Web design/web development. Both are vital to a web design/development project. Research shows that web design is used more frequently in conversation and internet search. Web design deals with the information architecture and the graphic design. Development deals with the actual construction of the webpages and any backend programming and database setup. Maybe web development is considered less important or maybe web design is easier to say and type? Maybe the asthetic creations of web design are more exciting than web development which is just a bunch of 1′s and 0′s right? Maybe I’m just sad for writing a post about web design and web development?

Here are the 3 worst website design mistakes that I’ve seen with regards to hindering SEO.

1. Flash only website design with text only versions. Website design using only Flashstops search engine spiders from crawling.
2. Tables for non tabular content. Tables, in website design, should be used for tabular data only. The late 90′s saw a lot of poor website design using tables for structure. The defacto standard now is CSS and XHTML using DIV tags to separate style from structure.
3. Poor colour theory. Don’t use colours together that clash. Construct well written CSS so that users can change colour theme based on preference.

If there’s one thing that new web design businesses get wrong it’s quoting for web design projects. Web design quotations can be daunting when you start out. The first lesson is make a quote and stick with it. If a prospect says your competitor is cheaper but your service offers greater value then stand by your price and emphasise the value that your web design project will bring to their business. You get what you pay for and they don’t want cheap web design because it will make their business look cheap. Second lesson is to provide that value when you do get the job. Do a good job and your client will refer you.