5 Most Common Web Design Mistakes to Avoid
Your website is more than just a place on the web people can find information about your business or the products you offer. It is the face of your company to Internet users, especially to those who haven’t encountered your brand on any other platform. Your site is therefore an opportunity to make a good first impression on thousands, if not millions, of potential customers.
Tragically, many businesses bungle this opportunity by offering the world a mediocre website. Their sites either turn off visitors or confuse them by their use of colors, space, or by the quality of their content. Unfortunately, as with life, a poor first impression can take a long time to fix.
So before you get to the point of righting wrongs, why not sidestep those wrongs, to begin with? Here are some of the web design pitfalls that you should avoid if you’re to enjoy a healthy return on your investment.
Too Much Going on Leading to Poor Navigation
It is tempting to go over the top in trying to make your web pages appealing to the eye or to offer visitors content that will lead to conversions. But remember, your site is not about you; it’s about your customers or potential customers. It therefore shouldn’t be a hodgepodge of all the fonts and colors you like. Or images that have no bearing on the content you’re presenting.
Throwing together a collection of design elements that clash will not only make your web pages visually unappealing but also confusing to navigate. It will also leave visitors without a clear idea of who you are or what you’re trying to convey.
A good website will have two to three theme colors that mirror your brand image. It will also make the journey leading from the home page to the checkout page as smooth and seamless as possible.
Slow Page Load
One of the easiest ways to drive visitors away is to have a website that takes eons to load. In this age of 5G broadband Internet, eons mean a few seconds. With so many options and the almighty Google at their fingertips, Internet users are not forgiving with sites that load slowly.
This is why you need to, first of all, choose the right hosting company for your website. Don’t just go for the cheapest; look at the features they offer to improve the load times of your web pages. You also need to ensure that your web content doesn’t compromise speed. Lastly, be sure to thoroughly test your site’s load times before launching for users in different regions.
No Call to Action
A call to action (CTA) is where you cash in on the blood, sweat, and tears your website has cost you. It tells visitors the next course of action after assimilating content from your website.
Your CTA should come after offering your visitors useful information. It should help them to act on the information they have received, positioning your product or services as an ideal solution.
Sadly, many website owners create engaging content but fail to make money from it because they don’t have CTAs. Or even if they do, these CTAs are not clear or overwhelming with too many options, which becomes annoying.
Lack of Analytics to Track Performance
Giving your business an online presence is not cheap. You need to pay for hosting, domain, and design. You will therefore want to ensure that the site is bringing in enough traffic or sales to justify the expense. Without tracking analytical data, you won’t be able to know if your website is having its intended impact.
There are a number of tools available to help you know how many people are visiting your site every day, the bounce rate of each of your pages, or the impact an ad campaign had on your traffic.
Non-Mobile-Friendly Website
In this age when more than 90 percent of Internet users access the web via mobile devices, you cannot afford to have a non-mobile-friendly site. There was a time when users were patient enough to do endless scrolling and enlarging of web pages on their phones. Not anymore these days, especially if you expect to sell your products online.
At the slightest hint of frustration from accessing your website, users will ditch it and Google-search the next best option. So right from the conceptualization of your website, you need to design it for use on mobile devices.
There are beginner-friendly website builders to help with this. But if you want a professionally-designed site that’s secure, bug-free, and fast, it’s best to leave it to the experts. This is why contacting one of the agencies offering web design services is a good idea. They will know what to do to ensure your site loads quickly on mobile devices, is fully functional, and is easy to navigate on different mobile displays.
A Website With a Plan
One of the key reasons why businesses make these mistakes is due to the lack of strategic purpose for their websites. You should also have specific targets that your site should meet within a specified timeframe.
Don’t just create a site because you think it’s cool to have one. Ask yourself how exactly it will contribute to your business goals. By laying a good foundation, you’ll be making sure your site becomes an indispensable tool for your business’ success.
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