7 Mistakes When Developing Websites

Posted on: September 23, 2015

Website building isn’t a simple thing. Creating a fully functional and attractive website can be tricky. However, there are some development mistakes that we may make:

  1. We don’t create custom 404 webpage: Web servers generate standard 404 webpage. However, we should make sure that they friendly and helpful. Once in a while, even our loyal readers make mistakes when spelling our website address. We should provide a way for them to go back to our website. In some cases, “Page Not Found” message isn’t sufficient and we should deliver additional information. What’s worse, it is possible for us to lose traffic from visitors. To make error page friendlier, we should add sitemap and other information.
  2. No redirect for non-www URL: Many web surfers don’t use www when they type our URL address. It is possible that we lose web traffic when we don’t set up automatic redirect. If we want to maintain top ranking, it is necessary for both www and non-www URLs to link to our website.
  3. We don’t slice web graphics correctly: Properly modified web graphics should enhance our website’s overall feel and look. Additionally, we should make sure that all pages in our websites are properly defined. This should also make sure that our webpage could load faster, because web browsers don’t need to resize them. Web browser will have better loading time and reduced workload if we use proper defined and sized images. This will encourage customers to stay, instead of leaving so soon.
  4. We don’t add Favicon: It may seem like a trivial addition to our website, but can actually have a huge impact. Many Internet users identify specific websites with their unique Favicon. It will be displayed on our bookmark list, web browsers address bar and other areas. People will quickly identify our website by its Favicon, much faster than reading our URL and website description. This should enhance our website’s overall professionalism.
  5. We don’t enable RSS Auto-Discovery: It is a technique that allows web browsers and other tools to properly detect new RSS feed updates of our website. It is important to include RSS feed functionality and enable this technique. Many browsers could automatically detect RSS readers and display it properly. This should also encourage people to subscribe our website, if there’s an update to our website.
  6. We don’t purchase related domains: Web domains are actually quite affordable, especially for companies with larger budget. In order to protect our brand, it is highly advisable to register domains related our main brand domain name. As an example, we could purchase the .net and .org variations of our brand. This is a good practice to prevent other people to impersonate our company and cause financial losses to loyal customers.
  7. We don’t use user-friendly website navigation: The navigation structure of our website plays a significant role to the stickiness of our website. Our website navigation should be kept consistent all around, so people are able to navigate it smoothly and easily. In reality, most people don’t arrive to our website through its main page, because search engines typically show our webpages that contain relevant information to clients.