There are more than 200 million active websites in the world. What that means for you as a business owner is that your website needs to stand out and capture your audience’s attention. But with so much else on your plate, it can be easy to let your web design suffer.
That’s why we’ve created this guide for you outlining 7 common web design mistakes and how you can avoid making them. Check them out below!
1. Your Website Is Not Responsive
It’s 2018 and mobile devices now account for more website traffic than desktops. So if your site doesn’t look perfect on a smartphone screen, you’re in trouble. In fact, we’ll be so bold to say that this is the biggest web design mistake out there right now.
A responsive site automatically resizes to fit the screen of the user. This includes all sizes of desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. This obviously enhances the user’s experience because the site will function properly no matter what device they’re on.
But building a responsive site also is great for you because you only have to build one site. A responsive builder will take care of resizing it for you.
This is also important because Google recommends that your site be responsive, which could potentially improve your SEO rankings.
2. Font Issues
Another one of the most common web design mistakes has to do with your fonts.
First of all, choose a font that is easy to read. Too many times, a designer will pick a font that is beautiful but completely impractical.
The goal of your website is to provide your reader with information. The design is a key factor in that goal, but the content has to be easily accessible first and foremost.
Cursive and hand-drawn fonts can be especially difficult to decipher, so be careful when using those.
Another font issue is using too many fonts. This can result in confusion for the reader. A good rule of thumb to follow is to use two or three fonts throughout your entire site.
3. One of the Biggest Design Mistakes: Using Generic Stock Photography
Look, we get it. As a small or medium size business owner, you probably have a small marketing team. Or perhaps you are the entire marketing team!
In these cases, it can be difficult to produce high quality photography for your website in-house. This is where stock photos come in handy. But be careful with the stock photos you choose.
How come? When a user sees a photo that is obviously a stock image, it sends the wrong message. A generic stock photo can easily portray the message that your company is also generic.
If you can take your own photos, great! If not, just make sure to choose stock photography that looks unique and isn’t overused or cheesy.
Also, ensure the images either teach and demonstrate something or tell a story that answers your visitors’ questions. And always make sure it matches the content on the page.
4. Poor Navigation
Confusing site navigation is another one of the worst web design mistakes out there.
Your site should be easy to use and visitors should always be able to find their way around. To do this, use a consistent menu bar across all of your pages.
This menu shouldn’t have more than 10 items. Instead, include your other pages in drop-down sub-menus under the main navigation points.
Also, make sure the links throughout your site are clear and easy to see. This is most easily done by presenting them in a different color than the rest of the text.
5. Overly Complicated Forms
Website registration forms can be tough. You want to get all the information you need, but also don’t want them to be so complicated that your users don’t finish them.
What’s certain, though, is that it’s no longer appropriate to require a million details to register for your site or to subscribe to your email list.
Instead, make the most important fields required and the less important ones optional. Another idea is to A/B test your forms andВ identify the ones that perform better.
For example, if having a customer’s phone number would be beneficial but not essential to your company, test a form that requires the phone number and a version that doesn’t and see which one gets better results.
But at the end of the day, keep in mind that a visitor came to your site to get information, not the other way around.
6. Your Site Is Slow
These days, visitors are not patient. In fact, a 2016 Google study discovered that 53% of mobile site visits are abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.
So if your site has speed problems, it’s time to fix them!
The other reason site speed is important is because Google uses it to rank your pages in their search results. Faster pages will get a higher ranking.
Here are some of the factors Google uses in ranking speed:
- Time to first byte. This is how long it takes from the time a URL is entered in a browser to when the server gets the HTML document from your site. If this loads quickly, chances are your site will too.
- Visual completeness. This metric is complete when the page has completely loaded and is 100% visible to the user.
And if web development is a little over your head, don’t fret. We can help you make these changes to improve your site speed.
7. Last but Not Least: Cluttered Pages with Little Whitespace
When designing a website, it’s easy to go overboard. Too many designers clutter their pages too much and forget about whitespace.
Don’t cram all the information on to one page. You can split it up throughout the page or even break it up into two or three pages.
The last thing you want is a busy, hard to read website.
What’s Next?
Now that you’ve read about these common web design mistakes, what’s next for you?
It’s simple! Pick a few and implement them on your website. If you need professional help, contact us today. We offer a wide range of web design services.
