1. IT'S NOT A RACE - If you have a business or a web idea that you want to promote online . . . DO NOT HURRY to develop it. The most effective and useful websites on the internet have taken weeks, months, even years to develop and perfect!

If you rush, you will miss things! - Take the extra week, research your competitors, see how you can beat them with your website, come up with new ideas, do something differnt!

By taking the extra time, you can ensure that you have covered all aspects of your business and how you are going to promote it on the web successfully.


2. WHERE ON EARTH DO I GO? - There is NOTHING WORSE than visiting a website and you can't find the menu. It's hidden, it's flash animated, it doesn't work properly or it's even written in another language to be arty!

If you create a website with poor navigation, you can bet that users will spend an average 2 seconds on your website - and they will be spending that time trying to locate the back button on their browser!

Make your navigation clear, crisp and precise so that users can easily navigate around and find the info they need. By doing this they will stay on your website longer which can lead to future enquires for you business.

Try it out! What you think might be a good idea for navigation could be horrible for someone else. Why? Because you know how the menu will work in your head and other people would have no clue.


3. IT IS A MESS! - So you have 6 different columns, 5 different images, moving pictures and a nice big pop up banner and it's all on the one page. . . where do you want me to look?

LOSE THE CLUTTER PEOPLE!!

Your website needs to have the MOST IMPORTANT information CLEARLY made available to maximise your potential business.

If I visit a website and there are 10 different calls to action, I leave straight away due to sheer confusion.

This is a massive flaw that people have with their websites. They think that the more information they have on the page the better - yes i'll give you credit that a lot of information can help, just not all on one page . . . spread it out.

And obviously people leaving your website is a bad thing. Not only will you have a high bounce rate, but you will more than likely find your website ranking will head down the google chain and struggle to boost itself up because no one is visiting it!

Just remember:

Put the most important and relative information on the page. Put yourself in your potential visitor's shoes. They know NOTHING about you or your services. If they were to visit your site, would they be able to pick up the services you offer nice and quick? This is imperative- Use images to illustrate a certain point and not just for decoration. Images form a large part of clutter so make sure they are only there if you need them!


4. It don't matter if it's Black or White . . . or red or yellow or green with a little purple . . .

Stop overdoing it on the colour . . . . The other day I visited a children's website and I swear it had every possible colour in the world on the one page. This is not good, not good at all.

When people think of colours, they think "I need to make it look pretty", but what you should be thinking is "how can I use colours to direct my users' attention".

By this, I mean that if you have a tagline, header, or something important you want to point out to the user, colour should be your first port of call as it's where people's attention is drawn to.

When it comes to colour also, you need to make sure your colours match and complement each other - and please MAKE SURE it matches your logo . . . I can't tell you how many times I have seen a website with a Logo that does not even match the website colours and it looks horrible. 

If you are stuck on colours, Google colour charts or colour themes make sure the colours you are using match, otherwise you will lose a visitor's attention.


There are many other small things that people do wrong on websites, what you need to do is plan it properly, use common sense and most of all make sure that the website is user friendly!

If you need some advice on optimising your website to ensure it reaches is maximum possibilities with your target market, please give KAYWEB a call on 1300 794 636 and we will be able to provide you with some advice.

Now go get planning!