B&B Web Design Mistakes: #9 One-way valve pages

Many website designers have the misconception that visitors to a website all start on the home page and then make their way into the site. If a web site is designed correctly, it is entirely possible that a search engine may land a person inside the website, instead of on the home page. If all of your traffic is coming through your home page, then it's a sign that something is wrong with the design of your site. If your navigation is set up correctly, this poses no problem at all. If someone uses a search engine to find restaurants in your area and finds your restaurant page, that is great, as long as there is a way to get from your restaurant page to all the other pages on your website.

A "one-way valve" page is created when a page provides no way to get back to the rest of the web site. It sounds obvious, but I run across a lot of Bed and Breakfast websites that have them. They are easy to identify, simply look for any web page on your website that has no links. Also, one-way valve pages can be caused by the use of javascript popup windows, or frames in your website so make sure you read up on why its not a good idea to use frames on your website (mistake #6)

Advice for B&B website design

1. If you are having a new site built, make sure your designer has navigation on every page and does not use frames.
2. If you have an existing site that has pages with no navigation links on them, have them put on as soon as possible.
3. If you are looking for a new designer or website promotion specialist, examine the sites in their portfolio. If you spot any pages that lack navigation links, keep looking for someone that understands the basics of website design a little better. Most often when I see this mistake it is when the site was created by a friend or family member instead of an actual web designer. It's a rookie mistake.

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B&B Web Design Mistakes: #8 Hidden Text and Links

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