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7 Reasons a Website Can Fail

Written by Lauren Rea

College of Notre Dame of Maryland

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Nowadays, entrepreneurs and small businesses benefit from their employee’s knowledge of technology to eliminate the option of hiring outside specialists, in particular IT fields, as a solution to reduce the cost of production. This solution may or may not be the best choice - permitting employees with limited experience of website development to design a company’s website. If the decision permits your employee to design your company’s website, she must incorporate the seven reasons of why your website can fail:

1. Font is not readable. If your visitor cannot read your homepage, your visitor will leave your homepage. Your homepage is the visitor’s first impression of the company. Font sizes and types do matter.  To enable the visitor to absorb the information on your homepage or any other page, a font size of 12 is preferable. Every visitor’s browser must recognize the type. The common types consist of Times New Roman and Verdana. 
2. Colors do not contrast. Colors set the mood for your website and convey messages. Most web designers use the company’s colors as a message. If your company does not have any specific colors, you must choose colors that contrast. The background color must bring out the font color. The contrast improves the readability and the flow of content on the website. Graphics must comply with the colors.
3. Content is too much. The homepage summarizes the entire website. Each additional web page has its own separate detailed-reference. To hold the visitor’s attention, the homepage must include enough information without clustering the page and enough graphics without distracting text.
4. Navigation system is not usable. Links can control the content of your page. To navigate, the links must be usable. Every important word, name, phrase, or image can be links to provide easy access to the source the visitor has come for. The main highlighted keywords are usually stationed on the top, left, and bottom portion of the web pages. To organize your links better, I prefer you to outline a sitemap.
5. Downloading takes forever. No visitor wants to wait for a web page to download. The size of the content can slow down the process of downloading. You must focus on the size and the resolution, especial with graphics. Reducing graphics can distort their resolution. Enlarged graphics can jeopardize download time.
6. Layout looks like a jigsaw puzzle.  Layouts must organize contents on the web page to flow. A visitor does not want to solve a jigsaw puzzle. Too many sections in a layout can cause confusion and annoyance. Contents must be concise and direct. The design of a layout can effect the perception of the visitor.
7. Background overpowers the content.  Backgrounds must be sensitive to the human eye and the content on the web page. I prefer solid colors rather than images for backgrounds. A solid color background with no image enables you to be creative with your texts and graphics. An imaged background limits your advantages of designing a web page.