7 Common Web Design Mistakes Small Businesses Should Avoid

For all of you trying to increase your online customer base, we bring you some common web design mistakes you should avoid making.

Are you starting a new business and need a website for it that’s both efficient and appealing to your users? Also, do you want to draw your audience in and avoid making common web design mistakes?

When making your business’s website, it’s not uncommon to come across a few bumps on the road. But, we’re here to help navigate you and make sure that the website you create is helpful to your audience while still making them want more. Of course, there are web design firms that are pros of the game and can assist you to reach perfection, but if you’d prefer to do it yourself, there are a few key points to keep in mind.

So if you want to learn how you can get the best website for your business by knowing how to spot common web design mistakes then keep on reading!

1. Brand Message is Unclear

Logo samples

The key to hooking your audience in and leaving a mark is in a good brand message. This message is what your business and website revolve around, and what makes your audience want to choose you. With a good slogan, the right tone, your logo, and all the other things that make up a brand, you can communicate the exact message you want to get across.

Developing your brand message can be tricky so keep it simple and to the point, but still, make it something that attracts the public and leaves them curious.

To make a resonating brand message, first, take a look at what you’re trying to sell and who your target audience is. You also have to keep in mind the values of your brand and try to connect those with the overall feel of your site.

When completed, make sure your brand message displays clearly across your website in order for it to be able to define your business.

2. Not Being Mobile-Friendly

Mobile friendly website

As mobile devices become more and more accessible, businesses need to have a mobile-friendly website of their own.

A study conducted in 2019 in order to monitor web traffic reported that 53% of all web traffic worldwide came from mobile users. So if you haven’t already made your website mobile-friendly, that is something that should be one of your top priorities.

Users are always looking for the best and smoothest experience when clicking on a site. Meaning that if they come across a website with poor mobile experience, they will most likely move to another one. That is why you need to have a design that is consistent and responsive throughout all platforms and devices.

3. Horrible UX

People using laptop

When a user visits your site, they’re expecting to have a good user experience. And one thing that many users rely on when navigating your site is its menu. So make the menu easy to find and easy to use so your audience doesn’t get confused or frustrated.

Proper signposting and distinguishable links to pages are also important especially for boosting the overall quality of your website. Every navigational aspect should be direct and something your user will easily understand.

The content on your site and how aesthetically pleasing it is won’t matter if people can’t find what they came looking for right off the bat. Also, you should remember that most users who have a bad user experience on your site will end up leaving it and not recommending it to others, which in turn gives you a bad reputation and a decrease in website traffic.

4. Not Prioritizing Speed

Website source code

Why wait for something on one website when you can get the same thing in a faster manner somewhere else? If your site takes too long to load, it’s not surprising that your audience automatically leaves it. Taking more than a few seconds when loading a page makes users more likely to abandon the site and never to return to it again.

Having a slow loading speed will also affect the number of people coming to your pages as your site will be positioned lower on the search engine results page that Google carefully curates.

So, to keep your website fast you can use an efficient web hosting plan and caching programs to store your data temporarily. You can also optimize your images, compress your content, and minimize your HTML, JavaScript, or CSS code.

5. Visually Loud

Web designer working

If your website has too much going on, it can confuse your viewers and make it harder for them to understand the information on it.

Don’t cram in too many elements on one page, keep the features, images, and colors organized and related to one another, all while making good use of negative space to even out the different details of your site.

Stick to one theme and the overall vibe that you want to give off. Keep your site clean, well-thought-out, and coordinated to avoid losing any of your audience.

6. Terrible CTAs

Your CTAs or call to action buttons are what you use to entice your readers. Some good examples of them would be buttons saying “Click here for more” or “Shop Now”, something that is direct and clear, and that links people to pages on which they can complete a purchase or turn into a subscriber.

Keep the tone of the CTAs helpful and place them somewhere where there is plenty of information on what you’re offering.

Make sure visitors know about the tools and the offers that you have. For instance, if you offer a free paystub generator, don’t hide the link to it in a footnote. Place it somewhere your audience can see after they’ve learned enough about it.

Bad CTAs or even a lack of them will be a missed opportunity for you, and for your audience, it will be a chance they never got to find out more and maybe even to try out your services.

7. Inconsistent Media Files

Person holding tablet

A key to making your website more appealing to your audience is to use media.

Your media is a quick way to convey your message and make the page more engaging. Make sure that any pictures or videos that you have on your site are relevant to what you’re writing about.

An important thing to keep in mind is that media can be a factor in slowing down your page, so make sure you aren’t using any images or videos that are too big. Reduce the file size of your media but still make it have good quality. No one wants to be looking at low-resolution pictures or videos that load in 144p quality when trying to learn something new.

Start Avoiding Common Design Mistakes Now!

When jumpstarting a new business or website, it’s not easy to get it right the first time. With this guide, however, you’ll at least be headed one foot in the right direction!

We hope that after reading this article, you know more about the most common web design mistakes and how to avoid them. Keep all of them in mind and you’ll have no trouble launching a good website.

If you enjoyed reading this post and found it helpful, feel free to check out the rest of our content right here on our website!

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Published on June 8, 2020 by Peter Hughes; modified on December 2, 2020. Filed under: , , .

Peter Hughes is a digital marketing consultant and author. Peter has more than 10 years of experience in SEO and Internet marketing.

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