You know the old saying “there is no second chance for making a good first impression”?
It’s true for websites too. Websites like people leave a first impression on their visitors. Of course, it’s not the same as with people, but there are few factors like the design, navigation, loading speed and so on that form our first impression of a particular website.
Nowadays almost every business has a website, so putting up a good first impression is much more important than before. We use many different approaches to make our visitors feel welcomed and to help them find the product they need.
One of the main things we focus on is the website design. Website design is not easy, because we want our website to look good but at the same time we need to drive sales to our products and services. So we need to strike a balance between the aesthetics and functionality, and also through our design put up our brand message.
Website design has advanced (and still is) over the years but some design principles still remain unchanged. While creating or updating your website, these are some of the errors to avoid:
Unclear Message
This should be the main thing to consider in your website design. Your website should tell a user right away what your business is all about and why they should choose you.
You have only 5 seconds or less to create an impression, or a user leaves your website. No matter how perfect your web design may seem, if it does not relay what you sell in the most effective and shortest time possible then, users tend to leave and may never return.
The Facebook homepage shows that it is a platform for connecting with family, friends, loved ones and even making new friends from anywhere around the globe.
Not Responsive Design
This is another major factor as Google recommends and favors responsive websites. Visitors should not be limited to any device as they surf the internet with their desktops, tablet, smartphone and the likes. Your website should be able to provide optimal viewing experience across a wide range of devices. Concept known as responsive web design.
You can use the Google Mobile Test to check out how well your website scores. You can read more about it here:
Slow Page Load Time
Your website should load in three seconds or less. People are so impatient with a lot of things, and your website is no exemption. 47% of users expects your page to load in two seconds or less (mobile users have a higher percentage) while 40% exit your website if it takes longer than three seconds.
What makes it more complicated is that Google uses page load speed for SEO and it can seriously affect your website.
You can optimize your web design by eliminating “speed killers”. In order to maximize the performance of your website, you can opt for a better version of your website hosting.
This will probably cost you more money, but will allow you to increase your sales. In addition, to reduce the size of your images and reduce the loading time, consider using tools such as CompressPNG, TinyPNG or Kraken. Avoid clumsy code and too many external calls to cloud services as much as possible.
When you try to reduce the loading speed of your web pages, prioritize the pages that are most visited by Internet users. Therefore, by focusing on optimizing the 10 pages that get the most visibility and are the most popular, you directly impact your conversions.
Want to be sure of your site speed performance? You can use Google PageSpeed Insight tool or GTmetrix to find out, analyze and improve.
Poor Navigation Menu
Users should be able to navigate their way around your website. Having a clear navigation menu helps users to not double guess or think too hard of where and how to go about a particular piece of information. They should know where they are and it should be logical what would be the next step.
You should avoid “Animated Navigation” – anything that just moves, rolls, bounces, or flashes while your visitors are trying to find answers to their questions, because is kills conversions. They consume user’s time as users tend to figure it out instead of looking for what they came for. Most website visitors hate it when it happens and usually leave the website never to return.
Your homepage link should be prominently visible for users to locate and click, as it’s one of the first places they’ll go to when they are lost or disoriented. You should also include links to other major sections for easy and quick movement on your website. Using too many menus and menu options should also be avoided.
Poor Readability
- Is your website easy to read?
- Do the fonts work well together?
- Is the font size too small or too large?
These questions need to be asked when designing your website. Users shouldn’t be made to squint before reading texts on your website, because they don’t have that much time.
Unclear fonts, using too many fonts and using conflicting fonts are some of the factors that impact the experience of the visitors to your website or page – Cognitive Fluency
Cognitive fluency is the ease of use of your website to the visitor. Apart from fonts types and sizes, the contents of your website should be proofread to avoid spelling errors and improve clarity. Visitors can’t truly be persuaded to buy your products unless they clearly understand the message of your business. Proofread your content for spelling and grammar errors.
If your site is hard to use, read or understand, then user’s experience won’t be pleasant.
Content Mistakes
Content on your website should focus on visitors and their problems or questions, not just on your products. An average visitor read around 27% of your content on the page that he got, and makes the decision to stay or leave based on it. Users should be able to easily scan your website for information at a glance.
This doesn’t mean less content but creating content that can be easily scannable, such as:
- Descriptive sub-headings
- Short and snappy texts and paragraphs
- Numbered lists and bullets points
- Highlighted, Bold and Italicized formatting
Search Mistakes
If you have a big and complex website, it’s a good idea to add a search button on the top of your page. This will help your users with navigation and will save them some time.
Including a search button, especially in ecommerce, will help users locate what they are looking for. Large and complex websites can be managed by the search option, as it helps users get to the product they need quickly.
Legal Mistakes
Legal mistakes include:
- Insecure Web Domain: Especially in ecommerce, everyone knows data breaches and hacks are becoming a common problem to deal with. Any website that requires any personal information, ranging from email to phone numbers and last names, should get a secured domain.
Even Google and other search engines regard secured websites, or they’ll limit your website’s online visibility.
- No Privacy Policy: Nearly 50% of websites don’t fully understand what a privacy policy involves, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important. Some visitors do read it, and they want to know how you’ll handle their information and what you plan to do with it.
So your privacy policy should always be in place as it assures visitors that you have a plan in place to protect them if something goes wrong.
- No Warranty or Return Policy: The more likely visitors know you’ve got their back even in some unlikely situation, the more you tend to gain their loyalty. Seeing a warranty or a return policy is a way to increase sales and as such makes your visitors more comfortable.
Conclusion
This isn’t totally all the mistakes to avoid but your website can work excellently for your business if you can start off by avoiding these few steps as that’ll be a huge drive towards success.
Most websites struggle with making conversions as they still make some of these listed common mistakes. Creating a website is more than just making it look attractive but should be able to convert and give you money. Focusing more on your target audience will help you create the best web design for your website.
If you need any help with designing your website or any part of web development process don’t hesitate to contact our web agency. We run the best custom web development agency in Montreal.
