Knowing what to look out for and incorporate into your website design when creating a site for the first time can feel a little daunting. But it doesn’t have to be.

It is all a matter of knowing what works and what doesn’t work. What it takes to create a unique bespoke website, that will increase your leads, conversions and sales, and what will have the opposite effect.

Remember: bad mistakes, no matter how simple or insignificant they may feel, can in fact be the key reason to why your website is only converting at 3%.

So where do you begin? Well, in any journey the best way to learn anything, is to first understand why simple errors – such as the way you display your content – can have such a profound impact upon the reception of your website.

Know these little secrets, and you’ll be matching the best of the best in affiliate marketing in no time.

So let’s get started. Below is a quick overview of the ten most common mistakes web site designers make when designing their websites. You’ll be surprised by how small they are.

ONE: Home Page

Believe it or not but many online marketers place everything about their product – and we mean everything – into this first initial home page. And rest of their website? Becomes an accessory; information pages whose sole purpose is to supplement this first page.

This is a big mistake. Each of your web site’s pages, from your home page, to your ‘About Us’ section, to the more basic product pages – all of them need to offer equal chances for your surfer to find the information they need so that they can click through and pay.

Your home page may make the first impression, but it is your backing product pages, that will give you the marketing opportunities to make that sale happen.

TWO: Design

It is easy to fall in love with one aspect of your design – a piece of graphic that makes your own jaw drop – but this fascination can come at a sacrifice to your other pages. Things such as site navigation, the graphics within your product pages, your order forms… you could lose the real focus of your web site – to sell/promote your product. So even if this one graphic is impressive, if it does not fit in with the style of the rest of your web site, you need to put it aside and move on.

You cannot afford to overlook the basic rules.

THREE: I.T.

There is a reason why design and IT are separate… they both work under a different pretext of what a customer will want. So be careful, and try to find the right balance within your site. After all, what matters most is not what your IT team thinks, but what your customers thinks.

FOUR: Customers

You’ve just completed your web site; have followed all the basic standards for design, but your conversions are still low – what has gone wrong? It is incredibly simple. You have not appealed to your customers on the right level.

When you create any affiliate website, it is important to consider the emotive purpose of your customer. Why have they come to your website? What are they searching for and what are their reasons? Understanding what your customers want and what they are searching for within your chosen product niche, can give you the advantage. You will be able to provide them with what they want: the answer.

FIVE: Testing

Ever heard the motto ‘act now, ask questions later’. Well, whilst this spontaneity may work in other markets, in online marketing to make any changes to your website without thoroughly testing it first, can often have negative consequences.

Do the change, and you could soon be watching your sales drop.

SIX: Re-design

It is important to keep your website moving with the times. One method of design may work now, but later it could blow up on you. Affecting your sales, leads and conversions, all in one act.

Instead you need to watch out for the telltale signs that your website is on the brink of needing a re-design. Do it in advance, and you’ll not lose out on sales.

SEVEN: Qualifications

If web design is not your niche, finding the right retail designer to make those changes and build your website is important. You need to check out their qualifications and their previous design history first.

Let’s say, they have got a track record of 4 out of 5 sites falling in search engine ranking once they have redesigned it. It can’t all be down to the product, it must be partly down to the designer too. So check their history. See if they have any specialisms in your niche. If they have got the skill and training, then they could be the designer for you.

EIGHT: Images

Even broadband comes with restrictions, especially when it comes to your image content on your web site.

You see, images will increase your sites ability to download. So the more images you add, the longer your website will take to load. And the longer it takes to load, the more likely your surfer will move onto the next product site.

Every byte counts.

NINE: Layout

Online marketing and offline marketing are two different things. What works in one, won’t necessarily work in another.

Say for example you work for a shoe shop. In store, arranging your product in a neat line will look impressive, but use the same layout online, and these neat images will look dull and bland.

You need to spice it up a little.

But remember, your content is important too. The way you arrange this will also make a difference to the appeal of your website.

After all, wasn’t it the use of SEO, language and reviews that attracted your surfer’s attention in the first place? Good copy sells, so remember to keep a balance.

TEN: Community

It is good to introduce diversity into your web design. Offer your surfer reams upon reams of text, with fact upon fact that is filled with no emotional energy or excitement, and they’ll become distracted from the opportunities your product has got to offer.

Try instead, incorporating blogs, forums and reviews onto your website. They are personal, emotive and promote a sense of community within your product niche, that they will be very proud to be a part of.

And that’s it. By bearing all these ten points in mind. When you come to building and maintaining your affiliate website, you will be feeling the positive side of online marketing, whilst watching your conversion rates grow more successful every single day.