NO GOES - what to avoid on your website

Throughout these articles we have picked out things to avoid putting on your website. This is a round up of our main moans ...

Front / Home / Index Page

Whatever you call it, the first page visitors come to on your website is far-and-away the most important one.

AVOID:

General Points

On all pages show that you care about your website readers by paying attention to details.

AVOID:

• an information-free page with just a logo and 'enter site' button
  
• giant fonts, clashing colours, patterned backgrounds making the text difficult to read
  
• unstoppable animations, music or video
  
• animated graphics - spinning logos or spools on mini film projectors - text that flashes or crawls across the screen
  
• great chunks of undivided text spreading all the way across the page stretching as far as you like and no pictures
  
• in-group references - websites can be read by anyone, anywhere in the world - don't leave potential members puzzled
  
• having no apparent way of contacting the club
  
• a dominating obituary - a respectful front-page mention and link to a later page honours the deceased without depressing visitors
  
• a web counter showing how many visitors your website has - they don't work properly, usually show embarrassingly small numbers and are of no interest to anyone but you!

• photos of a handful of people rattling around in a hall with more empty chairs than full ones
  
• missing, poor or inconsistent menu navigation
  
• giving each page a different colour, font, layout or navigation
  
• bad spelling- we all slip up occasionally but do try to get the main pages right. Ask for help if you need it
  
• "under construction" signs … no matter how humorous
  
• website templates which do not quite fit your needs
  
• announcements past their sell-by date
  
• inconsistencies - if any information changes on one page check any other references to that info elsewhere
  
• links that are dead, wrong or misdirected.
  
• a members only zone complete with password - why? what is so secret? are you trying to attract or repel?!
  
• an apologetic About Us page explaining how much bigger the club was a few years ago.

Website Makeover Guides - Introduction

What Should the Content Be? | Navigation | Planning Navigation | Anchors & Links | Words | Getting Pictures | Getting & Using Pictures
Processing Pictures | Video | Presentation Pictures | Colours | Layout Principles | Layout Schemes | Fonts | What is SEO?
Search Engine Factors | Check Your Search Ranking | Stay Legal | Website Health Check | Website No Goes more to come ...

A Beginner's Guide to Creating a Club Website with Weebly

Don't Panic! | Signing up to Weebly | Making your first (elegant) page | Adding more pages and navigation
Adding pictures and words | Creating a complex Coming Soon Page | Adding Forms, Emails, Maps and Videos.

IAC Competition to find the Best Club Website 2011