No one designs a website to deliberately turn off clients, prospects, and
search engines, but all too often that is the end result.

What have they done to turn site visitors off with web design? Here is a
list of the most common mistakes we see.

1. *Confusing Navigation *- Do you make it difficult for people to find
information? Often we see confusing site architecture, or clever page
titles, which don’t mean anything to the average visitor. I made that
mistake on the first roundpeg website. The pages all rhymed: Create,
Generate, Colloaborate.. etc. People left, never knowing that we did
graphic design, brainstorming strategy sessions and team building.

2. *Hard to find contact information* – I read somewhere that the number one reason people come to your website is to find your contact information.

Is your phone number visible on the home page? Is the CONTACT US button easy to find?

3. *Copy that talks about You not Me*. I know it is your website, but before someone cares about your years in business, mission statement, and return policy, they want to know – “Can you solve my problem?”

4. *Technical jargon* – If I knew what HSPF, SEER, AFUE, VSP, SEO … all stood for, would I really need you?

5. *Graduate level text – *This is a hard one for many people to get
over. On the one hand you want to sound smart. On the other hand you want people to actually read your content. Remember even the NY Times is written at an 8th grade level. Why? It is done to make it easy for people to digest the information quickly.

6. *Unreadable text on dark backgrounds – * It may look cool and edgy, but if you want people to be able to read your site, pay attention to readability

7. *Irritating flash animations, auto play videos and audio tracks *-
They are cute, clever and you spent a fortune to create them. But the third or fourth time a visitor comes back, they want to skip past them. And if they are viewing your site on an iPhone, they can’t see them anyway. Also in this category: *popups, pop unders and pop overs,* which block the view of the very information the visitor has come to find.

8. *Slow loading pictures* – Did you forget to convert those high
resolution images to small, quick loading GIFs? By the time the image has loaded your visitor has made a snack, gone for a walk or found someone else to do what you do.

9. *Too much, too much, too much – * read full article »