If you're really convinced that adding sound helps your website, at least give your customers the liberty to start and stop easily anytime they want.

BONUS: Here are some more mistakes you can easily prevent:

• Forms that don't work or are too complicated,
• No search engine,
• website filled with grammar mistakes,
• Too many links or too much information on your home page,
• Buttons that are too small,
• Font that's hard to read.

In conclusion, take time to fix these small details on your website. One of the main advantages the web has is that's is pretty easy to make changes on-the-fly!