If you already work with a web design company or specialist, you probably already know how important it is to have a good website design for your organization. That’s likely the reason why you’ve left it to the professionals.

However, many small businesses choose to manage their web design and development on their own without realizing that they’re likely making some pretty disastrous mistakes. If you haven’t already sought out web design services and you still aren’t entirely sold on the idea, here are a few of the most common website design mistakes small businesses often make.

1. Poorly Colored Hyperlinks
   The first big error here is using a color scheme that makes hyperlinks nearly unreadable. If you really want to make your page background a color other than white, then you need to make sure that your hyperlinks are dark so that they stand out. The second mistake is not changing the color of hyperlinks after a user clicks on them. You’d be surprised by how difficult it is to remember which pages you’ve already visited!
2. Blocks of Text
   It’s okay if you have a lot to tell your customers, but you need to make the information easy to scan through. In general, people only read about a quarter (28%) of the content they see on a webpage. This percentage deceases even further when the text on the page is difficult to digest. Make use of headlines, bold lettering, and bulleted or numbered lists. Studies show that 70% of people will look at a page with bullet points, but only 55% of people will look at a page that’s just paragraphs of text.
3. Fixed Font Size
   If someone visits your site and has trouble reading the page, they’ll want to change the font size to make it bigger, and that’s okay. However, if your CSS style guide disables this feature, they’ll be stuck with a font that’s too small to read. This is especially problematic for older customers who may be unable to see small letters.
4. Title Tags: Leaving Them Blank, or Making Them Too Long
   Search engine “spiders” need title tags to scan web pages for relevant information. If your title tags are blank, search engines are less likely to see what the web page is really about. This makes it difficult for your page to rank well on a search results list. Making your title tags too long can be almost as bad, because the search engines still won’t be able to filter out what really matters.

Remember, there are many little details that factor into creating a great website design, and each detail matters!