The most successful sites are easy to use, friendly, and full of useful information. Purpose and content aside, no matter how great the web design is, even the well-designed website in the world will miss the mark if it’s filled with irritating design mistakes that can be easily fixed. By recognizing these common pitfalls and how to avoid them, you’ll be equipped to create a website that draws in and captivates potential customers, building trust and ultimately driving more conversions. Here, we’ll dive into a few of the most prevalent website design crimes and provide real-world tactics to make sure your site stands out for all the right reasons:
1. Ignoring User Experience (UX):
A website should cater to your users’ needs, not just your own. Common website design mistakes often occur when user experience (UX) is neglected. Here’s how to improve your chances of avoiding them:
- Confusing Navigation: Ensure your website has a clear and intuitive navigation structure. Your users don’t want to have to dig to find what they are searching for. Design with easily labeled menus, breadcrumbs, and a clear hierarchy that will guide your site’s users through your website.
- Overwhelming Content: Avoid bombarding visitors with too much information at once. Break text into easily digestible chunks, use white space strategically, and put your most important message first with the most important news.
- Mobile Unfriendliness: With the majority of users accessing websites on mobile devices, a responsive design is no longer an option; it’s a necessity. If you want the best experience for all your users, your website absolutely must look amazing on every screen size and resolution.
2. Prioritizing Aesthetics Over Functionality:
A website’s main job is to work, not just look good. So don’t focus only on fancy designs and forget about how people use it. Here’s how you can have both style and function:
- Slow Loading Times: Slow loading times are a major turnoff for users. Optimize your website for speed by compressing images, minimizing HTTP requests, and utilizing a reliable web hosting provider.
- Unreadable Fonts and Colors: Choose fonts that are easy to read on all devices and across different screen sizes. Ensure sufficient contrast between text and background colors or images to improve the readability of text content, particularly for people with low vision or color vision impairment.
- Cluttered Layouts: Avoid overwhelming users with a cluttered layout. Intelligent use of white space, content broken into obvious sections, and content grouped in such a manner that it gives a visual hierarchy, all add up to help you design a simple, engaging, and visually striking website.
3. Missing the Call to Action (CTA):
Not adding a clear call to action (CTA) can hurt your results. Here’s how to make sure your CTAs work well and get people to take action:
- Unclear CTAs: Don’t be vague with your CTAs. Stick with action-oriented verbs like “Buy today,” “Contact Us,” or “Learn More.” Use color to create contrast for your CTAs. Buttons should not only use different colors to stand out from each other, but also use color within the button to create contrast and make it easier to see.
- Multiple CTAs per Page: Avoid overwhelming visitors with too many CTAs on a single page. Instead of giving users too many choices, focus on one main action you want them to take on each page.
- Poor CTA Placement: Strategically place your CTAs where they’ll be most effective. For example, if you’re offering a downloadable guide, you can add the call-to-action (CTA) at the end of a blog post related to that guide. But if your CTA is “Contact Us,” it should be placed clearly on your homepage.
4. Neglecting Search Engine Optimization (SEO):
Your website needs to be discoverable by your target audience. Common website design mistakes include neglecting search engine optimization (SEO). Here are our tips for bringing more organic traffic to your website:
- Missing Keyword Research: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant keywords and phrases your target audience is searching for. Sneak these words into every piece of content on your site, every header on every page, and every Meta description.
- Poor Content Quality: Search engines prioritize content that is useful to their users and attempt to give them the most useful and relevant answer to search queries. Create helpful and interesting content that answers the questions your ideal audience cares about and is already searching for.
- Ignoring Mobile Optimization: As mentioned earlier, mobile optimization is crucial for SEO. Plus, mobile-friendliness is a huge ranking factor on search engines like Google. Search engines want to show users websites that are mobile-friendly, or else the search engine looks bad itself.
5. Lack of Security and Trustworthiness:
Building trust with your visitors is essential for online success. Common web design mistakes can create an impression of untrustworthiness, leading to lost business opportunities. Here’s a quick guide to build that trust:
- Insecure Website: Ensure your website uses a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate, indicated by HTTPS in the address bar. This creates an encrypted connection that secures any data transmitted over it. This means users’ highly sensitive information, like credit card numbers, is better safeguarded.
- Outdated Information: Maintain accurate and up-to-date information on your website. That includes your NAP, service area, descriptions of the products and services you offer, and blog articles. When your data is outdated, it just looks unprofessional and sloppy.
- Missing Contact Information: Minimize the effort visitors need to make to get in touch. Provide contact information, outline your contact details, including your email address, your phone number and a mailing or physical address (if applicable). Consider including a contact form for easy user interaction.
Bonus Tip: Ignoring Website Analytics:
Don’t panic—this is where data comes in handy! Regularly review your site analytics to understand how users are interacting with your website. Common web design mistakes might not be readily apparent without data insights. Here are the keys to leveraging analytics to their fullest potential:
- Track User Behavior: Use website analytics tools to track user behavior, such as page views, time spent on each page, and click-through rates. This data will allow you to see where users are dropping out of your process, or if they’re struggling to find the information they’re looking for.
- A/B Testing: Use A/B testing to compare different versions of website elements (e.g., CTAs, layouts) and see which ones perform better with your audience. Personas, consulting, audits- that all sounds boring, until you realize how data-driven decisions can overwhelmingly swing the favor to your website’s success.
Conclusion: A Winning Website Starts with Avoiding Common Mistakes
By understanding and avoiding common web design mistakes, you can create a user-friendly, visually appealing, and search engine-optimized website that fosters trust, drives conversions, and helps you achieve your online goals. Professional development may not be the immediate solution you’re looking for, but with a little time and dedication, you’ll start seeing a positive impact both in terms of public-facing operations as well as the behind-the-scenes organization that staff support. Your website is an asset; manage it like one and invest both in its creation and everyday upkeep to reap the rewards of that investment for years to come.
Looking to Create the Website of Your Dreams?
If you lack familiarity with web development, the process of building a site can be overwhelming. This includes learning about design principles and current web technologies. VA Talks is the answer to this!! Our web design team is highly skilled and passionate about creating websites that not only look great but also provide exceptional user experiences. We recognize the importance of avoiding the design mistakes that occur and work with you to ensure that your website is in line with your brand, resonates with potential customers, and avoids common website design errors.
Make an appointment with VA Talks to learn how we can transform your web presence from mundane to extraordinary for free. We have always been convinced that your website should be at the center of any marketing or business development strategy to attain riches and prosperity today.
