Slow websites. The more stuff you cram onto a page--graphics, animations, music--the slower it'll load. Your homepage, in particular, needs to be lean and mean. This is your first impression. If the visitor likes what he sees, he'll stick around and be more tolerant of other pages which may not load as quickly.

Long blocks of text. People don't like reading big blocks of text. Use shorter paragraphs, break up text with headings, use bullets--anything but long paragraphs. On the web, people don't read--they scan. That doesn't work with text blocks.

Broken links. Make sure you links work--not only links within your site, but links to pages on other sites. Everybody hates being taken to a dead end. Broken links communicate carelessness to visitors.

Out-dated content. If you post information about upcoming events, make sure it's still an upcoming event and not something that happened a month ago. Out-dated content tells visitors, "This website isn't a priority with us. Don't put to much confidence in what you read here."

Browser-specific design. Design for all web  browsers. Many sites says, "Best viewed with Internet Explorer." That annoys the Firefox, Opera, OmniWeb, and Safari users. They won't switch just to read your site. Rather, they'll go elsewhere.

Multiple Fonts. Stick to one or two fonts. And make sure they are among the fonts commonly found on most computers (Arial, Helvetica, Verdana, Times, Georgia, Trebuchet, Impact).  

Unnecessary Content. Yes, you can include the current weather on your site. Yes, you can include a "Verse of the Day" or a famous quote. Yes, you can tell visitors when your site was last updated. But...why? Stick to what your site is about.

Misspellings. Check your spelling. This applies to everything you print--bulletins, emails, Powerpoint, flyers, blogs, and websites.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3