On Demand Design Studio - 10 web graphic design disasters

    1. DONT Design a very busy page (lots of buttons and images)
The more you clutter up the page the more confusing it gets for the visitor and the bigger the chance you have of losing them. Clean layouts with large images and clear text

    2. DONT Use Flash Intro or "splash" Page
They tend to look very cool and everyone wants one but times change and Google rules – they are not seo friendly and take time to load.
Time is money!

    people dont have time to wait while you load the page unless they could win a million, you in a queue to but a T-shirt are you going to stand in the long or the short line – the t-shirts are all similar so where you going to stand? – I have made this mistake and navigated my way around it by creating a blog and web site combined as a designer i still wanted to maximize my seo so i have both (didnt have the heart to dump my flash site) . For you guys who want to create an optimized site you can have your existing site and add a blog to the domain, check out mine it works like a charm.

    3. DONT get to creative with your buttons (navigation)
Dont confuse visitors by getting all freaky with your navigation bars, the basic rule accross the top or on the sides it works and people know it DONT confuse them you will lose them.

    4. DONT let your site become a christmas tree – say no to flashing icons, counters, widgets
All that glitters is not gold, the flashing widgets can be annoying and counters are a huge no – get a software package that can record your visitors, you wouldnt hang your underware on your front door, would you? This information is background information only. Google analytics is a fantastic measure for effective seo management

    5. DONT have music with no kill switch!
I think music is great but be sure to use something that is under the radar and appeals to most people – it can be irritating so an on/off switch is imperative.

    6. DONT ONLY Images instead of text
When displaying content, text (which you can select and copy as text) has to be used. Images can allow you to be more creative but it will hurt your SEO statistics. The search engines, cant scramble around and find information on your site as they cant read an image only text. How can they rank your site if they can't tell people what your site is all about.

    7. DONT Use bad photos
Would you go to a business meeting dressed in an old track suit and dirty jumper, i dont think so not unless you clearly did not want the business. The same applies when adding photos to your site. Use great photographs that are clear and eye catching.

    8. DONT Use images that are to heavy
This is really important the resolution for the web site needs to be low so the photo loads quickly, the combination between the image quality and the resolution needs to be low resolution high picture quality. The bigger the resolution the slower your site.

    9. DONT Use tables for layouts
Tables are meant for one thing, formatting text. Don't use tables to design your site. It becomes very difficult to update the site at a later stage

    10. DONT Use multiple colors and different fonts
A good website should have a consistent and clean design style and layout. The fonts you use should be basic easy to read fonts eg: Arial, Verdana and stick to one family here less is more in a big way. The logo of the company usually dictates the look and feel of the company keep the brand consistant and make sure the web design style ties in with the business cards, letterheads and the comapnies identity.