We started with a very clutter home page and ended up with a cleaner showcase of items. This site is running on the Volusion platform and the client maintains and updates the website themselves and only engages me when they run into issues or require some advanced template editing.

Go check them out!

So what’s the latest trends to keep you in fashion? Basically any website that adheres to the old school graphic art and print marketing gurus. I believe this is due to the mobile and tablet platforms becoming more of a mainstay in every home.

1. High Resolution Background Photos
2. Tablet Platforms
3. QR bar codes
4. Social Integration
5. Simple Color Schemes
6. HTML5 and CSS3

As the tablet platform continues to capture how we access online content, print media and graphic layout will be the keys to a successful design. Combined with clean CSS and JavaScript slideshows new websites as well as “weblifts” will deliver content with the ease and navigation of our paper tabloid siblings.

I am going to give you 25 examples.

If you have been thinking about creating your own website and you
want your future visitors to come back to you later then you’ve got to
do a lot to impress them in an very short period of time. As little as
6 seconds! First impressions are really important, especially on the
internet, so remember, you have to do a lot in a really short time.

Many
individuals or small business owners often opt to design and build
their own websites. If you don’t have experience or previous website
design background you might make a lot of mistakes. If you are a
beginner then there are several things you should keep in mind to avoid
before designing your website.

1. Slow Loading Pages

Problem: Have you ever visited a website and waited forever for it to load?

Solution: Optimize your images at a lower resolution to achieve faster loading pages. Keep your page sizes well under 60 KB.

 

2. Page Layout

Problem: Websites that have the navigation in different places throughout the site. It looks cluttered and unprofessional.

Solution:
Be consistent and be organized in your websites layout. Make sure all
your web pages look the same and the websites navigation is in the same
location on each page.

3. Wild and Crazy Color Schemes

Problem:
Have you ever visited a website that has a background with a bright,
neon color and can’t read the content because the colors are so loud?
What’s the point?

Solution: Think “easy to read.” Avoid dark
backgrounds with light colored fonts. White background with black text
is best for the general public.

4. Spelling and Grammar Errors

Problem: Spelling and grammar errors just jump off the page.

Solution: Always spell check.

5. Too Much Text on the Page

Problem: Most internet users don’t read web pages – they scan them.

Solution:
Make sure your page is easy to read. Break text into manageable pieces,
use sub-headings, short paragraphs, highlighted keywords and bullet
points.

6. Crazy Font Styles and Sizes

Problem:
Serif fonts such as Times New Roman are more difficult to read on a
computer monitor. Also, text that is too small or way too big are hard
to read.

Solution: Use non-serif fonts such as Arial, Verdana or
MS Sans Serif for web pages that will be read online. Your page will
look much better, more professional, and will be much easier for your
visitor to read.

7. Not Enough “White Space”

Problem: Too many words on a web page can be overwhelming.

Solution:
Make your page easy to read by breaking the text into smaller, more
manageable pieces. Also, use sub-headings and bullet points.

8. Cheesy Music that the User Cannot Control

Problem: Bad background music on a site. Next, not being able to shut it off.

Solution:
If you think you need to use music on your website for some reason,
then make sure you offer your visitors the option to turn it off, or
on, quickly and easily.

9. Poor Layout and Design

Problem:
Have you ever been to a website that is simply just “too much”? It’s
like they are trying to fill every available pixel of space on the
entire page.

Solution: Don’t overdo it when designing your
pages. Just because you can add something doesn’t mean you have to.
Leave plenty of white space between your text and images.

10. Overly Long Pages

Problem: Ever been to a website with a page that just scrolls down forever?

Solution:
Most visitors will never scroll down to the bottom of a really, really
long page. There is a fine line between too long and keeping all your
info together.

11. Non-Standard Links

Problem: You go to a website and aren’t sure which words are really links because the link colors have been changed.

Solution: Don’t confuse your users. Keep the link colors as they are. This isn’t the place to showoff your MySpace skills.

12. Under Construction signs

Problem:
Have you ever been to a website and found a page with no content of any
type but a big “Under Construction” sign instead?

Solution: Don’t use “Under Construction” signs on your website. EVER!

13. Didn’t Test Your Web Site

Problem: Ever been to a website that just looks like a mess? Maybe you saw text overlapping images, weird alignment, etc.

Solution:
Always check to see what your site looks like in multiple browsers and
change accordingly before uploading your site to the web. Especially
any version of Internet Explorer-The King of crappy browsers.

14. Unclear Navigation

Problem:
Broken links, error pages or too many moving objects are not signs of
good website design on any website for your visitors. If navigation is
too difficult to follow, visitors won’t return.

Solution: Make
sure that your navigation is easy to read, find and to follow. Also,
make sure that it is in the same spot on all of your websites pages.

15. Sloppy Web Site Copy

Problem: Have you ever visited a website with missing words, bad grammar, or it just didn’t make sense?

Solution:
Always remember, “Content is King” on the internet, so make sure there
is plenty of good, focused information for your visitors.

16. Never Updating Your Site

Problem: Ever go to a website that hasn’t been changed at all over the last few times that you’ve visited it?

Solution: You should always update the content on your site frequently.

17. Too Many Clicks

Problem:
Have you ever gone to a website, found something you’re interested in
checking out, and then had to click, click, click before you found the
item you were looking for (if you didn’t give up first)?

Solution:
Don’t test the patience of your visitors. Make sure that everything can
be found on your site within 3 clicks or less. Lately 1-2 clicks is
the best goal.

18. No Privacy Policy

Problem: No Privacy Policy page is listed on a website.

Solution:
Post a Privacy Policy on your website. Make sure that your customers
know that you will not share their addresses with anyone.

19. No Company Contact Information

Problem: A company with no address or contact information is not one you necessarily want to give your money to.

Solution:
Email addresses or phone numbers are most often seen as contact
information on websites, however, having a physical mailing address on
your web site adds another key credibility factor.

20. Using Free Web Hosting

Problem:
You visit a web page that has a name so long you’ll never remember it
because it is from one of those free website hosts.

Solution: If
you want your internet business to be taken seriously avoid using free
web hosting. This all adds to the issue of credibility. Chances are
you will have downtime, and your emails could potentially get blocked
or hit your users spam box.

21. Using Free E-mail Addresses

Problem:
Ever try to send an email to a website, only to find out that the email
addresses they use are not the same as their domain name.

Solution:
Using a free email address, such as Hotmail, Yahoo or Gmail, is never
appropriate for your website. On your website, always use an email
addresses associated with your own business domain name.

22. Advertisements

Problem: You’ve come to a website where the pages are cluttered with a lot of different advertisements.

Solution:
A lot of people are using advertisements to earn extra money. It is
okay to do that if you want, just don’t over do it.

23. Bad Images

Problem: I’m sure you have seen a web page with missing graphics or funky shaped images more than once?

Solution: Always optimize your images and use the height and width attributes of the image tag.

24. This Website Best Viewed on …..

Problem: This is often seen on many beginner websites.

Solution: Best advice, don’t use this on your website…EVER! It means you are too lazy to test on multiple browsers.

25. No Prices

Problem: Websites that don’t have product prices listed clearly.

Solution: If you’re selling a product on your website, ALWAYS include a price with the item description.

And
here’s a list of things that you should just avoid, or should not
forget, simply because it’s the right thing to do, website design-wise.
And here they are:

Frames, Hit counters, Orphan pages, Anything
“Cutesy”, Pop ups, Fancy Fonts, Don’t overuse Flash, Avoid Javascript
links, Blinking text , Animated GIFs, Missing Meta Tags, Horizontal
(sideways) Scrolling, Don’t underline or color normal text, Don’t
forget functional links on your footer, Don’t forget about your
Marketing Strategies, Don’t forget to include anchor text on your
links, Never subscribe a visitor for anything without his consent,
Don’t leave the home page title as “Welcome to Mysite.com”, Avoid using
all the “Bells And Whistles” simply because you can, Not Taking
Advantage of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) on your website