The first myth on this list was going to be one about having to follow lists of do's and do not's about web design.
Some 'rules' about website design are based on personal opinion, outdated information or a simple lack of understanding. Or it might only apply to specific types of websites or websites of certain sizes. So now having got that out of the way...
1. I can’t afford a decent website
Some small businesses think they can't afford a professional web development company to build their website, or they have unnecessary concerns about how much it will cost.
When taking into account the benefits a website delivers, the cost of developing and then maintaining it should be smaller – but only if you've worked out what benefit you want to achieve is and how to make sure the site will deliver.
There are many benefits to getting a website that I won't list here. But these benefits will only be achieved if it's been built properly, and skimping on the cost will only get you a cheap website which is guaranteed to fail to deliver.
If your budget is small, there are ways to trim the costs. An experienced web company will be able to tell you where the cost savings are (and are not), and give you a range of options based on your budget.
But at the end of the day, you can't afford NOT to invest in a decent website.
2. Get the cheapest web hosting – they’re all the same.
There are many, many people who will opt for the cheapest hosting service out there not realising that this comes with hidden costs – and some potentially devastating consequences for your site.
The actual dollar difference between cheap hosting and affordable hosting is not that much.
Cheap hosting usually comes with:
- Poor or non-existent support when something goes wrong
- Storage on the same servers as spammers – potentially leading to a Google penalty by association
- Poor security – increasing the likelihood of your website getting hacked
- Poor performance – so your website will run slowly and or you'll experience outages more often
- Restricted amount of storage, traffic and features such as add on domains
- Remote location – often based in the US this can put your website outside your target geographic. If located somewhere different to your audience, this can impact your search rankings.
There are instances when cheap hosting is fine. If you are a web developer who doesn't need a lot of technical support, or the site is for a purpose other than as a key business assets. But as a general rule, if your web developer has dumped your site on a cheap-as-chips hosting provider in the US and handed over the user names and passwords – it's showing a less than caring attitude to an important asset.
3. You need to be tech savvy to maintain a website
Many a business owner has said “I don't know anything about computers” as a reason for their out of date, ugly website. But you don't have to be that tech savvy to understand that customers are going to your website to look for information that is easy to find, or update a website after it has been launched. Most websites are built on content management systems (CMS) which allow anyone to edit content without any advanced coding skills.
4. You DON'T need to be tech savvy to maintain a website
Say, what – doesn't this contradict the above?
Yep.
Because there is more to an effective website than a pretty design and regular content updates. When it comes to maintaining the underlying technical frameworks (including the CMS) hosting environment and especially website security – you need someone who has the right skills and experience. Changes to the template controlling the look and feel will need CSS skills at a minimum.
Search Engine Optimisation and Conversion Optimisation are also separate skill sets that while not technical in themselves, requires some understanding of how to get a site to rank without making your site look cheesy and some technical elements such as setting up canonical URLs.
5. SEO can be done without touching my website
Business will employ a Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) company in the hope that their website will bust through to the number 1 spot on Google. And they often do it without the knowledge (or cooperation of) their web developer. If the SEO company doesn't start with a full review of the website, along with recommendations for improvements, then you should be suspicious.
This often happens when a business gets a website developed and then starts thinking about SEO after the site has launched, and they suddenly realise they need to improve their search visibility. Don't expect it to be built in unless you ask for it and/or they tell you it is.
On-page search engine optimisation is the art of optimising a website and every page on it so the search engines display a specific page in the search results for relevant phrases. SEO is not just about getting back links (although this is important) – it's also about site structure, metadata, internal linking, the hosting environment, the quality of the code among other things.
And content is absolutely critical for SEO.
6. Your Website is only for making a sale
Sure, your website is designed to increase sales. But it doesn't have to have such a narrow focus unless you are a hard core affiliate marketer or something similar. Not everyone that comes to your website is ready to buy right then and there, particularly if they are in research mode. It takes more than a couple of interactions with you or your business before people are ready to buy.
Focus on what the users need at a particular point in their decision making journey, not just placing large 'BUY NOW' buttons begging to get their attention.
7. More Features! More bells! More whistles! More is good!
The design requirements for your website is not a shopping list of possible features. If you cram too many ideas onto your wish list it will a) become expensive and b) water down the key thing the website is really, really supposed to be doing.
A website with lots of 'bells and whistles' is not more effective – in fact sometimes quite the opposite as users get confused by all the options, whizzy drop down/sliding/mystery navigation elements and flashy graphics. Core information gets hidden behind all that clever visual snazzery.
A simple, well designed website can be intuitive and offer a positive and memorable experience.
8. Pretty is pretty important
A lot of websites have visually impressive home pages but poor user experience with nutty decisions such as hiding the navigation behind a tiny button hidden in one corner. Or the site is packed with large graphical images that tell you nothing other than the story the company wants to spin. When you go to find anything on the site, you can't find it or it's not there.
A pretty visual will not hide lack of content, poor conversion elements or bad SEO. This kind of website is like a shop with a beautiful front window but nothing on the dusty shelves.
Visual appeal is important, but design is how something works as much as how it looks – it is about both form and function. The design should solve user problems, based on an understanding of how the target audience feels, thinks and acts. What their motivations are. How they will navigate through your site to get to the desired end point.
9. Pick a template or theme and you're away.....
With the advent of free and low cost website builders, virtually anyone with a mind to can build a website. Buy a nice looking theme or template, and you're away!
But just because they can, it doesn't mean they should. We have many, many tales of woe from businesses who had Salomone inexperienced or unskilled build their site. Trouble is, they don't realise what they are in for until after they've bought into the sales speak, had the site built and are left with the consequences.
What are those consequences? Hacked sites, sites showing error messages, sites that can't be updated or changed in any significant way, sites that are invisible to the search engines and eventually, a website that crashes and can't be retrieved.
In cases where the look is leading the way, you can tell not only because content will be thin, but the design will often follow the latest trend. Say for a certain typography, a style of imagery (like circular images) or layout (e.g parallax scrolling). It might look good, but a design trend is just that – a trend and like leg warmers and shoulder pads in the 80's they go out of date as quick as you can say striped stirrup pants.
10. People don’t want or read content and they won't scroll
Although people weren’t used to scrolling in the nineties, nowadays it’s absolutely natural to scroll. People are used to it on smart-phones and tablets. For a continuous and lengthy content, like an article or a tutorial, scrolling provides even better usability than slicing up the text to several separate screens or pages.
If the content is of use and value to the person reading it, they will scroll.
11. The photos I took on my [insert name of favourite smartphone here] are fine
No they are not. See our post Website imagery – 5 ways you get it wrong – and 10 tips for doing it right to find out why. It doesn't matter how good your iPhone/Samsung/whatever phone's camera is.
12. Your site must be responsive
This rule is forgetting that in some contexts, 100% of user will be on a desktop (such as intranets). If you're building a new website right now, then yes make it responsive because use of mobile devices is growing. But don't make the mistake of thinking that if your site is not mobile, you should make it so today at the expense of careful planning and thought. Because you might be creating more problems for your smartphone users than you solve.
13. Social integration is a must
<Sigh>. If as a business you aren't active on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn or one of the other plethora of social networks, then why on earth would you broadcast that lack of interaction to the world?
We read PLENTY of articles about how social is a must for driving traffic and for search visibility. In our experience, this is false - correlation does not mean causality. We have clients ranking in Google's top ten without any social activity at all. We have clients who struggle to rank even though they are very active. The difference all comes down to what else they are doing as part of their overall digital marketing and how it all works together.
Over time we've seen different social networks come and go, people get excited about the latest platform and tell you that you have to be on it – even in some cases where that platform has barely any users in NZ. We also have some clients who do get referrals and sales from social sites – because it fits with their audience and offering. We think you should have a social marketing plan that follows on from your overall marketing strategy. We think being social has its advantages, but it is time consuming and so something that has to be resourced and managed according to what works for your business.
14. All the work is in the build, after that - we can relax
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when they are planning a website design project is to believe the most difficult part is building the website.
In reality, bringing an engaging website to life visually is far easier than engaging your visitors, testing approaches, creating content and ranking in search engines. All of which happens after the site goes live. So design for expansion so your website can grow with your business and as you learn what works and what doesn't.
A set and forget strategy most often results in an out-of-date website a few months after it's launched..
15. You must be testing
It is true that they only way you can definitively decide which is the best approach is to test two versions of something (say, a call to action button text or colour), but this will only work if you have enough traffic to get statistically valid results.
16. Parallax scrolling makes the site better/easier for the user
What a load of baloney. Parallax scrolling is where the foreground moves slower than the background when scrolling. It is used to create an illusion of depth and supposedly adds to 'immersion'. Problem is, this technique evolved out of animation and was made popular in video games. Where it makes sense. On websites? Not so much.
Oh, sure it can look pretty impressive, but for your run of the mill local business website it will add nothing to it's effectiveness. Made worse by the tendency to combine it with a-single-page-website-is-all-I-need belief.
There's probably more
So, there you have them. Our list of the top myths and misconceptions about website design.
There are more than 15 - I know, but I had to add any that came to mind as they did.
We didn't get into things like number of colours you should use, whether you should use Google fonts, drop shadows or the emerging prevalence of bootstrap design elements. We could go on forever on these and by the time we'd finished the post they would have gone out of fashion anyway. But if you think we've missed something or want to ask about something you've been told - just get in touch or comment below.
