10 Money Murdering Mistakes No Web Designer Would Dare Tell You
Web marketing in today’s world is more accessible than it ever has been before. Many host sites offer you the chance to build websites for free, allowing a substantial cost-savings to those that choose to go it alone without the help of a web designer. Of course, there is a steep learning curve to taking this route, and you are apt to make amateurish mistakes which can significantly cut into your ROI. Below are the most helpful cost-saving tips that will save you from money-murdering headaches.
- Abandoning Your Sales Pitch
Every business site faces the same dilemma—attempt to sell to potential customers who, as a rule, don’t want to be “sold.” However, erring too far with a soft pitch angle will result in missing sales. Instead, invest more time into perfecting your click-through navigation strategy, and less time perfecting every last detail of your landing page’s visual appeal.
- Widget soup
Yesterday’s “There’s an app for that,” has become today’s “there’s a widget for that.” Yes, these features are neat, but add too many and your site will be slowed down considerably. Always make sure you are serving your customer and not indulging your own techie fascinations.
- Pictures taking the place of 1000 words
Another feature notorious for slowing down load speeds? Too-large images! Keep these to a minimum to avoid click-aways from sluggish sites.
- Sloppy copy
And while we’re on the subject of images? Don’t let a beautiful aesthetic replace genuinely skilled copy. Images are meant to enhance copywriting, not the other way around.
- Amateur hour
Creating a visually stunning design, filled with cool features may be the more fun approach, but it can lead you astray of the purpose of your site. In order to get customers in front of your site in the first place, familiarize yourself with SEO and apply it strategically.
- Ignoring on-page visual optimization
Another tip for getting the most out of your visuals that you may have overlooked? Don’t forget to add ‘alt text’ for each image. Otherwise any relevant impact they may have will be completely overlooked in search engines.
- Downplaying your mobile traffic
Perfecting your desktop site without paying the same attention to detail on your mobile version will allow the 70% of people who spend more of their online time on their smartphones to slip through your fingertips.
- Not fixing broken links
Nothing steers people away from your site permanently than reaching a 404 error screen with no trackback feature. If you have a broken or malfunctioning link, you need to know about it to correct it. Always perform regular screenings of your site to catch these.
- Pop-ups are a turn-off
Another feature beloved by novice web designers yet detested by prospective customers—the pop up. Include them sparingly.
- Flash dance
As a general rule, the more visually attractive a flash feature is, the worse it performs on search engines. Don’t fall victim to this easy mistake!