When browsing the Internet, you can easily see the problems caused by website designers on websites. This is a list of the 18 most common website design mistakes, they may seem like small mistakes, but these mistakes can have a big effect on your website traffic.

1. slow websites. Website taking too long to load, Internet users increasingly expect instant site delivery, so anything that takes more than 10 seconds is considered slow. Slow web loading is not a big problem for a website now that everything seems to be getting faster and faster. If your web pages take too long to load, people will move on to another site before they even see yours. So, no matter how good your page looks, if it’s slow, you’re seriously hurting your traffic. Web designers need to pay attention to the loading speed of the pages, as well as how ‘pretty’ they look.
2. There is no easy route back to the Web’s home page. Every web page should have an obvious home page button or logo at the top of every home page link. This is a very easy web necessity, yet many web designers forget about it. A logo or button in the same place on every page gives your website consistency and reliability from the point of view of web users. This is very easy to get right, but is overlooked by many websites.
3. Difficulty reading the script. Posts with too many words on a line make it hard to read and posts with too few words on a line can be just as annoying to read. Display your text the way you would find it easy to read and scan. If your script is hard to read, it probably won’t read.
4. No contact page. If there is no ‘Contact Us’ page, your website obviously does not want to be contacted. Why would no website have a ‘Contact Us’ page? There is nothing worse than having to look up contact details on a website. Plus a contact page with contact details adds credibility to any website.
5. fancy fonts. If the font style used on a web page is not available on a computer, a default style will be used which may or may not make your script unreadable on some PCs with writing appearing too small or too large in the default style, therefore destroying the ‘look’ of the web page. Why risk this happening? Your website is designed to look good, so make it look good by using commonly used font styles or font sizes that are too small.
6. External links that open in the same window. It can be very frustrating to be removed from a site you found to be really good when you click on a link. Sometimes the page is not easy to find again, which may mean you never return, so the site has lost a potential customer. All external links must be scheduled to open in a new window, leaving the original page open. This is a sign of bad web design.
7. The website appears differently in different browsers. Maybe the website is fine in Firefox, but broken in Internet Explorer. This happens a lot and should result in lost traffic. It doesn’t take long to check the cross-compatibility of website appearance in different browsers.
8. Website address anyway. This is called ‘cloaking’, where the URL remains the same even if you click through multiple pages. Why try to ‘fool’ search engines or Google? Is it worth having your website blacklisted?
9. Very large screen size of web pages. The web page is so large that you need to scroll both horizontally and vertically. Why make it difficult for someone to see your page? The less scrolling the better, especially as screens are getting smaller with mobile internet usage. Why make it difficult for a viewer to see and read your website?
10. unreadable CAPTCHA. Is it a 0 or an O? Is it a 1 or me? Some are so hard to read that you don’t even bother or give up. This was not the purpose of the web designers, the purpose is to show that you are human, not a robot. So why not make things easier for the viewer?
11. Difficulty navigating. When there is no way to find what is needed. This is very frustrating. Why create a website that is difficult to navigate? All sites must be easy to navigate.
12. Links to ‘.pdf’ files. This is a pet hate. PDF files take longer to load and sometimes only load if the latest Adobe is installed. Why use pdf files on websites? Why make life difficult for your website visitors?
13. too many ads. Web pages are packed with so many ads that you can’t see the main script. Three ads per page is enough. After all, is your website a billboard or is it an informational website? Affiliate sites are always full of ads which can be very chaotic.
14. Bad color design. Colors are very important on websites, they help convey the feel and tone of a site, as well as legibility. Options such as white text on a light blue background b. With all the colors to choose from, why make a website hard to read? Color choices can make or break the design and flavor of a website.
15. No ‘Alt’ and ‘Title’ tags for images. These tags are a key part of site SEO. Just because you can’t see what you type in the labels doesn’t mean you should leave them empty.
16. Posts are undated. Show that you are active and post regularly. Not sure why someone would leave out dates on posts unless they post so infrequently that they want a post in 2006 to look current in 2011? Be honest on your website, show people that you are up to date.
17. The page says “Coming Soon”. It is better to wait until the web design is loaded instead of putting ‘Coming Soon’. Therefore, please delay any advertising until the website is ready.
18. poor content. Why have a website with content if the content is useless? The content should be informative and interesting to read and presented in an easily readable form.