In our previous post we highlighted some of the own goals you can ‘score’ if you do not take care to look at your website design as a website user rather than its owner.  In this post we conclude the article with further considerations:

More about those fonts

Most professional website designers care about what they do and the quality of the product they deliver to their clients.  In most cases when a site is first launched there is a consistency throughout the website of font style, font size and font colour. There is a good reason for this; it looks much more professional than a carousel of different styles and colours!  It can be quite frustrating to see how some website owners use different styles, colours and sizes of font in an attempt to be creative!

Different font styles, colours and sizes on the same page should be avoided at all costs.

Web Usability Issues

This is not just a compliance issue; it is about making a visit to your website an enjoyable and memorable experience for all your visitors.  People of all ages now use the internet and one of the largest increases in the number of people using the internet has been in the over 55’s.  It is important therefore to use typography that can be easily re-sized as if people cannot read your content they will certainly not buy your products or services.

Over Use of large file sized graphics

How often do you click on a link from the search engines only to find that your desired page takes an age to load?  Research in the USA has highlighted that the average time a web user is prepared to wait for a page to load is just 3 seconds – and then they will decide whether to stay and look around or move on within just a further 7 seconds!

Slow page loading times are usually down to the size of the page being loaded, particularly the size of any images on the page.  If your pages load slowly either reduce the number of images on the page or optimise (re-size) the images ‘for the web’.

And, there’s more…

In no particular order, but all guaranteed to drive your website visitors away:

• 3-D advertising that ‘leaps out’ at you when your mouse goes anywhere near it.
• Recently developed ‘Flash’ sites that regularly ask visitors to upgrade to the latest version of flash in order to be able to view the site – do you think people will bother?
• Similar to the point above but for websites developed using new Java and pester you to download the latest version to use their site.
• CSS (cascading style sheet) built sites that jump all over the place and make your visitors dizzy until the download has been completed.
• CSS/xml/flash log-in or registration panels that are not part of the page so the login / registration software doesn’t work

If you would like a professional analysis of how effective your website is both from a user and a search visibility point of view please leave a comment below or visit GB Web Marketing, Internet Marketing Services for UK Businesses.