At BMGcreative, our designers and developers are often heard saying “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” This can apply to a variety of things but it seems to come up most often when we’re talking about web design mistakes people should avoid.

Here are a few of our favorite web design mistakes people make:

• Just because you can use 15 fonts on one website… doesn’t mean you should
• Just because you can color your fonts…doesn’t mean you should
• Just because you can use JavaScript…doesn’t mean you should (always use it for the right reasons!)
• Just because you can use a busy patterned background on your website…doesn’t mean you should
• Just because you can set up an auto tweet every 15 minutes… doesn’t mean you should
• Just because you can take images with your iPhone and put them on your website…doesn’t mean you should
• Just because you can design your own logo with clipart…doesn’t mean you should

We could go on and on….

What about you? Are there elements of your web design or even in your overall marketing plan where you have entered into that gray area? Is your business guilty of making common design, marketing and web design mistakes in the “just because you can” category?

We see this trend a lot when a business owner tries DIY in their web design and marketing. They aren’t professional marketers or designers and they do not know exactly where to draw the line. Always remember, simple is better and often, less really is more.