We’re continually reading help articles and getting advice on what we should do and just how we should get it done. That’s O.K. It will help us. It’s useful and necessary. However we sometimes all have to know what to refrain from doing, what things to avoid and how to prevent them.

This article then, is to help you to have a well thought out web site design for your small business that will bring you more  new traffic to your business and provide you with a professional branding identity.   However, it does not inform you how or what to do. Alternatively it offers advice on 5 things you must avoid if you really want to continue to have a good website design that puts you on the first page of Google and if you are an owner of a small business than your want your website to reflect a professional image of your business.
Here then, are the 5 items to avoid:

1. Having Little Content On Your Website.

The key reason why you shouldn’t do this is content is what Google loves in your website. It gives your site credibility and with good keyword rich content, it helps you to try and rank in the top 10 of Google. As an alternative, it will be far better to write original content that is keyword rich and that can build your credibility with Google and your customers.

2. Don’t Build Your Website predominately with Adobe Flash.

The explanation for this is because Google can’t read any text on your website with it designed in flash. It may be a pretty website but you won’t have many customer’s knocking on your door plus mobile IPhone and IPads can’t see your website and this will become an increasing problem in the years to come when more mobile devices are searching the web. Instead, you could simply design your site in WordPress, an open source blog publishing application. WordPress has many free and premium professional looking themes that can easily get you started with your your design process. Please stay away from Flash….sorry Adobe.

3. Having Many Typo’s Or Misspelled Words On Your Website.

It is very clear that this really is not a good idea and by all means you need to proof your website before you launch it.  It would also be a good idea to have another person proof it as well. What you should be doing instead of misspelling your words is to use a spell checker on the content of your website or find two people you know that are really good with proofreading like a school teachers or English majors and have them proof your website.

4. Using Images That Are Too Large.

The main reason why this can be a real problem for your website is your site will load slow and Google will penalize your ranking for this. You site could also crash.  Alternatively you really ought to optimize your images before you but them on your website with a good photo optimizer like photoshop or there are some online tools that you can also use if you don’t have photoshop..

5. Not Understanding Who Your Target Audience Really Is.

In the short-run this is sometimes a temptation to do this but in the long-run you will get more traffic to your website if you understand your target audience because it will contain the type of content your target is looking for. Alternatively, make an effort to try to remember t0 speak to them in your content and ingage with your audience in the form of a blog as it will grow your website with a captive audience.

Carefully and conscientiously avoid these 5 common blunders, try some of  the alternatives offered instead, and your traffic and website are going to be much better because of it.

Lastly, to finish up, don’t be afraid of the new changes, embrace them.