What are the worst ways to build a website?

Website building is like buying a house: it’s a big investment and you hope to use it for years to come but making pivotal mistakes at the outset can cost you. To ensure your website’s longevity you need to ask the right questions upfront.

Here are many common website mistakes that can be easily avoided through a thorough planning phase.

Website strategy mistakes

Lack of content strategy

A new website is a waste of money if people can’t understand what you do.

When starting a new website project, clarity is the goal. Your customers want answers. They won’t stick around for the pretty pictures if they’re not finding what they’re looking for, and fast.

No target audience

Websites that are built without a target audience in mind will fail before they even get going. Your website doesn’t need to speak to everyone, but it must address the pain points and concerns of your core audience.

No call to action

Lacking a clear way to take the next step won’t produce leads or results. A call to action guides users to their final destination: your product or service. Providing thoughtfully placed contact information, resources, and simple steps will allow the experience to flow smoothly, resulting in happy customers and more profit.

Unclear navigation

A website will only be successful if people know how to use it. Depending on your industry, long periods of engagement might actually be a bad thing. If your audience is lost in a confusing sea of buttons and links, without a clear path or call to action, they’re going to become frustrated and click away.

Design Mistakes

Sacrificing functionality for fancy design

Good websites should look attractive, but functionality is more important. A nice looking website is useless without an intuitive way to use it. Focusing too much on the flashy looks of a site and neglecting the operational experience will tank your website’s success.

Failing to meet ADA standards

According to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), websites must include features such as closed captions or color contrast. Neglecting ADA standards will make your brand harder to find and could have legal ramifications. ADA compliant websites are less frustrating for those that need viewing support, and your business is less likely to be sued.

Neglecting Semantic Structure

Headings are your friend when it comes to semantic structure. Grouping content under logical titles is great for customer clarity, but even better for AI. If AI can easily pull content from your website, it will be able to synthesize it well and boost your exposure online.

Technology mistakes

Using inadequate frameworks for your needs

Certain platforms work better for certain uses. Using the wrong ones can be costly. Choosing the right development framework and language will depend on your website’s purpose. Each framework has its strengths, so think about your need for power, speed, user interface, custom features, and complexity.

Check out our framework preference guide.

Plugin Bloat

Your Content Management System (CMS) allows you to control what customers see. Plug-ins help websites to layer on functions, but too many of them will clog your site and cause lots of time consuming issues. This is often the case with Wordpress. WordPress can be a great platform, but adding too many plugins can ruin an excellent site. Check out our headless CMS blog post to learn more.

Using an insufficient hosting configuration

Your website may have an insufficient hosting configuration if there’s too much data being stuffed into an inadequate storage space. This will cause speed issues and reliability issues. Determine the amount of data you’re going to need before you start building.

Running your website with the wrong hosting will create an unreliable experience. Check out hosting solutions we like.

Now that you know what NOT to do, check out our other actionable marketing advice.

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