When it comes to website performance there is an endless array of optimization techniques, here are 5 core web design issues that will definitely hold your website back in terms of performance, rankings and user experience.

web design issues

Broken Links

Leaving out just a single character in a website link can have disastrous consequences. Instead of being directed to the checkout page, for instance, visitors may encounter a 404 error message. This is why it’s recommended that you check your website for broken links on a regular basis. You can do this manually by visiting each and every link on your site, or you can use a third-party tool like http://www.brokenlinkcheck.com/.

 

Using Absolute Units of Measurement

When designing a webpage with cascading style sheets, you can define measurements in either absolute or relative units. There are certain instances in which absolute units of measurements are preferred, but in most cases relative units will prove to be the better choice. Relative units of measurement like em and % are preferred because the scale based on the defined font size. This means webpages can automatically adjust for an optimal viewing experience.

 

Flash-Based Homepage

There’s nothing wrong with including some Flash elements on your website, but it shouldn’t be the bulk of your site’s homepage content. In addition to slowing down your site’s load times, flash-based homepages are next-to-impossible for search engines to read. Sure, they can still crawl the source code, but search engines cannot decipher what the Flash content is about. Subsequently, this can have a negative impact on the site’s search ranking, making it even more difficult to achieve a desirable ranking.

 

Lack of Mobile Compatibility

If your website isn’t compatible on both desktop computers and mobile devices, you could be losing a significant chunk of traffic. In fact, recent studies have found that more people access the Internet on smartphones and other mobile devices than traditional desktops. Google has said that it supports three different configurations for creating mobile-compatible websites: dynamically serve different HTML based on user’s browser; the use of a separate mobile domain; or a Responsive Web Design (this is the configuration recommended by Google).

 

Poor Navigation

Last but not least, poor navigation is yet another web design mistake that you’ll want to avoid. According to HongKiat, users should be able to “find what they want in less than 3 clicks.” If it takes more than 3 clicks to navigate to the desired page, visitors may leave without coming back. Make sure your website has a proper navigation system that allows visitors to find and access content with ease.