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The most recent website boom showed us all that the business world and businesses of all types and sizes were indeed ready to enter the world of the internet and embrace the new technology. However, things have changed significantly, and many sites have not moved on, and kept up with the times. Here are a number of errors that many sites still make in today’s current internet culture.

1)Infrequent updates- To construct a site that gains the most unique visitors and ultimately the most business, you must have the best, most up to date site possible. If a visitor feels that the site is not properly maintained and updated, then the chances are they will “click away” and find a similar business and site that they feel does regularly update and maintain their information. They need to feel that the information is as current as possible and therefore as relevant as they can easily find.

2) JavaScript pop ups- A JavaScript pop up, is a notification screen (window) that opens when you visit a site that gives you a message and normally has an ”ok” button at the end. This was very popular during the initial internet boom. But it quickly became over used, and subsequently the technique became a real “no – no”.

Not only did web designers add the pop up to the main page of their site, but they made the mistake of also adding one to each and every sub page within it. The problem was that typically these pop ups did not contain any relevant information that would be viewed as important to the visitor. This soon became very annoying, and is even more annoying now, as most newer computer systems also have a sound effect that accompanies the pop up.

If you have a message that you feel MUST be displayed to the visitor, before they can go further into your site, then a JavaScript pop up may still be the best option, but if you do utilize this technique I strongly caution you to be careful not to overuse it.

3) Heavy graphics- It is important to remember that not all internet users have the benefit of a broadband connection. You need to remember that a percentage of your worldwide visitors will still be on a dialup connection. Typically this means that they will have trouble downloading your site, especially if you have a large quantity of graphics on your pages. Unless your website is in flash, I would try to avoid using any animated graphics, as they normally involve large file sizes, long downloads and do not provide valuable information to the visitor. A simple site that clearly delivers the intended message will now be much better received than one that concentrates on being a design piece with clever graphics and amusing animations.

4) Using heavy, high contrasting colors- This was also very popular during the initial internet boom. It also soon became unpopular due to overuse. It was initially believed that use of high contrasting colors would grab the user’s attention. While this may well have been true, it also carried with it a negative effect since it tends to hurt the user’s eyes, and therefore sway them away from spending time within the site.

5) Clutter up pages- If your website appears to be cluttered and badly organized, then visitors will be less likely to progress deeper into your site, particularly if they think they will have to invest too much time weeding out the information they need from the other information that they perceive is useless to them. You do not want to run the risk of having too much information on each page, and you also never want to include more then one topic on each page as well. A good navigation system will eliminate many potential problems that you and your visitors may have. The visitor needs to be able to find the information that they are looking for, quickly and easily. Only then will they be prepared to invest time and progress further into the site.

6) Lack of a navigation system- Many of the sites created during the internet boom lacked one of the most important elements needed within a site. So often once a visitor clicked on a page, they were taken to a new page, without ever having a way to return or move to other pages within the site. A navigation system insures that the visitor will be able to view your entire site. A good navigation system will both take the visitor back to the page that they originally came from, to the main page, and to the other major parts of the site. Additionally, the navigation (normally at the bottom of the page) should have links to other items, such as website polices and terms and conditions. Navigation systems should always have a series of text links which can be easily utilized with a dialup connection, as well as any other more graphic buttons or links.

7) Over using Advertising- This is actually a fairly recent new problem with websites. This situation started as soon as Google started their Adsense program. Many sites have more ads then  information on their pages. A visitor does not want to have to spend time weeding  though ads to find the information and content that they are looking for. The reality of the situation is: A visitor is more likely to click on an advertisement link if they do not feel that they are being bombarded by them. Nobody likes to be sold to! This is definitely a situation where the old adage “less is more” is certainly true.

Last Updated ( Saturday, 14 June 2008 )