Does your website grab your visitors and keep them around wanting more?  Or does it send them running the other way vowing never to return again?

Here are the top 10 most common mistakes that I see in bad web design.

1. Audio loading automatically in your web page

In my opinion, this is one of the most irritating things that send me running the other way every time.  Never assume that your visitors are going to want to hear your music, advertisement, or your speech when they arrive.

Set any audio options so that it doesn’t start automatically.  Just give the visitor the option to turn it on if they wish to hear it.

2. Poor background & text colors
Dark background colors combined with dark text, or light backgrounds with light text are very difficult to read.  If I have to struggle to see what you have to say, I’m outta here.

3. Flash intros & graphics
Using flash in your website is just a bad idea if you’re an online marketer.  Not only can they chase away some of your slow dial-up visitors, but they do absolutely nothing for your SEO.  Flash is invisible to a search engine spider, so if your home page consists of a flash intro, Google sees no content on your page at all.

Use fast loading web optimized graphics instead.  This way you can take advantage of the “alt” tags in your HTML code and insert your important keywords for your images.  This will help your rankings in the SERPS.

4. Excessive pop-ups and flash fly-ins
If you want a guaranteed way to send your visitors packin’ & pissed off, try loading your web page with a bunch of pop-up windows.  While you’re at it, throw in one of those flash or java adverts that follow you around every where you go, as well.

Pop ups are pretty much blocked by every browser anyway.  A better alternative would be to use a javascript pop-up to capture emails in return for some type of value to your visitor, or an exit pop-up of some type.

5. Dead links
Dead links on a web page tells me that you don’t maintain your site and that your products are probably old & outdated as well.

The other thing that irritates me is clicking on links in the navigation menu and landing on “under construction” place holders.  If you haven’t created a page yet, either don’t create a link for it, or at least add a “coming soon” label to the link text.

6. Adsense
If you have a sales page or a product review page, Adsense is about the worst thing that you can do for your conversions, not to mention your search engine rankings.  According to James Brausch, Adsense actually lowers your rankings.  This is most likely because there are so many junk “made for adsense” sites out there that the googlebot will likely lump you right in with this ilk.

Unless you’re getting 100,000 visitors a month, I would avoid it.  It’s not worth the 2 bucks a month payout. In areas where adverts won’t kill your sales, try Advaliant as an alternative to Google. This can make you real money, not just pennies & nickels.

7. Huge paragraphs & run on sentences.
Web surfers generally are scanners.  They want to skim through a web page quickly to see if it’s interesting or has what they’re looking for.

Having excessively long paragraphs may work in a novel, but not online.  Keep your paragraphs limited to 1-3 sentences.  Even though your former English teacher may give you a rash about it, this is what works. This is especially important for your sales or affiliate product review pages as well.

8. Busy web pages
Don’t fill your web pages with too many graphics, columns and adverts.  Some web pages are so crowded with pictures mixed with text and poorly spaced columns.  Thus causing the paragraphs to almost collide with the adjoining paragraphs and making for an unpleasant & difficult read.

Keep your web pages clean & easy on the eyes.

9. Poor Navigation
Make your website easy to get around in.  Don’t make your visitors have to click on excessive links to get somewhere.  Having to guess where to find something is no fun either.

You should design your website as if you were expecting dear old grandma to visit your site, who’s never used a web browser before.

10.  Welcome to the 90’s
Do you have cheezy animated graphics created in 16 colors scattered all throughout your web pages?  Or the java-script snow falling in the background along with the midi-music playing as well?

Back button, take me away!!! Come on man, get into the 21st century.

So… there’s my top ten. Did any of the above look familiar to your own web site? If so, it could be costing you in lost visitors which equal lost revenue.

Sometimes it just takes a simple change to make a huge difference.