Web designing, web development and web applications are indeed time consuming tasks. Human agency error is likely to occur during web development process. There a few mistakes that occur during web development especially by new web developers. When the less experienced web developers have the insight into the common web development mistakes, they can be alert and can effectively avoid those mistakes. Such mistakes may spoil the SEO functionality of the website and ultimately the website fails to score good ranking. Instead of finding out the issues in a later stage and then fixing them, web developers should make it a point to avoid these mistakes so as to keep the SERPs high right from the very beginning. Our Web Development Company India always ensure to avoid all the following common web development mistakes.
Five Web Development mistakes to avoid
1. Ignoring technical SEO
Good knowledge of technical SEO is essential for web development and the developer must take sufficient time for technical SEO. In fact search engines make the website visible to people. So, without SEO nobody can drive traffic to the website. Lower ranking on Google pages is the direct consequence of ignoring technical SEO. Web developers must pay attention to technical SEO right from the beginning so as to impress the visitors. The website is to be developed in accordance with a crawlable architecture and must be 100% free of duplicate content. The site should be optimized for proper loading time and intelligent backlinking must be used. Use of image alt tags is essential and developers must ensure to keep the W3 coding validated.
2. Poorly formatted codes, Codes without meaningful comments
Experienced web developers will be aware of the negative impact of improper formatting of code and poor commenting practices. The web developer must use the automatic code formatting tool in their IDE. Developers must also follow the practice of providing meaningful comments in the code. By way of adding meaningful comments in the code the web developer can identify the same in future among the codes formatted by other developers. Variables, class names and functions can be described through the comments. When the code is properly formatted and is with meaningful comments, bugs in the code can be easily detected. While naming functions and variables one must see that the correct spelling is used. Novice developers must thoroughly learn the naming conventions for the languages used.
3. Library overuse
Web developers who are able to write their code in less amount of time can avoid the use of libraries. When too many npm packages are added to the web application the bundle size will increase rapidly and ultimately the building time also will increase. More the building time, more will be the page loading time. Web developers can check the bundle size of each npm package before adding the same to their application. The developer must know the last commit date and the number of GitHub stars of the library that he uses. A poorly maintained library will be a security risk for the application. Migration to another library will be a better option.
4. Not focusing on Web Standards
Web developers must strictly follow the web standards and create clean and error-free codes. When the developer follows the web standards he can complete the task correctly and also in the way that is commonly accepted. Those who adhere to the web standards are able to create applications that work in the same way for all users. Only those who follow the web standards can unify the code and also create apps that will not depend a device. Web standards will never complicate the task of the developer but help him to finish his task in the proper way. Neglect of web standards and use of outdated HTML and Doctypes will ultimately spoil the project. Developers who depend on online tutorials must be aware of the fact that these tutorials often fail to mention the correct standards. As a result of following the web standards the web content will be made more accessible to the users on the international level.
5. Failing to follow Responsive Design
It is very important to follow a responsive design for a website right from the initial stage of web development. But many novice web developers fail to give due importance to responsive design. Web developers must ensure to define the breaking point of the application right at the beginning. It is crucial to define the breaking points of different applications at the beginning depending on the requirements. The developer should see to it that the website loads faster on small devices. For responsive design, Mobile-first development is very important. As a result of mobile-first development the foundation becomes strong. A strong foundation will make the designs of Tablets and Desktops stronger. Besides providing better user-experience, the mobile-first design facilitates removal of unwanted user interface decorations and enable developers to focus more and improve clarity.
A website can be made mobile-friendly with just a few tweaks. It is very important to make the website mobile-friendly because the majority of visitors may ignore the website which is not mobile-friendly. The website which is not mobile optimized will go invisible in the SERPs. Moreover, Google has implemented mobile-first indexing as now the priority is for mobile version of the website. More than 51% of web traffic come from mobile devices and in the US more than 70% of digital media consumption is carried out from Smartphones. While designing and developing a website, the web developer must keep in mind that everyone will be using a mobile device and will be using the mobile device to consume digital media.
6. Not testing Cross-Browser Compatibility
Web developers must devote some time to test the application in cross browsers while developing a new website. Those who ignore the cross-browser compatibility aspect may come across with various UI issues. For example a website that is 100% compatible with Chrome may have issues in Firefox. Hence, while developing, the website should be tested at least in the three prominent browsers – Chrome, Firefox and Microsoft Edge. It is advisable to avoid browser-specific code as a cross-browser compatible code can exist most of the time. Our Web Development Company India is using tools like “CrossBrowser Testing” or “Lambada Test” for Cross-browser testing.
7. Not providing 404 Page
The 404 page is essential for a website. The web developer should apply his creativity and make use of the 404 page to make the visitor feel comfortable instead of getting annoyed. A website without 404 Page shows that the developer has not taken care of the user experience of the visitors. The developer must focus on keeping the visitors on his page and guiding them where to proceed further.
8. Website containing thin content
Web developers must avoid thin content on the website they develop. Visitors are attracted to the website when they find that the website is beautifully designed and conveys with clarity what it offers. The website must be optimized for keywords so that people can easily find out the website.
How to avoid thin content?
1. Ensure to have Service/Product Page on your website. In the absence of this Page the website fails to get ranked for relevant keywords.
2. Google should understand easily what each Page of your website is about. So one Page must be exclusively for one product or one service. This will facilitate more visibility in the SERPs. Never list multiple Products or Services in One Page.
3. Provide quality content on your Product Pages. The content must be informative, useful and keyword-targeted. Visitors who go through the content must get converted to customers.
9. Not including H1 Tags
In the absence of H1 tags the website will go invisible in the SERPs. Search Engine crawlers will first look for H1 Tags because it helps them to understand what the website is about. By including H1 Tags the web developer satisfies Google and the visitors. The H1 tag must contain the primary keyword and the Tag should be kept above the fold so that people will see the Tag before they scroll down. If the visitors understand what the site is about in just 5 seconds, the H1 Tag is awesome.
10. Slow Loading Pages
The online world is very fast and vibrant. The visitors expect swift responses. Once they click on the website if the Pages take time to load, they lose patience and switch over to other websites where the Pages load in just 3 seconds. So the only way to retain your visitors is to ensure quick loading of your pages.
In most of the cases, the WP theme that you selected may be the reason for slow loading of your web pages. The solution is to avoid that particular theme and switch over to already tried and tested themes such as Astra, Ocean WP or Hello Elementor.
11. Incomplete Validation of Input
User input on both client side and server side is important. Still, there will be mistakes in validation. SQL injection is a common outcome of the validation mistake. Validation rules for Front-end Frameworks are simple and easy to use. There are simple annotations for each platform for submission of data to back-end development platforms with adherence to standard rules. Web developers should not overlook validation just because it is time-consuming. Validation must be a part of the standard coding process.
12. Not optimizing bandwidth usage
The performance of a website gets a big boost as a result of optimizing bandwidth usage. Minification of the JavaScript and CSS files is an easy way to better optimization.
Conclusion
Web developers, especially the new web developers can effectively improve their efficiency by avoiding the above mistakes while developing websites and web applications. The process of web development includes designing and developing the website, providing various web services and developing complex applications. Our Web Development Company India insist the Web developers to take precautions to avoid mistakes in all the above activities so that they will be able to create the best quality websites and enrich them with the best quality applications.
