The web developer alone is not only responsible for the appearance of the website he created. The professional website is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also displays flawlessly on mobile devices and achieves good rankings in search engines. As a result, it attracts many visitors who, due to the high user experience, are happy to browse the site and sooner or later become customers.

In my article, I present the web development mistakes that fundamentally prevent the website from achieving good performance and thereby bringing in many customers. When you entrust a team with web development, be sure to keep these points in mind!

Tartalomjegyzék

1. No competition analysis is prepared

I find it a big mistake that many websites are created without the client and the developer being aware of the competitors in the industry, what kind of websites they have, who are the direct competitors with whom the finished website will have to compete.

If there is no competitor analysis, it is more likely that a website will be created that does not follow the minimum expected by the competition in terms of functionality and content, or presents solutions with an extreme appearance that the visitor will choose one of your competitors instead.

I can't say enough that we develop a website not only according to the trends currently prevalent on the absolute web, but in every case we also take into account the competitors already on the market. Ideally, their websites already show several years of web experience, which you can save yourself from a lot of tuition money by studying.

2. The web development company does not provide advice

... regarding the appearance and functionality of the site

The amateur web developer works exclusively on the basis of the customer's suggestions and ad-hoc ideas. In the absence of sufficient experience or attention, he does not give advice on the appearance and functionality of the website. It just floats in front of your eyes so that you can hand over the work as soon as possible and get income.

In such a case, it is worth entrusting the work to another developer as soon as possible. In any case, keep in mind that you entrusted the development to professionals because they are not only aware of the latest technologies and trends, but also have enough experience to be able to give you advice on the appearance and content of your website.

3. No specification is prepared

It is not written down exactly what tasks the project involves.

The web development project specification describes the expectations of the website to be created in as much detail as possible:

  • menu items
  • content elements
  • functionality
  • design expectations
  • competitors
  • deadlines, milestones
  • preferred content management system
  • unique developments
  • related online marketing activities
  • connections with administrative and marketing software
  • … etc.

With the help of the specification, the participants in the project will be aware of the expectations related to each work process, so they can work more efficiently and, in addition, most misunderstandings can be avoided.

If the parties only verbally agree, it always carries with it the possibility that several weeks after the start, everyone has different memories of the previously discussed expectations, which can lead to disagreements.

Compiling a project specification is not an easy task, in the case of larger works, it requires multiple consultations and many exchanges of letters, as a result, only professional web development teams have the capacity to prepare it.

4. There are no marketing goals

The website doesn't fit into the company's marketing strategy, it doesn't have exact goals or tasks, "it's just the way it is."

For our communication strategy, a plan must be developed that is sustainable and defines the necessary activities to be carried out over a longer period of time in order to increase the company's awareness on the market and to increase trust in products or services.

The first step, which most businesses usually forget, is to develop an all-encompassing, long-term strategy, an important part of which will be the marketing communication strategy.

The website should also be part of this communication strategy. In other words, the opportunities provided by the website must be subordinated to the realization of marketing goals. If this does not happen, then we are in vain waiting for results from the new website.

The professional web developer does not only think in terms of a website, but has a comprehensive picture of the operation and goals of the business and will create a page that fits them to the maximum.

5. No itemized quotation is prepared

The customer is not aware of what is included in the task and what is not.

The item price quote of a professional web development team consists of the following items:

  • Introduction
  • Featured references, competencies
  • The subject of the offer
  • Task specification
  • Services (service name, description, price)
  • Summary
  • Appendices

With the itemized quotation, the contracting authority can make sure whether the web development company has the appropriate competencies to perform the task, what parts the web development activity consists of, what exactly it covers and how much it costs.

In addition, you will see the deadlines and additional services, so you will have all the important information at hand to be able to decide on the continuation.

6. There is no contract

And most of the time there are no set deadlines or milestones.

Accurate accounting is the basis of all business relationships. Normally, a business relationship – as in other sectors of business – is based on fair performance and accurate accounting. The contract avoids later disputes by laying down what task must be performed, by what deadline and at what remuneration.

In addition, it provides for confidentiality, copyright and a number of other important factors. If there is no contract, it is difficult to resolve disputes afterwards.

7. Incoherent graphic appearance

A website should create a pleasant overall impression on the visitor. Colors, images, and fonts must function in complete harmony.

The reason for the incoherent graphic appearance in some cases is that the web developer himself "makes" the graphic design, even though this is a separate profession these days and should not be left to laymen.

Single-person web developers have no other option than to solve the tasks of research, planning, web design, web development, testing, SEO and operation themselves, which nowadays affect at least 5 different professions. It is clear that it is impossible for one person to provide all this at an adequate level.

8. Poorly designed navigation

Designing the navigation of a website is like building the foundation of a house. If we make a mistake with the foundations, the house may even collapse. And it doesn't matter how beautiful it was anyway.

In the same way, your website will not work if the navigation is bad. So you have to take the time to plan how users will interact with your content, and you have to think carefully about how we can arrange and present it to them in the most efficient way. If we mess this up, we will most likely lose some of our visitors.

The professional web developer knows methodologies (e.g. card sorting) that provide the optimal grouping even in the case of complex content consisting of many menu items.

9. The text and image content is inaccurate and inconsistent

The end result looks like someone just “threw it in”. This is usually because the web developer works from a template. From a template that is not suitable for displaying the contents of the given project.

In other words, the graphics are not designed for the needs of the given project, but they try to impose the content on a template. Due to lack of time or expertise, the web developer chooses a template that is not suitable for the needs of the given company either in terms of layout or functionality.

The solution in this case is unique web design, which prioritizes content and functionality and designs the corresponding website accordingly.

10. Inappropriate CMS choice

Choosing a content management system for a website is in most cases the job of the web developer. Thus, it is his responsibility to choose a content management system (CMS) that best serves the needs of the customer and the website.

Rarely, but it happens that the client specifically requests an open source or, on the contrary, a unique CMS, in this case it is also advisable to keep in mind the needs of the website and the possibility of further development.

The professional web developer can work with several types of content management systems, so he will choose not based on his knowledge, but on the needs of the given project.

11. Non-standard source code

Simple code is good code. Just because a piece of code is complex, with intricate logical connections, and full of personal comments, doesn't mean it's good code. It is difficult for others to interpret and maintain it, and it is time-consuming and a great challenge for a stranger to further develop it.

You should strive to make the code as simple as possible and as easy to read as possible. Professional web developers usually make sure that the source code of the website they create is available to others. Otherwise, it will make further development of the website impossible.

12. Poor quality image materials

A common mistake is that the images on the website do not match the image of the page or each other. Photos are an integral part of the website's appearance. That is why, if undemanding, low-quality images are selected for the site, it will have a negative effect on the overall picture.

However, selecting stock photos is not an easy task and it often takes hours to come up with 20-30 images, from which we finally find only 5-10 that fit the site in terms of theme, mood and colors.

13. Missing call-to-action buttons

We often encounter the problem that the website does not guide the visitor in the direction of the set goals and thus loses many potential customers. Call-to-Action is one of the most effective elements for achieving conversions. It has a decisive role in whether it is possible to persuade the target group to take the intended action (click, buy, subscribe, etc.).

A web developer who omits Call To Action buttons from a website will negatively affect its performance.

14. Faulty responsive operation

It is a common problem that a page that is said to be responsive (mobile optimized) is displayed incorrectly on mobile devices. The majority of internet traffic now flows through mobile devices. We read the news, shop and browse on phones and tablets. In America, for example, 80% of the population uses their phone or tablet while watching TV. In addition, more than half of the searches come from mobile devices, and many people already make purchases by phone.

With lay developers, we often encounter the error that the site, which is said to be responsive, works incorrectly every now and then, and therefore loses visitors. The most common error is that the menu displayed on mobile differs from the menu of the desktop version. The site's mobile menu is often filled with empty or test text. Another common mistake on the mobile version is unreadable font size or low contrast.

The professional web developer invests time and energy in the responsive testing of the website, thus avoiding minor or major errors that would cause a website to perform poorly on mobile.

15. Incomplete translations

We have already encountered a Hungarian webshop where the text content of the basket and the entire order section appeared in English.

Such errors can dramatically reduce the site's traffic. Thorough testing before launching the website often takes hours, but it helps to avoid such translation deficiencies that are difficult to notice afterwards.

To test the thoroughness of the developer, it is enough to press submit without filling in one of the forms and see if you get any error messages and, if so, which ones.

16. Lack of cross-browser testing

The task of the web developer is to test the website he has created with the most popular browsers. Today's modern browsers automatically update themselves, so it is becoming less and less common for one of our clients to encounter an old outdated version. Despite this, unfortunately, there are still differences between the individual browsers, which is why it is necessary to thoroughly test the website.

Testing is also particularly important, because if it is not done, it may happen that the website owner will never again receive feedback that his website does not work in a particular browser. The navigation is not displayed or an important function is not working. If this is not evident from the analysis of visitation statistics, the website will lose quite a few percent of its visitors and potential customers.

Some of the web developers scroll further than this point, saying that Google Chrome is the most popular browser anyway, and it is unnecessary to test the others as well. But does the client also think that it is not a problem if he loses 1-3% of his income due to his website not working in Internet Explorer or Firefox?

17. Slow loading

A significant percentage of visitors will click away if the page does not load within 3-5 seconds. Optimizing website speed is a separate operation that requires high expertise and a lot of time.

Unused modules must be removed from the page's source code (or no modules must be inserted), images must be optimized, compression must be set, caching must be set...etc. It is natural that the one-person developer has neither the competence nor the time for this.

18. Missing post-arming operations

A number of actions must be performed in close connection with the activation of a new website:

  • Creating a Google compatible sitemap for faster indexing
  • redirecting old URLs so that previous pages do not lead to non-existent pages
  • elimination of test versions, previous page versions
  • deleting or banning unnecessary files from indexing
  • Checking for a 404 error page

If these operations are "forgotten", the new site immediately starts with worse chances than its competitors. In case of more serious deficiencies, you will permanently fall behind in Google.

We recently came across a site where the developer did not delete the old version when starting the new one, and therefore two websites with similar content were running in parallel for months on the same hosting. This duplicate content clearly results in condemnation for Google, which can be seen in the drop in the website's rankings and the decrease in visits.

19. Lack of analytical software

The "official" tool for measuring website traffic is Google Analytics. And one of the best measuring tools for the correct functioning and performance of a website is Google Search Console.

In order to have objective information about the operation of the website, Google's performance and visitors, these two software must be installed after the website has been activated.

It is important that the data only start to be measured after installation, so it is essential that they are integrated into the website as soon as possible after launch.

20. No maintenance, no operation

The amateur developer "disappears" after the transfer, he is not available, so subsequent developments and modifications are impossible. The site becomes unmanaged and often malfunctions for months because there is no one to fix it. In addition, without maintenance, the site's vulnerability increases day by day, which poses a huge security risk.

The professional web developer not only guarantees the website he creates, but also operates it, so it will be safe and functional in the long term.