The 100 Most Common Mistakes Web Developers Make

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The 100 Most Common Mistakes Web Developers Make
On the road to becoming a skillful web developer,
several common mistakes can be made. Ever heard
a web developer saying Its not a bug, its a
feature? Surely you must have! Whether you are
a newbie or an experienced web developer, you
must have committed at least a few of these
common web developer blunders. It just takes one
silly mistake to land you in hot water when it
comes to programming. It not only affects the
functioning of your code but also causes losses
to an enterprise for which the project is
built. Below, we have revealed 100 common errors
web developers make and how to overcome those.
So, take a look through these popular mistakes
you need to keep an eye out for.
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• Missing Semicolon
• This one is on the top of the list because it is
  very common to forget a semicolon in the code.
  Even an experienced web developer may forget to
  end the statement with a semi-colon.
• How to Avoid Practice adding a semicolon before
  you start writing code. This will help you to
  quit the habit of missing a semicolon every time
  you code.
• Postponing Your Action of Fixing Code
• Yeah, Ill fix it later is what comes to your
  mind when you spot a bug in your code. But that
  surely wont help. This will only pile up your
  work and you may even forget to fix it later.
• How to Avoid Truly said, Better do now than
  later. As soon as you find a problem, make sure
  you fix it at the same time, instead of keeping
  it for the next day. In case for some reason you
  arent able to do it on the same day, create a
  To-do list and make sure you check it before
  starting your work the next day.
• Not Paying Attention to Technical SEO
• Developers usually depend upon marketers or
  content creators for the SEO component of the
  website. But, thats not how it should be. For
  effective SEO, it should be done from the very
  beginning since the moment you build your site.
• How to Avoid As a developer, you must always
  make sure that all the pages contain appropriate
  alt tags, keywords, site-map, etc.
• Related 7 Important SEO Factors That Web
  Developers Should Be Aware Of
• Unnecessary Optimizations
• Optimizing the website for a few bytes? Is it
  worth? A lot of web developers spend most of
  their time optimizing the size of the site. But
  now or later, when the requirement changes your
  time is wasted.

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• Starting Work Just Before The Deadline
• Getting closer to a deadline is no less than a
  nightmare. Theres a reason the client has set a
  deadline and you must respect that deadline and
  deliver the work in the given time. If you put a
  hand in the project only when the deadline is
  approaching, its not gonna help.
• How to Avoid Start working with your project as
  soon as you have got it. Divide your project
  into shorter milestones so that you stay on
  track. Set a deadline for yourself before the
  final one and make sure you follow a schedule to
  reach your milestone.
• Building Non-Responsive Design
• Most of the users browse the websites on their
  mobile devices, tablets and laptops. These
  devices can be of any screen size. Thus, it is
  important to keep this factor in mind while you
  build the website. If your content is hard to
  read on their devices there are higher chances
  that your website visitors will give up on your
  site.
• How to Avoid Always keep in mind that your
  design should be multi-device supported. Using
  media query you can build responsive website
  designs.
• Related Advantages of Having a Responsive
  Website
• Using Outdated HTML
• HTML has evolved over the past few years. But
  still today, most of the people write their HTML
  the old school way. For example using lttablegt
  elements for the layout.
• How to Avoid Discard the usage of lttablegt
  element for the content layout. Start using the
  latest markup options and use HTML only to
  represent the content and not to display the
  structure of it. Using CSS to display your
  content is apt.
• Copying/Pasting Code Blindly
• Some or the other time, you must have blindly
  copied the code from the internet and pasted it,
  although you know its not right to do so. If you
  dont know, let me tell you simply copying
  pasting will take you nowhere. When you code, you
  must know if something does or doesnt work.

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• Ignoring Cross-Browser Compatibility
• Gone are those days when only Internet Explorer
  was used to browse the websites. In fact, on
  todays date, there are many other browsers apart
  from Firefox, Chrome, Safari, etc. that users
  prefer for accessing sites. As a developer, its
  your responsibility to make sure that the
  website looks apt across all desktop/mobile
  browsers. If your site functions nasty in your
  users browser, they might lose interest in the
  site.
• How to Avoid Use cross-browser compatibility
  testing tools that are available. Check if any
  usability or functional issues are occurring in
  any of the browsers and debug the issues in
  real-time.
• Working Too Much
• Working too much? You know it can result in less
  productivity. A lot of developers think working
  a lot will help them build their site faster.
  Some of them even stretch for 3-4 days long
  without getting any sleep. Result? You become
  more prone to mistakes and of course, you know
  how much time it is going to take for
  troubleshooting a single bug.
• How to Avoid Taking enough breaks and getting
  proper sleep, results in more productivity. So,
  you must take breaks at regular intervals and
  sleep at least for 8 hours to increase your
  productivity.
• Not Maintaining a Consistent Writing Style
• Every developer has his own style of writing
  code, depending on the way they have learned to
  code. But not maintaining a consistent writing
  style is what will put you in trouble. When its
  time to troubleshoot an issue, you will have to
  go through your code at least a few times. For
  example, you want to locate the exact issue and
  your code is not consistently written you may
  get stuck.
• How to Avoid When you start to write, make sure
  it is well-structured and it has proper
  sections, as well as comments are included
  wherever necessary. Following a consistent
  pattern will not only be helpful for you but also
  help others to understand your code.
• Ignoring Input Validation
• User input must be validated on the client and
  server-side. Do not trust user input is what
  we all hear. The reason behind this is- the
  hackers can attack websites by submitting
  malicious inputs through a form.
• How to Avoid Although implementing validation
  may take a lot of time, but you should never
  ignore input validation and practice it into your
  code.

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• Bloated Responses
• Your web page can be full of high-quality images
  which obviously will have heavy file size. The
  CSS and JavaScript files are quite huge. Due to
  this, the source code can be needlessly complex
  and long.
• How to Avoid Use minimalistic programming
  techniques, use libraries to simplify the
  program. Also, careful refactoring will help in
  modifying the source code of the program while
  still keeping the functionality as it is. Use
  compressed images with the help of some
  available online tools.
• Ignoring Warning Messages
• A lot of developers tend to ignore warning
  messages which later might turn into errors.
• How to Avoid Try to fix the warning messages as
  much as possible to avoid future possibilities
  of any code failures.
• Autoplaying Videos With High Volume
• While you might think that adding a video with
  full volume on the website will catch the
  attention of the user it can also become one of
  the reasons why the website might get closed as
  soon as the sound of the video annoys them.
• How to Avoid If you have integrated a video on
  your site then keep the autoplay setting off for
  it. Or you may low down the volume of the video
  or even remove the sound.
• Not Planning for Portability
• Not all the production environments will be the
  same as your local development computer. Issues
  may occur with hardcoded file paths, connection
  strings of databases or believing that all
  libraries will be available on the server.
• How to Avoid When you choose your coding
  platform, make sure it can run on load-balanced
  environments and that it can be scaled.

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• How to Avoid To write a high-quality code one
  must think, research and plan before writing the
  code. Doing this will only help in writing a
  clean and neat code without much of you re-work.
• Not Fixing Broken Pages
• Page not found error pages will let down the
  reputation of your site. Theres nothing more
  disappointing for a user than to click a link and
  see page not found error.
• How to Avoid Do keep a check on your website
  every now and then. Some online tools will also
  help you in finding the issues with broken web
  pages. As soon as you figure out such a page you
  should fix it by setting up page redirect.
• Related Why A 404 Page Is Important? How To
  Design It Creatively?
• Not Ready to Scale
• When starting on a project you might miss out
  considering future possibilities. What if the
  requirement grows at the later stage? If you
  arent prepared from the start, it may result in
  rework.
• How to Avoid At the beginning of your project,
  plan about the tiny details and work
  accordingly. It may take a while at the initial
  stage to implement the advanced functionalities,
  but surely its gonna save a lot of your time in
  the future.
• Making Core Information Hard To Find
• Hi-tech website? It may look cool. But whats the
  point, if your users are not able to find the
  information that they are looking for? They have
  landed at your website for a reason to learn
  more about the brand or to gain some information
  about the business. If the information is not
  easily accessible, they may leave your site.
• How to Avoid Display your information properly
  so that its easy for the users to find the
  information they need. Try to add important
  information from the homepage to the product or
  service pages, or any such page that will help
  the user gain some more information.

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• face challenges like quota exceeded, connection
  timeout or your application response time
  reduces drastically.
• How to Avoid Having an external mailing service
  can be implemented for sending emails or
  notifications.
• Too Much Refresh
• Does your webpage need refresh action for every
  interaction? Every time your page is refreshed,
  it requires complete resetting of the page.
  Unnecessarily the action of downloading the page
  will get repeated and the users time will be
  wasted.
• How to Avoid Identify if posting back to the
  server is truly required. Few things can be
  implemented such as using client-side script
  where there is no dependency for server-side
  resources. Ajax techniques can be adopted or you
  can even make use of popular JavaScript
  libraries/frameworks that make carrying out of
  these methods much easier like KnockoutJS and
  AngularJS and jQuery.
• Overlooking the Nonfunctional Requirements
• Its quite common to forget about some important
  aspects such as security and performance while
  you are trying to deliver something.
• How to Avoid Prepare a checklist and keep a
  track of these things so that you dont miss out
  on the important nonfunctional requirements.
• Writing Too Big Functions
• Although you may not initially plan of writing a
  huge function, once you start writing it, you
  keep on adding script based on the expected
  outcome of your program. Within no time you
  reach 500 lines of the code.
• Lengthy functions are difficult to debug and
  maintain. For example, it becomes tough to
  understand what exactly each line of code does.
  Too many paths through the code create a mess.

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• Creating Code That Should Work
• With the code running on a server or whether its
  JavaScript, you may have tested the
  functionality of the code and checked if it
  works. But it is not necessary, that it will
  still work when deployed. Such types of issues
  may not only impact the user but also give an
  opportunity to hackers.
• How to Avoid Ensure that you enforce good
  techniques to avoid errors. Cross-check for any
  occurrence of errors in the functioning of the
  program.
• Putting Blame on Others
• Mistakes grow your brain Jo Boaler.
• Making mistakes is still okay but accepting it,
  takes a lot of courage.
• Certainly, a lot of IT professionals and
  developers are quite self-centered. But it
  doesnt mean one should deny the mistakes they
  made. While you do this, you may put the blame
  on others which puts them in trouble.
• How to Avoid Dont freak out when you commit a
  mistake. Admit that it happened and ensure that
  you correct it. Owing a mistake is an important
  part unless you wont be able to fix it.
• Writing Forking Code
• To support all browser versions you create a code
  that fulfills each possible scenario which later
  becomes a mountain of multiple if statements.
  Now, when the browser version is updated, the
  code becomes heavy and unmanageable.
• How to Avoid Use feature detection in your code.
  This will help you reduce the amount of code and
  also make it effortless to read and manage. You
  can even use a library like Modernizr that
  automatically helps provide fallback support
  along with feature detection.

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• Grabbing Solution Without Confirmation
• A lot of developers are habitual of implementing
  the very first solution that they find on the
  web for the problem they are facing in their
  code. Finding a solution is not at all difficult
  but you should think about the complexities that
  can arise in the code by simply using it in your
  code as it is.
• How to Avoid Find multiple solutions to the
  problem that has arisen. Pick the one that will
  work correctly and function as expected.
  Additionally, it should be easy to maintain,
  understand and read.
• Not Giving Importance to Styling Issues
• Coding style issues are the thing that developers
  tend to ignore. For a newbie, it might be tough
  to think about the impact styling issues might
  have on code, but eventually, it will become
  clear that once the code quality is compromised
  it becomes screwed up.
• How to Avoid Follow the best practices, adopt a
  habit of checking code or run tools that will
  analyze code for potential errors.
• Declaring Variables Globally
• Did the variable fail to initialize? Thats
  probably because logic flow didnt go through the
  initialization code or maybe you forgot to
  initialize, or perhaps variable got initialized
  properly but then got reset by some other
  function to an unexpected value.
• A lot of possibilities, but theres no perfect
  method to figure out other than executing one
  program section at a time while keeping a keen
  eye on the variable. It can be frustrating to
  know that the cause of the problem youve been
  running after, is your global variable which
  is modifying values unexpectedly.
• How to Avoid Declare variables globally only
  when its the necessity. If you have multiple
  functions in your code where these variables will
  be used, in such cases avoid it strictly.
• Overlooking Proven Practices
• Practices like test-driven development,
  deployment automation, code reviews, quality
  assurance have certainly have proven their
  importance in an infinite number of projects.
  But not all developers think the same and they
  use their own methods for the development.

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• How to Avoid Its not a bad idea to use your own
  logic and write the code but at the same time
  you must consider the proven practices that the
  developers have already made use of.
• Excessive Planning Before Writing Code
• Having a plan before your code is a good
  practice, but too much of anything is bad.
  Perfection doesnt exist in the world of
  coding. Having a basic plan is okay but a
  detailed plan could be a waste of time.
• How to Avoid Get started with small features at
  first, avoid planning all features at once.
• Hushing Up The Errors
• There are a lot of ways to bury the errors like
  by capturing and overlooking exceptions or by
  using libraries that dont notify errors (for
  example jQuery). But there comes a situation
  when fixing all those errors becomes important,
  now thats where it becomes challenging you can
  even feel clueless as from where to start.
• How to Avoid Make a habit by logging those
  neglected errors so that you can analyze it
  later. Which will help you in fixing them later?
• Using Meaningless Names
• While using a variable or a function, deciding
  their names is an important step. If you use
  random names that dont add any meaning to the
  code, it will be a hard time for the other
  developer while reading your code.
• How to Avoid Define the name of a variable or a
  function based on its purpose. This will give a
  general idea of what that specific piece of code
  does and at the same time, it will help you as
  well as other developers understand the code in
  seconds.
• Messy Content Layout
• The most important factor that drives traffic to
  your website is your content. The overall
  structure of this content will determine its gain
  or loss.

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• How to Avoid Here are some quick tips
• Update your content now and then (aesthetically)
  to make it look perfect.
• Add enough white spaces between your content so
  that it looks clean.
• Use images and margins wherever necessary to
  split a big piece of content.
• Giving Up Plans Too Soon
• Not committing to a strategy can make your system
  incomprehensible. If a fault is found in your
  code you can always say that the code is still in
  progress. If a module is partially done and you
  continue to do it later, it can result in a
  tightly-coupled code. This obstruction arises
  when a new person takes charge of the project and
  they think that following their way is more
  important than architectural consequences.
• How to Avoid Stick to a plan or a strategy that
  you have already decided. Leaving the plan at an
  early stage will cause a challenge in the further
  stage of the project.
• Sticking To a Plan That is Less Likely to Work
• The way of leaving the plan can cause problems,
  in the same way, sticking to a plan can also put
  you in trouble. If you doubt that your plan might
  not work then carrying it out unnecessarily will
  be a waste of time.
• How to Avoid Share your plan with your team and
  take inputs from them when things get complex. A
  different angle is what you need sometimes to
  figure out the solution.
• Too Many Pop-Ups
• A lot of users get annoyed with the pop-ups on a
  website while they are engaged in the content or
  they have clicked a link. If their purpose of
  coming to your site is not fulfilled and you
  keep showing them pop-ups, all they will do is
  click the close button of the browser tab.

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• How to Avoid Keeping in touch with your team is
  really essential. Do share your progress and
  your thoughts with them, you never know what
  additional knowledge youll get to learn.
• Endless Scrolling
• This is a very commonly used feature and also a
  very familiar one. Facebook, Twitter or Google
  image search are the best examples of infinite
  scroll. The content is loaded only when the
  scroll action is performed by the user
  eliminating the use of pagination.
• Although this feature looks amazing there are few
  shortcomings. Say for example the user is
  searching for something specific, the endless
  scroll can get annoying and users may go away
  even before they have started.
• How to Avoid Photo gallery is the best place to
  use infinite scroll rather than other pages. You
  dont have to compromise your design to avoid the
  problem mentioned above. Simply using filters on
  that page will help in narrowing the search that
  will help the user to get the data he is looking
  for.
• Denying The Ownership of Your Code
• Wondering why would a developer disown his own
  code?
• Imagine you have a pet dog that bit one of your
  neighbors. What if they come yelling and ask
  whose dog is that?
• Will you take up the responsibility? Accepting
  that its yours is surely gonna put you in
  trouble.
• So the first thing youll do is remain quiet.
  Isnt it?
• Similarly, when your code performs well, youll
  be the first one to take the credit. But what
  happens when your code is full of errors? Youll
  definitely be asked who coded that?

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• Not Using Data Structures Correctly
• Using lists instead of maps is the most common
  mistake in data structure while managing a list
  of records.
• How to Avoid Use a Map to manage a list of
  records. The main purpose behind using this is,
  looking up records with the identifiers maps is
  much quicker than lists.
• Not Taking Backups
• Whats more disappointing than losing your
  valuable code and writing it from scratch?
• Spending days and nights to write your code and
  losing it within seconds can surely give you a
  heart attack!
• A hard disk crash is a very common cause and it
  happens too frequently.
• No doubt, with the growing technologies you may
  get your data recovered. But before that, you
  will have to reinstall your operating system and
  what not!
• How to Avoid Do take a backup of your files on a
  timely basis at least once in a week. Not on the
  same disk but back it up on a different disk
  location or on the cloud.
• Bad Code? No! No!
• We all know what happens when the deadline is
  approaching. Its very natural to write bad code
  under pressure and theres nothing wrong with
  that. The client or the manager is not in a
  state to compromise with the deadline so you have
  no option but to code.

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• Neglecting the Debugger
• Whether your program works fine or it has some
  bugs in it, using a debugger is very important.
  A debugger helps the developer to understand what
  exactly your code is doing.
• Although a function generates accurate results,
  you might later discover that its not
  functioning the way it was required. The chances
  are either its not detecting possible input
  values or its not handling possible legal input
  values.
• How to Avoid Using a debugger will help you with
  an in-depth understanding of what your code is
  doing. So, always use a debugger in your program
  to get a complete insight about it.
• Adding Text in Images
• Adding text inside the image will add no value to
  your SEO. But this is a very commonly made
  mistake. The search engine cant read the text
  inside the image as we humans can. Ultimately,
  its similar to not using any text.
• Especially for those websites that have a banner
  on their website with a text in it, the search
  engine thinks that the H1 tags and subheadings
  are missing. This factor can kill your SEO
  badly.
• How to Avoid Include a text layer over your
  image instead of adding text inside the image.
  By doing this the text becomes readable for the
  search engines which will benefit in your SEO
  rankings.
• Hating the Errors
• Seeing those little red error message upsets you?
  Dont be.
• Errors are the sign that you are evolving.

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• Complex Registration Forms
• Gone are those days when you had to take a
  mountain full of information from the user to
  register to your site. If you add a lot of
  mandatory fields and validations the user may
  get annoyed and leave your site.
• A simple form makes the registration process
  smooth.
• How to Avoid Only add basic fields in your form
  that wont bother your users to fill in. Compare
  other websites of your community and study what
  info they have added.
• Not Giving Feedback to Managers or Clients
• How will your manager or client know that the
  project is in progress and not stagnant? Until
  and unless you give them the status of the
  project, they wont know. They become insecure
  and impatient about the project.
• How to Avoid Its vital to keep posted about the
  project to your clients or the manager. If you
  have maintained a common spreadsheet add as much
  the latest information as possible about the
  project. Not only your client and manager will
  know the progress, but also other team members
  can view and understand about it. This will
  ensure to know that everyone is on the same
  page.
• Showing That You Know Everything
• After hearing the word Developer people think
  you are a magician and they come up with all
  sorts of technical issues they are facing.
  Whether be it a programming help or an error
  with the software while installing it on their
  computer. If you dont know the solution to
  their problem, dont try to deceive the
  situation.
• How to Avoid You dont know anything and
  everything in the world, and thats okay. You
  dont have to feel insecure that you dont have
  the answer. Tell them that you will get back to
  them with a solution later and study the scenario
  first.
• Not Taking Help When You Are Trapped
• Taking help from someone or Googling the problem
  doesnt mean that you are weak. As mentioned
  earlier, its not necessary that you know all the
  answers. If you are stuck at some point and take
  help from someone who wont have any matter of
  doubt that you are less skillful.

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• How to Avoid Dont hesitate to take help from
  people whenever you need it. Dont fear what
  people will judge about you, instead they will
  see your efforts and take inspiration from your
  willingness to learn. Thats how you set an
  example for others.
• Defending When Your Code is Criticized
• At least once in your lifetime, you will meet a
  developer who has far more skills than you and
  might find faults in the code you wrote. At this
  moment, you might feel offended and start
  defending yourself to save your dignity.
• How to Avoid In such situations, if you are sure
  that what you have coded is 100 correct,
  defending yourself is okay to explain your
  reason. But if its your fault do not feel bad
  about accepting the mistake. This will not put
  you down in any way. If you keep defending it
  will only lead to more conflicts.
• If your code needs refinement, its only a
  reflection of the codes fixation, not yours so
  dont take it personally.
• Too Much Confidence in Your Own Code
• Having confidence is okay, but overconfidence in
  your code can put you in trouble. Just because
  you wrote something doesnt mean that it will be
  error-free.
• How to Avoid As you keep working, you learn more
  about new things and gain more knowledge. Keep a
  timely check on your old code to know how you
  have progressed over the period of time.
• Attending Meetings All Day
• In your journey of becoming a developer, you will
  notice that you spend most of your time
  attending meetings. There comes a point when you
  do meetings the whole day. If you spend your
  valuable time like that, you wont get any
  productive output.
• How to Avoid Its okay to skip some meetings, if
  they are not that important. Utilize this time
  in doing some productive work.

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• How to Avoid Enable zoom in for your site to
  allow your users to read the content
  effortlessly. They will simply pinch and zoom-in
  to the text which they want to read and grab the
  information they want.
• Not Knowing How Things Really Work
• Never miss an opportunity to gain knowledge on
  how things work and learn about the basic
  issues. Even though you may not need it now, but
  it doesnt mean it will be a waste of time.
• How to Avoid Spend time on knowing how things
  really work. When you learn more about a
  project, its not necessary that you will make
  use of it immediately, in fact, it will help you
  in the long run for future projects.
• UnFriendly Drop Down Menus
• We all know how important it is to display your
  website on mobile devices perfectly.
• Well, not only mobile devices but these days, a
  lot of people interact with their touch screen
  PCs too.
• Fancy drop-down menus are surely attractive but
  the one that requires a mouse-hover may not be
  compatible with all types of devices.
• How to Avoid Keep it simple. Dont try and put a
  lot of effects like mouse hover in the drop-down
  menu of your website.
• Not Knowing Optimizations
• Improving code quality and efficiency is what you
  might miss out. Or if not done right, can mess
  up with the functioning of your code. If you want
  to do flawless optimization, you need to follow
  a strategy that will need the experience to get
  it right.

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• Ignoring to Test
• Thinking that your site performs well and that it
  is the best version of your website can be a
  misconception. A lot of mistakes can be avoided,
  if you carry out proper testing.
• How to Avoid Testing helps you discover which
  content, call to action, graphics, forms, or any
  other aspect works best for your targeted users.
  Testing methods like A/B testing lets you
  compare two versions of a page and help you
  decide which one works best for your audience.
• Overestimating Your Own Style
• Multiple people work on bigger projects, where
  you might work on one module and at the same
  time other team members on another one. Sticking
  to your own coding style can be good but your
  co-workers might not be able to adapt your way.
  Especially if your way of coding is uncommon, it
  will become difficult for the other teammate that
  will work on your already built project.
• How to Avoid Follow a working style that is
  common and will be helpful for other team
  members to coordinate. Adopt a style that
  everyone working under the same project should
  be on the same page without any complexities.
• Not Considering Code Quality
• Simply writing code and making it work should not
  be your only motto. You must also focus on the
  readability of your code. Messy code is nothing
  but a wastebasket. It becomes unusable and
  non-recyclable.
• How to Avoid Never ignore the worth of code
  quality. Think of coding as a way to communicate
  implementations and your task is to communicate
  the implementations through your code.
• Idealizing Your Developer Toolkit
• Some developers love sublime while others love
  using vim. Staying glued to your command-line
  tool wont be a good idea always.
• How to Avoid Be flexible. Shift to other code
  editors as the need changes. For Java using
  Eclipse is a perfect one while Sublime is good
  for dynamic languages, at the same time Visual
  Studio is amazing for writing IDEs.

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• Too Big Headers Graphics
• Headings and graphics on your website provoke the
  users to scroll and get their relevant
  information. At the same time, it can also become
  a distraction and the crucial piece of
  information might stay out of their sight.
• How to Avoid Make sure that the content you
  choose to highlight in headings is relevant and
  fits on the screen correctly. The main objective
  of this is to make important content on your
  website easily accessible to your visitors. One
  of the best examples for this is the newspaper,
  if you may have noticed the important news is
  always placed above the fold
• Rabbit Trails
• Think of the situation where you are trying to
  find a solution to the problem. While you start
  your research to the answer, another one arises
  and yet another and so on. After some time you
  realize that all this while, you only wasted your
  important time and you still dont have an
  answer to your initial problem.
• How to Avoid Do not lose track of your primary
  problem. Stay focused on what you were looking
  for and dont get diverted.
• Making Use of The Wrong Tools
• Taking decisions only on the basis of what you
  know is erroneous. You may have a lot of
  knowledge but it doesnt mean you should not
  learn new tools. Each new challenge that you
  face, brings a different context that requires a
  different tool.
• How to Avoid Be open to using different
  technologies, frameworks, libraries and
  languages.
• Using Same Old Shortcuts
• Developers are habitual to using shortcuts. As
  time goes by, you still use the same old
  shortcuts and dont learn the new ones.
• How to Avoid Master the art of shortcuts and
  learn a new one as much as possible. You may not
  realize but using them every day makes your work
  a lot faster. Although its a matter of just a
  few seconds using hotkeys and shortcuts will have
  a positive impact on your coding speed.

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• Not Making Values Configurable
• The requirement can grow even after the project
  is already started. You will have to learn to
  deal with them and plan your project at the
  initial stage accordingly. Your code can get
  complicated, if you dont plan it from the
  beginning.
• How to Avoid Make use of constants and
  configuration files wherever possible. Be
  prepared for any changes that might come.
• Disordered Pages, No Whitespace
• Trying to fit too much of content on a single
  page will only make your page look messy. Nasty
  looking pages are a big no-no! Making users run
  away from your site. Not adding enough
  whitespace in between the content looks foul.
• How to Avoid Add an adequate amount of
  whitespace where there are large chunks of text.
  This will make your design look clean and
  elegant.
• Not Exploring the Components of Libraries
• Using a few libraries will not make you an expert
  neither it means that its suitable for every
  circumstance that comes in the course of your
  project.
• How to Avoid Each of the products has its
  subtleties that youll discover only when you
  start using it on a regular basis and scrutinize
  it. Pay attention to every component you use,
  youll get to learn something new all the time.
• Long Journey of Clicks
• A user visiting your website is in search of
  something specific apparently. If you trap them
  on your website by making them click too much to
  reach their desired information, it can be
  bothersome for the user.
• How to Avoid Make the flow of your website so
  smooth that the user finds the information
  instantly, instead of browsing through countless
  pages or clicking one link after the other.

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• Only Writing Tests to Pass
• Writing tests that will pass is quite obvious.
  Most of the times you only write a test that
  will pass and show successful output. But what
  about the tests that dont fulfill the
  condition?
• Lets take an example where a mobile number is
  required. A mobile number is 10 digits. When you
  write a test and input a 10 digit number,
  undoubtedly it will show successful results. But
  what if an 11 digit mobile number is entered?
  Should it pass the condition? Obviously no!
• How to Avoid Consider writing tests that wont
  pass.
• Pass tests are required to make refactoring and
  reorganizing a project at the same time writing
  tests that wont pass is important to keep track
  of issues.
• Excessive Use of Images and Animations
• Images on the website make it engaging. But
  excessive use of images can be a distraction.
  The same goes for animation. A limited amount of
  animation can be attractive and grabs users
  attention but excessive animation can be
  annoying. They dont have time or patience to
  watch a full cycle of an animation.
• How to Avoid Too much of anything is bad. Use
  images only where it is suitable or is going to
  add value for the user. If you are adding a full
  page animation on your site, give a provision
  for a skip button to your users.
• Ignoring the Working of Your Build
• You must be checking your build and it might even
  pass the test. But its not necessary that it
  will work without any obstacles. Even after the
  build passes it might not really work. In fact,
  it might be tough to fix if you put it on hold.
• How to Avoid Test the build and its working
  immediately. Adopting this habit will fringe
  benefits and no gains.

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• How to Avoid Try to help other people on the
  internet. Prepare the content and post the
  problem with its solution on technical forums so
  that it will be helpful for other developers
  too. Not only other developers but it can be
  helpful for you too in case you face the same
  problem next time and have forgotten about the
  solution.
• Too Many Comments Or No Comments At All!
• Comments are the wild card of the code. As
  mentioned earlier, anything done too much is
  bad. The same thing applies to comments. Adding
  comments about obvious things will only make
  your code lengthy. Not writing comments will make
  it difficult for you as well as other people to
  understand the purpose of the code.
• How to Avoid Name your functions and arguments
  appropriately so that there is a lesser need for
  the comments. Only add comments where the scope
  of confusion can arise and adding comments will
  give it clarity.
• Heres a quick tip While writing a comment
  instead of what is this code doing, answer
  why this code.
• Ignoring Data Analytics
• Analytics is the most important tool for any
  website but its mostly underused by a large
  number of developers. Not using analytics means
  appearing for the examination and not reviewing
  the results.
• How to Avoid Track the progress of your website
  with the help of analytics. You get a clear
  picture of which part of your website is doing
  well and which pages have lesser or higher
  visits. Acknowledging these issues on your site
  will help you in figuring out the exact problem
  areas and fix them.
• Not Maintaining Documentation
• If you are a web application or a software
  developer, missing out your software
  documentation is a big misstep. Not providing a
  how-to guide to your user can put them in a
  jumble which you surely dont want.
• How to Avoid Prepare reliable documentation that
  is easy to read and understand. Include
  screenshots with proper arrows and explaining how
  it works. This will work as an upper hand in
  simplifying the working of your application and
  this way the user will learn more about your
  product. Moreover, it will help down your support
  cost.

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• Adding Sliders
• Developers love sliders- What? You dont?
• Most of them do!
• The slider is just a fancy feature that adds zero
  value to your SEO. Instead, it makes your site
  slow and bulky because it loads additional
  JavaScript.
• How to Avoid To save your website from SEO
  backfire, find some alternatives to sliders.
  Create unique designs that will grab the
  attention of your user and your SEO is not hurt.
  Until and unless its very important strictly
  avoid using them.
• Using Complex URL Structures
• mydomain.com/category-page.php?categoryfootweart
  ypecasual-shoescolourbla ck
• mydomain.com/footwear/casual-shoes/black
• From the above two URLs which one looks more
  clean and pretty? The later one, right?
• Search engines hate ugly URLs. So do we humans.
  If you still are using the same old complex way-
  stop it right away. Using complex URLs are a big
  no-no!
• How to Avoid Use URLs those are simpler to
  understand. Build the URL structure that can be
  easily understood and is simple to read.

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• How to Avoid Be clear and specific about the
  purpose of each page on your website. Figure out
  the relevancy and encourage them to click other
  links on your page by offering them components
  that hold their interest.
• Not Optimizing Images
• Image optimization may not be the most important
  factor of your website but it still matters and
  one should not ignore it.
• The majority of the users stay on-site if it
  loads in less than 2 seconds. If your website
  takes more than 3 seconds to load, they are
  likely to leave your site. As a result your
  bounce rate increases.
• How to Avoid Compressing images will help your
  page load quickly and helps in improving the
  speed of your website enhancing the user
  experience.
• Meaningless Registrations
• Why ask users to register when it serves no
  benefit to them?
• A lot of pages say for example blog page asks the
  user to fill in their information to read an
  article. Just to read one piece of content, a
  user may not feel the necessity to fill in all
  his details.
• How to Avoid Take information from users only
  when its necessary. Needlessly asking them to
  fill in the details is only going to bother them.
• Using Fancy Unreadable Fonts
• Everyone loves presenting text in fancy fonts,
  thinking it will make your website look
  beautiful. Sometimes, these fonts are extra fancy
  that it makes the text unreadable and that part
  of your website remains unnoticed.

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• Not Using Default Functions
• Although coding your own functions is a good
  idea. Writing customized functions that are
  already available for you is simply a waste of
  time.
• How to Avoid You must also take into account the
  default functions. A lot of frameworks have
  their own set of functions that make your work a
  lot simpler and save a lot of your efforts and
  time.
• Missing H1 Tags
• There can be many reasons for not using an H1 tag
  on your website. Either because there is no
  place for it on your site or maybe the design
  will change.
• Not using an H1 tag will badly impact your SEO.
• How to Avoid Use a descriptive H1 tag above the
  fold to explain the purpose of your website. Do
  include your targeted keyword as this will help
  in boosting your website rankings in search
  engines.
• Choosing Poor Web Hosting Provider
• Selecting a bad web hosting provider is a common
  mistake that a novice developer commits. Without
  thinking about the impact it will have on the
  website, choosing a random web hosting provider
  is what one must avoid strictly.
• Web host plays an important role in every aspect
  of your website, be it website speed or SEO.
• Dont just choose a web hosting provider because
  it is cheap.

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• The problem arises when these changes are not
  replicated in the repository and you upload the
  same old files in the next deployment. Your
  client is surely gonna get upset seeing the
  issue over again.
• How to Avoid Whenever there is any demand for a
  change first make the changes on your local file
  and then upload it on your server. This way you
  can save yourself from any rework and multiple
  versions of the files.
• Not Backing Up After Website is Live
• A lot of you think that once the website is live
  your responsibility is over. But thats not how
  it should be. Your client is dependent on you for
  his website as he might not be aware of all the
  factors related to a website. Its your duty to
  take care of it even after the website is
  deployed on the web. Especially, when it comes to
  web hosting. Most of the time, the web hosting
  account is due and the client doesnt know. Once
  the hosting account gets expired all the website
  files are lost and if you dont have its backup,
  the client is going to be furious.
• How to Avoid Keep a track of the web hosting
  account and do take timely backups, so that even
  after the hosting account is expired you dont
  lose any website data.
• OverCrowding the Features
• Adding too many features often confuses your
  users and causes an increase in the bounce rate.
  If there is no need for any multiple call to
  action buttons and you still add it, the user
  will be completely mystified.
• How to Avoid Ensure that you keep all features
  in the account and only add the required and
  necessary features to avoid overdoing.
• Not Keeping Important Content Above the Fold
• Assuming that most users are willing to scroll
  and so you can place any important information
  anywhere throughout your site, can be a big
  mistake. In case you dont know what is above
  the fold, let me tell you that anything on your
  website that isnt visible immediately and
  requires scrolling is called below the fold.
• How to Avoid Its truly important that you
  include all the important information above the
  fold. Show your visitors whats the best thing
  you are offering so that it makes them curious
  to scroll through your website.

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• No Search Box
• Users are habitual to type and search for the
  information they are looking for on a website.
  If you fail to provide them with a search box,
  the users wont be able to find the information
  effectively. Not providing a search box will
  waste a lot of time and effort of your visitor.
• How to Avoid Do include a search box on your
  website on the top of the header in the
  navigation menu thats clearly visible or in the
  footer. Also, make sure the search box works,
  else it will show no results or irrelevant
  results even though you have that information on
  your site.
• Placing Call to Action Under The Table
• This generally happens with e-commerce sites
  where there are product pages. The first thing
  that should catch the attention after visiting a
  page should be Buy Now or Add to cart
  button. Despite that, some websites focus on
  providing information about the product and its
  features instead of asking the user to make a
  purchase. Although this may help the user in
  gaining the maximum information about the product
  it can create confusion about the purpose of the
  page- purchase or description of the product?
• How to Avoid Place the call to the action button
  above the fold and pay attention to the color or
  the size of the button. The product description
  can also be shown by adding a read more
  button.
• Showing Too Many Ads
• Ads can be annoying and especially, if placed
  wrongly can even torture your visitors. We know
  for a lot of blog owners, ads are the main source
  of income but if it bothers even in the
  slightest way, it will be doing the same to your
  visitors.
• How to Avoid
• Do not place noisy or flashy ads on your website.
• Consider user experience while placing the ad on
  your site.
• Dont place more ads than content on your pages.
• Strictly avoid full-screen ads.

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• Yes! You guessed that right- The Header.
• Putting a lot of items in your header is
  generally seen on e-commerce websites. This is
  the perfect place to show important information
  like the promotional text of contact details.
  However, it becomes an obstacle for the user when
  too many items are placed in that area and the
  user gets confused about what to focus on.
• How to Avoid Include only important things in
  your header area such as shopping cart, offers,
  navigation items, search box, etc.
• Horizontal Scrolling
• The websites with horizontal scrolling are
  clearly defying the norms of a standard website.
• Users can miss some information on your site if
  you have a horizontal scroll bar.
• The current trend is of vertical-scroll on the
  websites and obviously to add all the
  information on your site, you will need to add a
  vertical scroll. Imagine scrolling a website
  vertically as well as horizontally at the same
  time. It will become so inconvenient for your
  visitors.
• How to Avoid Use only the vertical scroll on
  your website. They are simpler to implement and
  more commonly used. Even the users are used to
  vertical scrolling and not horizontal scrolling.
• Relying on Site Builder Tools
• Simply drag and drop and your site is ready!
  Sounds cool?
• Taking shortcuts will not always lead you to the
  right path. The performance of your site will be
  impacted, if you use the site builder tool.

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A lot of images can also make your site slow
which is damaging for your SEO. How to Avoid
Add a lot of content in the form of text on your
website. Search engines read and understand the
text. None of the elements matters as much as
text does. Do add images along with enough text
to make it look pretty. 100. Incorrect Error
Messages When there is a need for showing an
error to the user, such as incorrect data input.
Your error message should be clear enough to
tell the user what exactly the problem is. See
this below example of how displaying an incorrect
error, can cause problems How to Avoid Write
well-crafted error messages. Through the error
message, the user should be able to understand
what should be done next to fix it. Epitome If
you are a newbie, we do not intend to hurt your
feelings by pointing out your mistakes. Our only
purpose is to make you aware of the day-to-day
mistakes a web developer or a designer or a
programmer make and help you to prevent
them. How many of the above mistakes have you
done already? Tell us in the comments section
below. Do share some of your error experiences
as a developer that you have made in the past
and how did you overcome them?
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