Putting up a website may not cost us a lot, but it nonetheless represents a considerable investment to us if we are running a business. After all, the website becomes our storefront when we use it to sell our products online.

Naturally, we would expect our virtual storefront to perform well if we are to get a return on our investment.

If we are not getting the returns that we want, then there must be something wrong with the website design of our site.

What Makes a Website Design Wrong?

There are many reasons why a website design could go wrong.Such errors in a website design could be the result of the efforts of an overzealous website developer, the use of ineffective keywords or simply poor planning on the part of the team that took charge of the project.

Of all the things that could go wrong with a website design, these five errors are the ones considered most common:

• Overuse of heavy graphics.

The size of the pictures, artistic elements and other graphic files that are to be included in a website design should be small enough to make their loading easy for the website’s visitors. A web page should load within eight seconds or less. Achieving this time is impossible for pages with big graphic files, even more if there is more than one on a page.

• Overuse of animation.

Sparkly graphic objects and moving pictures, aside from actual video, may enhance the look and feel of your website.

However, there are times when such animation is inappropriate and does not fit the whole theme of the website design.

Besides, if there is too much animation on a web page, these animated objects can take the focus away from the actual product featured on the page.

• Too many banners on one page.

Whether those banners belong to you and work as part of your website design or they are your advertisers’ or affiliates’ banners, when there are too many on one page, they can turn your visitors off. It makes your website look less professional and you lose credibility points. Keep the banner count on your website to no more than one or two per page.

• Overuse of JavaScript or flash.

JavaScript and flash animation can enhance the look and feel of the website, not to mention add some features and functionalities to your website. However, too much of a good thing can spoil the entire mix. If your website design incorporates too much JavaScript or flash, not only would it load more slowly but it can simply irritate your visitors into visiting another website.

• Bad content.

People do read the articles and the general content of your website. Thus, your website construction should include good, readable and useful content, especially when it comes to information about your product. Always upload content that is free from grammatical and spelling errors on your website. Make the effort to update the content of your website regularly as well.