In today's world it’s easier to build websites because you don’t necessarily need to know how to code anymore. There are many do-it-yourself website building platforms you can use to get started.
On the other hand if you’re new to building websites you may make mistakes that will cost you leads and traffic to your site. You want to avoid these mistakes at all costs so that your website can generate new business for your company or your client.
In this article we share the Top 10 Website Design Mistakes You Should Avoid. We’ll give you some tips on how you can design a website or landing pages that will help you gain leads and generate revenue for your company. Continue reading to find out more.
The top mistake most new website designers make is not making a site that’s mobile friendly. The World Advertising Research Center shows that over 2 billion people access the internet using their smartphones. That’s 72% of people who prefer to use their smartphone to browse the web, rather than on desktop.
If your audience can’t access your website via their smartphones, they won’t be able to see your information which results in losing potential prospects. When designing your website ensure that it has the following features for mobile phones:
Quick loading times
Easy to navigate interface
Visible images, logos and fonts
Share button
Quick scrolling functions
Your logo is an important piece of your branding. Therefore you should conduct extensive research when creating your logo. One common mistake is making a logo that’s pixilated or that’s not fully visible on your site.
You must make a high-resolution logo that’s refined and of high quality graphics. The logo must be able to scale to various sizes so that it will look professional no matter what screen size your audience is using when visiting your site.
With the design aspect, your logo represents your company and should have colors, fonts and imagery that is consistent with your brand.
Related: The Effects Of Changing Branding Without A Plan vs Properly Planning Brand Strategy
You can’t have a website without written content. Your site must have information on all your products or services and your content must be visible. But sometimes people don’t realize that they’ve made spelling mistakes in their text.
Use helpful tools that will optimize your website’s content. Consider using proofreading tools that will mark punctuation and grammar mistakes, so you can fix them. Your content should never be confusing to read. Your text should be informative and easy to read, so ensure you have quality grammar on your site.
4. Selecting Difficult and Unresponsive Designs
Social media sites such as Instagram and Facebook have one feature in common: their designs are simple yet effective. According to research it only takes your audience 50 milliseconds to decide whether they like your website or not. So don’t be too complex with your website designs.
Complicated designs will take a while to load, especially on smartphones. Therefore select designs that are streamlined and highly responsive on any device your audience uses.
External Link: Top 20 Responsive Website Design Companies according to DesignRush
Online users won’t wait long for your website to load. According to the New York Times, users will visit a website less if it’s 250 milliseconds slower than competitor sites. So you need a fast loading webpage and there must be content that quickly provides information on the first page.
Extra features such as videos, audio files and complex graphics on a homepage should be moved to another part of your site. This is because you want your audience’s attention to stay on what you’re selling. So provide short explanations and use clean graphics to draw the reader in.
They say a website without a call-to-action (CTA) is similar to a road without traffic signs. If you don’t have a CTA on your site, you’re forcing your audience to try and find the information themselves. This can be frustrating for the user if they don’t know where to look for the information.
That’s why you must include a professionally designed CTAs on your landing page. This button must also be strategically placed. The button is typically placed after you’ve given the website user information about your products and service.
When the user clicks on the button he or she will automatically be directed to the page where they can opt for the services or products you’re offering. Your call to action button should be bright, bold and big enough so that it’s visible and people can click on it easily.
You may be compelled to include swirly fonts on your site but they’re incredibly difficult to read on a website. Another mistake with fonts is using incorrect colors or placing dark text on an even darker background.
Use fonts that are readable and that look professional.
Avoid using fancy colors such as pink or yellow and ensure you make the text big enough for people to see.
According to Impact BND, the ideal font size for websites is 14 pt.
CTA (Call To Action) buttons, links to social media sites. or backlinks and internal links on your site should never send a user to an error page. Broken links will frustrate your website users, especially when they urgently need information about your products or services.
Inspect all the links on your website regularly and if they’re not working you must fix them immediately to avoid slowing down website traffic. Make sure your audience knows what part of your content consists of links. Perhaps make keywords a different color or underline them so your audience knows that they can click on the text for more information.
Low-quality images can be pixilated or they’re simply too big to load correctly on your page. Poor quality images won’t help you build credibility. You must always invest in high-quality photographs or vectors that represent your company’s services.
Hire a professional photographer to take high-quality images of your building, products or staff to feature on your website instead of opting for free images.
A website that has information all over the interface will confuse your audience. You must strategically place all your information so that your site is easy to browse through. Therefore your website should have tabs at the top that allow your audience to find details of your business easily.
Contact link or phone number button in the top right-hand corner
Call to Action for Lead Capture / Conversion (such as Quote Request, Checkout, Donate, Join, etc).
Site Search
Home
About Us
Products or Services
Contact Us
Professional website development companies usually have a process which includes information architecture to help you organize your content and build out your sitemap (a nested page and/or feed that search engines use to index all of the pages on your website).
Use the tips in this article to help you avoid making the same mistakes twice. You can also use the tips to help you tweak your existing website so you can start getting the most out of your website.
Disclaimer: The opinion of Insercorp Water Cooler Bloggers are of their own and do not reflect the official position(s) of Insercorp LTD
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