What if your biggest marketing asset had a serious problem?
In our digital world, your website is the first thing that your customers are likely to see. Unfortunately, all it takes is a website design mistake or two to drive those customers away.
Want to make your website better than ever? Keep reading to discover the common website design mistakes that your business must avoid!
Slow Loading Speed
Your site will draw many different kinds of visitors. But there is one thing they all have in common: the need for speed!
Specifically, any given customer expects the page they click on to load very quickly. If it takes more than three seconds for a page to load, they are going to bounce away and visit another site.
How can you improve loading speed? One method is to avoid large images and media files (more on this later). You can also try different themes and templates, reduce your plugins, and start using a Content Delivery Network.
By combining multiple techniques, you can seriously improve how fast your sites load.
Not Being Mobile-Friendly
Pop quiz: how do you think most of your visitors will be surfing your site?
One rookie mistake that many businesses make is optimizing their websites for desktop users. However, the majority of users now use smartphones and other mobile devices in order to browse the internet. Accordingly, Google now gives search priority to sites that are mobile-friendly.
If you’d like to have your cake and eat it, too, you can use responsive design for your website. This will automatically resize the site pages based on the user’s screen. That means the site will look great no matter how the user visits.
No Call to Action
It’s easy to put the cart before the horse when it comes to web design. You need to go back to basics and ask yourself a simple question: what is the real purpose of your website?
Ideally, every website should be built around a call to action. A good CTA can direct visitors to check out special sales, sign up for deals, enroll in loyalty programs…really, the only limit is your imagination!
Despite this, far too many websites are built without an explicit CTA. This means even if you attract many visitors to your site, they won’t necessarily know what to do once they arrive.
Images That Are Too Large
Earlier, we touched on the need for your site to load quickly. If it’s taking too long to load, the likeliest cause is that you are using images and other media files that are way too large.
Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this problem. Google offers a PageSpeed Insights Test that you can run on your various images. Based on Google’s recommendations, you can resize or compress the images and then put them back on the site.
When the smoke clears, you’ll have the images you wanted to use but at a fraction of their original size!
Bad Logo Design
It’s an open secret that your website is an extension of your brand. In turn, your logo should be the most recognizable aspect of your branding.
With that being said, many businesses use low-quality logos for their sites. These logos typically look overly pixilated. And even if they aren’t pixilated, the logos often have poor visibility on the site.
To combat this, your logo should have high-quality resolution. When it is a high enough quality, you can easily scale the image up or down to suit your different needs.
If your business is new enough, it’s not too late to go back to the drawing board to create a new logo or improving your existing one. For maximum impact, your website should integrate some of the colors and fonts featured in the logo itself.
Poor Font Choices
When you are simply writing an e-mail or other document, font choice may not matter that much. But when it comes to website design, font choice is vitally important!
You need to avoid fonts that are too “swirly” or otherwise difficult to read. You need to find a font that is easy for visitors to read (especially on their smartphones) and that looks very professional.
While it’s tempting to use fancy and eye-catching colors, certain hues (like pink and yellow) can be a turn-off for visitors. Furthermore, fonts in certain colors may be very difficult to read against the color of your background.
Annoying Pop-Ups
When it comes to website design, you don’t always have to think like a business. Instead, think about the kinds of things that annoy you when you visit a new site.
For example, nobody likes disruptive pop-ups. But your business may want to have certain pop-ups in order to prompt customers to specific actions (such as signing up for your mailing list).
The solution is relatively simple. Instead of using annoying and disruptive pop-ups, integrate pop-ups that customers actually enjoy.
What kind of pop-ups would these be? Sometimes, it may be pop-ups alerting them of special sales and deals. Other times, the pop-up may prompt them to sign up for a free e-book or other relevant publication.
Consider timing the pop-ups to only appear after customers have been on the site for 30 seconds or longer. This will keep the pop-ups from driving new visitors away as soon as they arrive.
No 404 Pages
It can be annoying to encounter a 404 page when you are surfing the internet. But believe it or not, your own website must have 404 pages.
That’s because the basic function of a 404 page is to let visitors know what to do next. For example, a 404 page might warn the visitor that a page is not available and then redirect them to your homepage.
As an added bonus, you can integrate funny messages and images into your 404 pages. This will entertain visitors and make them likelier to continue onto your homepage.
Avoiding Website Design Mistakes: What’s Next?
Now you know what these common website design mistakes are and how to avoid some of them. But do you know who can take your designs to the next level?
We specialize in pop-up ads that help to boost conversions and sales while further establishing your brand. To see what we can do for your business, come sign up today!