Computer and Web Articles

During the upcoming weeks I’ll be covering a variety of dos and do-not-dos that I strongly urge business owners to consider when reviewing/thinking about their websites. Today we’ll start with five business website no-nos:

1. Do NOT underline text on your website if it’s not a link. It doesn’t matter if the text is important, if it’s a title, or if the boss told you to underline it. When there’s underlined text on a website, visitors will think that text is a link, and they will click it.
2. Do NOT date material in your website that’s not regularly updated. When the date after your “Site last updated” text or your last “Latest News” entry reads “May 4, 2001,” it looks like you don’t care about your business. Or like you’ve gone out of business.
3. Do NOT include a bunch of confusing acronyms in your site’s content that will make no sense to most (or all) of your site visitors. That’s just mean.
4. Do NOT put a hit counter on your website. It’s tacky, it’s unprofessional, and it’s SO 1997.
5. Unless it is a planned, specific part of your site’s design, Do NOT use a variety of fonts on the same page. Again, this is just downright tacky. Keep things consistent and professional–or else your site starts looking like it’s being updated by an over-zealous amateur.