Often, new business owners go a little bit overboard when they create their first website.
Here are some of the most common mistakes that you should avoid...
Driving Away Traffic with too Many Banners and Links Distracting banners and links can actually drive more people away from your site than they will attract to it.
Of course, there are some situations where adding banners and external links might benefit your homepage (for example if you were promoting an affiliate product or selling ad space).
However, be aware that you could just be driving traffic right to your competitor's sites instead of encouraging people to explore your site further.
Using too Much Color and too Many Fonts You should choose one basic color scheme and only a few different fonts for your website, and then stick to them.
If you look at any professional, well-designed website, you'll see consistency in their choice of fonts and colors.
Nothing will make your site look more amateur than a ton of mismatched styles.
Patterned or Colored Backgrounds Your background should stay in the background! Don't add textures or use dark backgrounds, they will only make your copy hard to read.
No matter how good the background looks, it won't do you any good if your visitors can't read your sales copy.
Irrelevant Images and Graphics Some business owners make the mistake of adding way too many graphics and images to their first website to make it more interesting.
Unless they serve a specific purpose, avoid using unnecessary graphics and images because they will only distract visitors from the main purpose of your site.