This article is an ever-changing list of some common, controversial, and often forgotten mistakes that are made in web development. Most of them will apply to any website or blog, but please keep it mind that there will be cases where these would not apply and some you may dislike.

1. Presuming the phase “If you build it, they will come” – Even if you achieve the perfect website you still have to take steps to market that site. It becomes increasingly more necessary that you take the time to put the word out about your website online and offline. If you do not take the time to brag about your site, no one will.

2. Do not blend advertisements into content – It may increase your click through rate in the short term, but when a user thinks they are clicking on an internal link and then finds out you just tricked them – most will not be coming back.

3. Avoid splash pages (intro) to your website – These luckily are a dying fad, but at one time these were what a lot of websites prompted visitors with when they first gained access their website instead of the content they were attempting to reach.

4. Make unvisited links a different color from visited links – This is a basic usability tip. Users recognize the default link color easily, and are use to seeing visited links change color – it helps ensure they do not revisit pages unintentionally.

5. Ensure that your website is cross-browser compatible – Browsers are not created equal, and not all of them interpret code the same way. Like it or not, you need to make sure that your site appears correctly in popular browsers – browsershots.org is a great tool for doing this.

6. Music Players – Do not place a music player on your website; if I wanted to listen to music I would open my music player. It simply annoys visitors, and they have to hit the stop button every time they load another page. If you run a site related to music, then allow the user the option of starting the player when they are ready.

7. Do not overuse Flash if not necessary – Not only does Flash increase the load time of your website, it hurts your SEO, and excessive usage of Flash might also annoy some visitors. I suggest that you only use it when necessary.

8. Keep browser features intact – Do not break the back button, forward button, adjustments to focusing or any other browser functions – some people rely on them.

9. Do not open links in new windows – Allow the user to control his/her destiny, if they wish to come back to your site then they will by using the back button or other browser features.

10. Get your point across quickly – You need to make sure that the user can quickly identify the contents of the webpage; if they cannot figure out what the page is about then it’s pretty common they will just leave. Use your title tags, and headings to spell a clear message to the user.

11. Do not adjust the browser window size – Let the users control their own browser, resizing a browser can affect other tabs/windows they currently have opened.

12. Do not use hidden text – You should never attempt to trick search engines by using hidden text to fill your page with keywords or content to improve search engine ranking – this is simply an easy way to get ban from search results all together.

13. Do not try keyword stuffing – When adding the keyword tags to your pages ensure that the keywords you pick are relevant to the content on the page. The best thing to do is make sure each keyword is mentioned in the content multiple times. If you choose not to follow this rule it could result in a ban from Google.

14. Do not use visible visitor counters – Not only are these things unprofessional, they are completely pointless for visitors to even see. You should instead use an app like Google Analytics to quietly track all of that information for you.

15. Do not underline or change colors of normal text – Users have come to identify underline and different color text as links. Try to follow this simple rule so that users are not confused about what is a link and what is not one.

16. Format Content Correctly – Different standards apply when writing internet based content – you’re not writing a book. Make use of elements like bullet points, headers, sub headers, and list. Break content up.

17. Do not use tiny font sizes – Ensure that contents readable for all different kinds of visitors. The older the visitors are the more likely they will have a harder time reading the content, and most of these same people are unaware of browser resizing options.

18. Be consistent – Do not change the theme or link colors midway in the site. Ensure that your theme follows the same throughout the site.

19. Do not put text (content) into images – Put text in HTML when possible. Web designers will sometimes use images for their content or information because they mutilate fonts and sizes easily. But this is non-robot friendly (SEO), cannot be easily resized (like text can), doesn’t work for text reading software for the blind, and will increase load time.

20. Avoid bright harsh colors – Ensure that the font color is easy to read on your choice of background color. Also keep in mind just because you can read your bright pink font on your yellow background doesn’t mean everyone can. I have always found that black font on a white background to be the best choice.

21. Provide a basic search function – Search ability is one of the most important navigators in a website. You can now give your visitors the power of search by using Google’s Custom Search Engine.

22. Use ALT and TITLE attributes – Make sure you are making use of these attributes because it will not only help your SEO, but also help the blind with text readers.

23. Do not require a registration unless necessary – Do not force users to sign up when it’s not necessary. Period.

24. Make use of standard fonts – It would be wise to use standard web fonts when creating a website, because if a visitor doesn’t have the font you have selected then it will pick a different one to replace it.

25. Using Pop-ups – Making use of pop-ups for content based pages or even ad based pages has become a bad idea over the years with the increase in pop-up blockers.

26. Over-crowding – This is pretty common for web designers to add to many elements to pages. It gives off an unprofessional look and is difficult to navigate through all the information.

27. Lengthy Pages – People avoid reading lengthy pages. Being brief with your message will normally cause those pages will have a higher readership rate. If necessary setup a series of well navigated pages if you have a lot to say.

28. Slow loading pages – Believe it or not, people still have dial-up. Visitors will quickly move on to a different webpage if yours doesn’t load quickly enough. Attempt to trim your pages down so even the visitors with the worst internet connection can access information is always a good idea.

29. JavaScript based navigation – Not only does Google promote you to avoid the use of JavaScript based navigation, but also some users and companies run with scripts off while searching the internet making them not able to properly navigate your website.

30. Get a Sitemap – Sitemaps are simply a page with list of the most important or all of the pages on your website. Creating an XML Sitemap file for your site helps search engines discover the pages on your site easily.

31. Do not disable right clicking – Normally the webmasters doing this is attempting to stop the you from gaining access source code or image locations, but it’s highly annoying and users can still access those areas even after right click function is disabled by using the main menu.

32. Refrain from complex URLs – A keyword based URL structure will not make only improve your websites search engine rankings, but will also help visitors easily indentify content by URL name.

33. Do not use images for navigation links – When creating your websites navigation you should make use of text instead of images. Text based navigation is not only better on your load times but also you should never do something that you can easily be create with a style sheet.

34. Optimization of CSS & Images – Take the time to optimize your CSS and images – this will help lower load times and total weight of your website un-cached will be reduced. CleanCSS.com.

35. Common problems exist with Flash, Frames and AJAX – you can’t link to certain web pages. Try not to use Frames at all and use Flash and AJAX sparingly for better SEO results.
User Submitted

36. Do not have video start playing automatically – too many sites do this these days and I do not ever want a video to start playing every time I hit a particular website’s homepage.

37. Animations and flashing text effects is so 1999 – Cheesy Animations and those flashing text effects that can be done using CSS were widely popular in the earlier years of the internet but we have moved past that.

(This article was originally posted on the website http://netjelly.com. Here is a link to the original article. I just want to be clear, I did not write this article, but it is a great article. Thanks. Published by Zach Hornsby, on October 25th, 2009 at 8:57 am.)

If your answer is “NO” then you have greatly diminished the “Goal Realization Capability” of your website.

Think about an interested visitor to your website and how you have missed a potential conversion opportunity by not presenting him a strong “Call to Action”.

Goals you set for your website may be selling your product or service, white paper downloads, a newsletter sign-up, taking a survey etc. At a stage where the visitor is convinced that you have something valuable for him – you have to nail it with a statement which is hard for the visitor to ignore. This is where the Call to Action steps in – a clear step to tell them what they can expect and what you want them to do.

Every visit to your website is a precious commodity and without CTAs you are simply wasting the time of your interested visitors and ofcourse your efforts on the website. Look for the segment of users coming to your website and accordingly treat them with specific “Call to Actions”.

What you need to keep in mind for CTAs

• Uniqueness: The phrase used relates the PAIN the visitor is experiencing. HIT the PAIN!

• Position: A ‘clear and visible’ call to action has to be placed ‘above the fold’. ‘Above the fold’ is that part of the website which you see without a scroll. Research states that 60% – 80% of visitors will not scroll your website ‘down the fold’, so the best opportunity is lying ‘above the fold’.

• Consistent: Place your call to action on every page that talks with the FLOW of website. If the user is not convinced on the first page and is looking for more educational content, flow them to next page but keep a call to action available on all those pages where you think the user may convert. No looking around for visitor, this has to be available right when it is needed.

• Color: A consistent color on the CTAs so that visitor can distinguish them – works wonders.

• Easy to Understand: The short and precise language can eliminate the guess work and helps user to take action.

• Be Specific: As discussed earlier, “Call to Action” should be tailored to audience interest. Before writing any “Call to Action”, you need to ask yourself few questions:
o What is my user base?
o What are their interests?
o What motivates them?
o How can I help them?

• Size: The size of “Call to Action” does matter. Do make it look bigger than other Action buttons available on the page. Bigger grabs attention.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/web_design_and_development/article_1942.shtml

If you are in interested in web design and internet marketing, then you are probably aware of the importance of content on your website. Internet marketing has changed with time. While link building and other techniques used to be popular, today it is the content on your website that is primarily responsible for its rank on search engines.

The popularity of internet has meant has put significant pressure on the effort required for achieving a top rank on search results. It has become vital to focus on a strategy to publish content frequently on a website or blog.

Although it is difficult to publish quality content every day, it is important if you are serious about making money on the internet. I have been publishing content for websites and blogs for many years now. In this time, my approach to creating new content has changed significantly. While before it took me almost one week to write new articles, today I can publish more than one article a day. With experience of publishing new content frequently, I have formulated a new approach to publish new content. It allows me to publish content frequently with ease. As a result of this I have seen massive rise in website traffic.
Needless to say the earnings on my website and blog have increased manifold.

Tips to publish content frequently:

1. Start by listing down titles for your content

I do this as a standard word or excel document where I basically maintain a simple list of titles on which I would like to publish about. This is a good starting point. Whenever I come across a topic I want to publish content about, I and also allows me to keep track of work at hand. Whenever I come across an interesting topic which I think my readers will find useful, I list them down.

2. Don’t hesitate to refine your list

Based on what you find when researching your topics, you may find that some topics are not very easy to cover. If a topic is difficult to write about, you should not hesitate to replace the topic with something that is easier to research and write about. Sometimes the topic may remain the same however you may wish to cover it from a different angle. In
either case, your list of article topics is not definite and should be changed if ongoing research requires.

3. Expand you content in steps

Whenever you find some spare time, you should visit your list and expand the content. The content I publish is seldom written in a single step. I often expand my list by including notes or bullet points of information first. I can do this for multiple articles simultaneously. This also helps me by allowing me to write content for multiple articles as the same time.

4. Write multiple article simultaneously

As I have mentioned above, I often write multiple articles at the same time. If you maintain an active list of articles to write, then this is easily possible. It is much easier to manage a list if you are expanding content on an ad-hoc basis. It may appear initially that doing this will take longer to publish an article. In practice however I have found this approach to work better that writing one article at a time. I spend a lot of time on the internet and read many blogs and forums every day. Whenever I come across information that is relevant to one of the content topics in my list, I make it a point to note it down. This way content for my articles is able to expand even when I am not explicitly working on my articles.

5. You don’t have to write an article in the same day.

My content publishing strategy involves publishing new content on a daily basis. This however does not imply that an article has to be completed the same day. Actively covering multiple articles at the same time also offers the flexibility to spend more than a day on certain articles without reducing the frequency at which you publish content.

6. Use bullet points

Bullet points are effective while taking notes during research as well as in completed articles. I often start my research by writing short bullet points of viewpoints I intend to cover in an article. This saves me time and allows me complete my research faster. I can do this for multiple articles simultaneously. I then go back to my draft and expand the points as required.

7. Always review your content before you publish

The importance of revising your content may seem obvious but I have listed it down to reinforce its importance. At the end of the day, quality of the content you publish is more important than the quantity. I always revisit all new content I create in order to review and find ways to improve its flow. You don’t have to spend hours on it. A quick glance with a fresh mind is enough to improve its quality.

8. Automate your submission

Last but not the least; you should spend more time to write articles than get caught up in the publishing process. Publishing content on your website or blog is easy. However in order to maximize the benefits, you should also publish your articles on various article directories and content websites. There are many article submission software that can do this for you. Some even do automated submissions. I personally prefer a semi automated approach. I use Article Submitter Platinum which offers manual, semi-automated as well as fully automated submissions. Using this tool allows me to focus entirely on writing new content as opposed to spending time on submissions.

If you want people to buy, you have to ask for the sale. Really, it is that simple. Yet it is impossible to tell you how many ads, web sites, brochures, sales letters, etc, are floating around out there that is not asking.

So, what is a call to action? It is telling people what action you wish them to take. Typical calls to action include:

Hurry in today.

Click here now.

Nothing terribly sexy, However, if you are looking to see an expansion in your buyers, leads, revenue, etc, this is an important component. However, you may be thinking, is it obvious? Why else would you be running advertisements if you did not want people to pay for what you are selling? It is true, people do
know, if they stop to think about it, that you would possibly like them to buy from you.

However, the misfortunate fact is your potential customers are not going to spend that time thinking about it. People have too many things happening in their lives that to spend that time and energy on your business.

If they do read your ad or promotional material and it does not contain a call to action, they will likely mention, “Oh, that’s nice” and go on to the next thing.

In addition, even though they were interested in buying your offerings, they may not know what their next step should be. Do they choose the phone? In fact, if they do not know what they should be doing, chances are they will not do anything at all. Therefore, you require saying your potential customers what you deserve them to do. Remember, people are full of activity, and if you do not provide a serious
business, they possibly will not do business with you at all.

So, back to the above call to actions. Did you notice they all had something in common? The word “now” or, in the case of the first one, “today”. If people think they can purchase from you anytime, they will mention, “oh, I can do this later.” In fact, later rarely comes. You require giving them a circumstance to purchase from you right now, while they are interested. Adding the “now” or some other urgency or scarcity method, maybe a limited time offer or few copies left statement is a great alternative to push people into doing what you deserve them to do right now and not later.

While we are on the topic of calls to action, think about one other kind of advertising campaign where you rarely see calls to action. These are called branding campaigns. Normally, huge corporations like MacDonald’s, Nike, Starbucks, and Target show them on national television. In those instances, the businesses are building a brand that will cause you to think of their business first when you are interested in buying their products. For example, when you are hungry, you think of MacDonald. If you require new athletic shoes, you think of Nike, and if you are dying for that cup of Joe, you will think of Starbucks, etc.

While there is nothing wrong with branding campaigns, they are tougher to track than campaigns with a special call to action, Sale ends Saturday, call before Friday to receive your free gift, etc. Those campaigns are also call direct response because you are asking the purchaser to respond literally. Direct response campaigns could be test, so you have a good idea what is employ and what is not, and can tweak the campaign accordingly. In addition, if the campaign does not require getting a salesperson involved, i.e. if the call to action is for the purchaser to whip out his wallet right there, the campaign will just run itself, and make cash all by itself.

You are require to do more than add a call to action to have a potent direct response campaign, but that does not negate the power a call to action can bring to your campaigns. Branding campaigns are closely impossible to test, track and tweak. They either appear to work or do not appear to work. In addition, if they do not appear to work, it is very complicated to start tweaking to improve the response rate.

However, branding is yet very, very important. As a business proprietary, you require a good brand and you require communicating that brand successfully. In fact, occasionally it produces sense to run a branding campaign. However for most cases is to mix branding and direct response. Your brand is communicating clearly in your ads and promotional materials, but you also exploit some direct response formulas at the same time. If nothing else, make sure you do not forget the call to action.

Want to include a call to action in your promotional materials but do not know where to start? Here is an easy systematic formula:

1. Understand your aspiration for the ad or promotional material. Why are you running this ad, establishing this web site, printing this brochure? Is it to produce leads?

3. That is it, that is your call to action. Whatever the result you wish for the campaign is what you have to be asking people to do.