Four Common Mistakes to Avoid When Creating a Homepage Design

Creating a homepage for a business is no longer as difficult today as it was a few years ago. Previously, one had to study quite extensively in order to learn the skills needed to produce a good website but these days, there are hundreds of tools and templates that anyone can use in order to come up with a really good homepage design.

However, just because the tools are there doesn't always mean that any website you create will automatically be good or effective for your business. These tools may make your work easier but the overall design ideas would still come from you. Therefore, you need to know at least some basic guidelines that will help you create a website that people would want to visit, and that would help generate income for your business.

In order to help you in creating your homepage design, here are five of the most common mistakes that you would want to avoid:

• Long loading time. You may have the idea for a perfect website but if takes too long to load, your potential customers will probably not wait long enough for it to finish loading and simply move on to another site. You can reduce the loading time of your website by limiting your graphics and video elements. If you have a flash introduction on your splash page, you should also give your visitors the option of skipping the video and going straight to your main page, if that is what they want.

• Poor layout of text content. Huge bulky paragraphs made up of more than ten sentences each make for a very boring layout, and one that visitors would probably not bother reading at all. Even though the content may be good, it won't matter if no one will take the time to read it. In order to entice your visitors to read the text on your page, break your posts into small paragraphs. Use bullets and subheads whenever necessary in order to break the monotony of your posts.

• Inappropriate colors. One of the first things you need to decide on when doing a homepage design is a color scheme. Choose a scheme that includes perfectly matched colors and that exude a professional atmosphere. Avoid colors that are too bright, especially on the fonts of your text. Unless your target clients are 8-year-old girls, blinking pink and purple words all over your page will not do at all.

• Missing "buy" button. So your product is great and your site is awesome, and you have managed to convince your visitor that they should buy your product. But where is that "buy" button? You are very likely to lose your customers if they can't easily find a button or link that will take them to your sales page. Thus, make sure this link is clearly visible and very easy to find on every single page of your site.

These are just the most common errors that people make when creating homepage designs, and there are bound to be more. In order to avoid making these mistakes, take the time to plan your homepage properly, and ask for advice from experts if necessary.