Managing a website establishes and maintains an online presence for your business. It increases brand awareness and allows potential and existing customers to access information about your products and/or services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, to make the most out of that visibility, you need to ensure that everything is in good technical, working order. A few web design mistakes can cost you, customers, reduce opportunities for lead generation, and hurt your bottom line.
Below are some common web design mistakes. Take them into consideration as you assess your website’s performance. Determine if you’re making these errors, and fix them as soon as possible. If you don’t know how to do that, enlist the help of an SEO expert or professional web designer.
Functionality:
Neglecting responsive design:
Can your website be viewed easily across all devices? Is it mobile- and tablet-friendly or is does it only perform well on a desktop computer? Responsive design makes your website accessible to all visitors regardless of which device they use. This is a major factor in today’s mobile world. It allows for scalability, giving your website the ability to adapt to new devices and screen sizes. With Google adopting mobile-first indexing, responsiveness is vital to achieving higher rankings on their search engine results.
Slow load speed:
We live in a generation primed for instant gratification. Users expect web pages to load quickly. Websites with quick loading times have reported an increase in ad viewership and longer visit sessions. This, in turn, translated to higher conversion rates and revenue generation. Slow load speeds, on the other hand, cause visitors to abandon pages. Over half of website users will bounce from a page if it takes more than three seconds to load. In addition, faster loading times increase your website’s visibility on Google and Facebook newsfeeds.
Maintain (or increase) your bottom line by optimizing your website load time. There are various ways to boost website speed, starting with evaluating its current performance, removing redundant content, consolidating files, and minimizing server requests.
Not utilizing space “above the fold”
Are important details (like your brand name and offers) accessible to visitors at first glance? “Above the fold” refers to the area that’s immediately visible to visitors the moment they open a page on a website — without having to scroll down.
Reserve this space for details such as your name, products, and/or services. Include a call-to-action if most of your visitors are familiar with your products or services or if they do not require an exhaustive explanation.
Having auto-forwarding carousels and accordions:
Carousels and accordions are the banner-like displays that auto-rotate to a different panel every few seconds. They resemble ads and are largely ignored — no matter how important the information is. This reduces content visibility, frustrates visitors, and leads to a decline in conversion.
Visuals:
Font mistakes:
Fonts that are difficult to read are equally difficult to understand, decreasing cognitive fluency and the likelihood of a conversion. Cognitive fluency, simply put, is how easy (or difficult) it is to process a task or information. A bad font choice negatively affects user experience and their decision-making processes, making them less inclined to purchase your product or service.
Avoid the following:
- Overly fancy and unclear fonts – Avoid cursive fonts, handwritten scripts, or typefaces with too many flourishes.
- Excessively small fonts – Some guides recommend (for text-heavy pages) at least 16pt for the body, 18pt (and above) for headings, and 13pt or 14pt for secondary text (like captions).
- Too many fonts – Keep font styles to a maximum of three.
- Conflicting fonts – Using conflicting fonts can take focus from the important text and draw attention to non-essential words. Pair fonts that complement each other.
- Inefficient use of white space
The proper use of negative space improves readability. It also directs the attention of readers to more critical parts of the website, making it easier for them to locate the information they need.
- Graphics and Images
Graphics and images can sometimes tell a story or present information.
- Too large – Excessively large images can slow load times. Scale them to fit the display area. Do not use large file formats like TIFF; instead, use JPEG or PNG.
- Stretched images – Images that are not properly proportioned makes a website look tacky and unprofessional, which can reduce your website’s credibility.
- No metadata – Replace default metadata with useful and relevant information your visitors can use. Doing so can get you ranked higher on search engine results.
- Cheesy stock photos – Stock photos might make your website seem unprofessional and may not add anything of relevance to your content. Using original photos is highly recommended. If you must use stock photos, choose ones that don’t look too generic and support your message.
Content:
Grammatical, spelling, and typographical errors:
Proofread your content. Poor grammar and spelling can make it difficult for visitors to understand your message. This — along with typographical errors — can hurt your brand’s credibility. If you want your visitors to trust your business, show attention to detail by fixing mistakes before they become public.
Information is outdated:
Updating your content will improve (or maintain) the credibility and authority of your website. Outdated content can cause visitors to bounce from a page, decrease its search engine ranking, and limit your lead generation.
If you see any of these mistakes on your website, implement immediate damage control. Determine if you need to make minor fixes or overhaul the entire domain. It may seem daunting, it is well worth the effort. If you require assistance with these improvements, you can entrust your website to an agency providing leading digital marketing services in Richmond Hill and throughout Canada. Make sure to hire a team that will work with your vision, stay on top of changes among online search engines, maintain your web presence, and help you build revenue.
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