What Not to Do When Starting a Website

If you’re new to the whole owning and maintaining a website, you have probably read countless articles on what to do when first beginning. But do you know what not to do? Too often, new webmasters overlook certain aspects that can drive visitors running away from their website screaming. Thankfully, the following tips can help you avoid these pitfalls.

Choose the Wrong Hosting

Too many times, people go with the cheaper hosting option available. This is a big no-no for many reason. The first being that you usually get what you paid for and a cheaper hosting company may not have the features or support that you need, especially when first starting out. Another reason is that sometimes, people choose a hosting without researching what type of hosting company they are. Some companies cater to small business websites, while others are built more for bloggers. There are some companies, however, that work with any type of site. For example, you can choose Network Solutions to host your website no matter what type it is.

Unreadable Fonts

Yes, those fancy fonts you have on your computer may look nice but they are hard to read. Furthermore, not everyone has that font and designing your site around it is pretty useless. Yes, it will look pleasant to you but what about the visitors who don’t have that font installed on their computer? Your text could end up looking like a jumbled mess. Instead, stick to web-safe fonts, such as san-serif.

Playing Music

While it may have been expectable back in early 2000s to play music on your site, it is now considered tacky and one of the fastest ways to drive people away from your site. If, however, you must play an audio file, make it so the user has to start it themselves.

Using Blinking Text

Blinking text is not only annoying; it is straight out of 1996. There is no faster way to date your website then by using blinking text.

Using Frontpage

Frontpage is a cheap HTML editor that many new webmasters use to create their site. While it may appear to make the whole web designing process easier, Frontpage is known for outputting poorly crafted code that leads to bugs and incompatibility in different browsers.

Not Seeking Help

Maintaining a website is hard work and if you expect to learn all the ins and outs of it quickly without any help, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Don’t be afraid to seek the help of an expert web designer or someone who knows a bit more about the subject.