This series has been going on for a few weeks but now we have reached the conclusion, or have we? ? Don’t be surprised if there are more tips to come in the near future... ?

Is it possible that you may have missed some important items when you were setting up your website? If you missed the first part of this series and you want to understand Meta Descriptions – What are They and Why Do They Matter? or The Importance of Using Heading Tags read about it here or part 2 on Images – What Size to Use or Images Alt Tags – Not Just the Image is Important click here to read my previous blog.

But for those of you who have followed me along on this journey, let’s get into the next 2 tips.

 5. Mobile Usability – Not Just Your Design Needs to Be Mobile Compatible

A lot of DIY website builders use “responsive” technology (this means that your website will adjust its layout depending on the viewer’s screen size), but the administrative editor when building your website is built to be use on a desktop or laptop screen.

Most times the design of your website will be mobile compatible, but because the editor screen is differently sized than other mobiles devices, there are a few common element mistakes that happen:

• The fonts are not appropriately sized – An example of this would be that a heading on your website looks fine on a desktop, but it’s way too large on mobile. Yes, your headers should be bigger than the body copy (or paragraph font) on mobile, but they shouldn’t be as big as they would be on your desktop.
• The content is wider than smaller devices screens – You will see this if the content (such as images) of your page is wider than the width of your phone, so the user needs to “scroll” horizontally. This can frustrate your website visitors; your website should never scroll horizontally on any device.
• You need to pinch and zoom into your website (the need to zoom). If you need to do this to view your website’s content, something isn’t working properly. Everything on your website should resize to the screen size and still be readable.

So how do you test everything to see if it’s working correctly while you are working on your site? The best practice is when setting up your website - load your website on your phone (and other various devices if you have access to them) and go through each page. Do you notice any issues? You’ll want to clear these problems up because if you are seeing these problems, that’s how most of your visitors are seeing your website too.

6. Building a Website for Your Business – You Can be Your Own Worst Enemy

This can be difficult to do, but approach designing and writing content for your website from the mind of your ideal customers.You are the subject matter expert when it comes to building a website for your own business— but you need to remember that YOU aren’t the target audience. Even though it’s natural for you to present information in a way that makes sense to you, your potential customers are probably not experts and they will have a completely different point of view than you do

So, it’s really important to remember your website is for them, not you!

You definitely want to be proud of the way your website looks because it’s something that represents you and your business, but it’s not your taste that’s most important — it’s what your audience (or ideal client) wants. When you are designing your website and writing content, you need to approach this from the mind of your ideal customers.This can be hard to do, because you have to look at it from an “outsider’s” point of view… but it’s something you’re going to have to do if you want your website to connect with or attract your visitors.

Get Help From Friends & Family

A great way to get an idea about how this may look to others it to ask your friends and/or family for their feedback and then tweak your website with their suggestions. I’ve done this with every step of my business from my business name to my website. Even though web development is my business, I always appreciate the help from others to make my products better.

This draws this DIY mistakes series to an end, for now… But don't worry, there's always room for more website info in the future!

Check back soon to see what other website tips we can share with you. And if you missed my first two blogs click here to view part 1 and here to read part 2. I hope that this information has helped you out in some way.

Thanks for being part of the Prairie Orchid Media community and we look forward to helping you reach your website goals this year. We offer a wide range of web development and design services to help businesses increase their web presence. Saskatoon, SK is our home base, but our web development expertise knows no borders! Wherever you may be in the world, we're excited to lend a hand and create an amazing website for you.

If you have made these mistakes, it’s not too late to fix them or if you need help with tweaking your website – let’s chat. We would love to hear from you - please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..