It is important to have a website design that will help your business grow and thrive. However, many small businesses make mistakes in their website design, leading to disappointing results. In this blog post, we provide some of the most common mistakes made by small businesses and offer solutions to avoid them, creating an effective online presence for your company.
Designing your website wrong can have a drastic effect on how you make money - if it's not designed properly, the cost of producing that income is much higher than an effectively designed site. Immediately following this loss in revenue will be more losses as potential customers move to competitors who offer websites with better design and functionality.
Designing your website right from the start could mean thousands saved now (lost profits) and plenty earned later!
The Top Mistakes and Solutions For A Better Website Design
Mistake #1: Poor website design
Solution: Ensure to consult with a professional web designer who understands your brand and will create an excellent website that reflects your business's true identity. Getting feedback from friends or family members can also help in this process, as they may see things on the site that others might not.
Mistake #2: Not using videos or photos on the website
Solution: Integrating video and images into your site’s design can be an excellent way to increase engagement with visitors. A professional web designer will know how to integrate these visuals in a way that feels natural for your company and drives traffic without compromising the page's load time speed.
Mistake #3: Not using social media to leverage brand awareness
Solution: Use social media for marketing and branding purposes, not only as a one-way method of communication with your customers. Social platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn offer lots of opportunities to reach the right target audience appropriately at the right time. Social media can also help you to build relationships with customers and create a more personal connection.
Mistake #4: Not making your navigation menu user-friendly
Solution: A good design always makes the visitor's experience as smooth as possible, which means that you should put some work into designing an intuitive site map for your website visitors so they can find what they are looking for without too much hassle.
Mistake #5: Cramming your site with information and links
Solution: Often, the more content you have on a page, the less likely it is that someone will read through everything to find what they are looking for. So make sure you create an easy-to-navigate website by providing only the necessary content relevant to the topic.
Mistake #6: Failing to include contact information
Solution: This seems like a no-brainer, but you would be surprised how many people forget this one! Your website visitors need to know who they can reach out to with questions or any issues with their order. So make sure that you provide clear contact information, including phone number, email address, and physical address.
Mistake #7: Using too many web fonts
Solution: While having various fonts on your website can give you an artistic look designed to capture visitors' attention, it also has its drawbacks. Too many different font types create visual chaos, making reading difficult for some people and slowing down your website. A good rule of thumb is to stick with a maximum of three different fonts on your website and make sure that the font types are similar to not create confusion for visitors.
Mistake #8: Your website design is too busy
Solution: Your design should be clean and uncluttered. The design should be easy to read with large enough fonts for people with vision problems or read from a mobile phone.
Mistake #9: Outdated website content
Solution: You visitors will expect the latest information. Keep your content up to date by reviewing all of your content at least once a year, refreshing outdated content with new information, and revising any out-of-date graphics.
Mistake #10: No clear message
Solution: Don't try to target everyone. This goes back to understanding who your ideal customers are. You should have one main point to support your key message. So it's important to have a clear message that's communicated through your words and pictures.
Mistake #11: No clear call-to-action buttons
Solution: Make it easy for visitors to contact you or sign up for an email list so that they can receive your latest information, updates, and deals. Place these buttons prominently on the page with large fonts and colors so that they stand out.
Mistake #12: Not mobile-friendly
Solution: Having a website that is not responsive to different screen sizes will result in lost visitors and sales. If you have an online store, make sure your site is designed well from desktop to tablet size screens so customers can access information quickly and easily. Make your website mobile-friendly. This includes using a responsive design, creating buttons that are easy to click on with touch screens or fingers, and preserving the layout of your site when it is viewed on a small screen.
Mistake #14: Poor-quality photos or graphics
Solution: Create high-quality images that reflect well on your business, show professionalism, and portray what you're trying to sell. This will also help with search engine optimization because Google values sites with good-quality images.
Mistake #15: Not making it easy to buy something on your site
Solution: Create an e-commerce section and ensure that the design is simple, clear, and intuitive for the customer to find what they're looking for quickly and easily. This will help increase conversions or sales because customers won't need as much assistance from your website to find what they're looking for.
Mistake #16: Too much text and not enough images.
Solution: Include the right amount of content to keep users interested and make it readable not to get distracted by too many words. People will also relate better to your content if they can visually see your message throughout your website.
Mistake #17: Not have a chat widget on your website
Solution: Providing your website visitors with the ability to chat with a live customer service rep will help increase conversions and sales because they'll be able to ask questions and provide feedback without the hassle of having to call or email.
Mistake #18: Not making sure to include the right keywords in your content.
Solution: Make sure that you use relevant terms that search engines use when ranking websites, such as "how-to" or "buy now."If these keywords aren't used appropriately, you won't get as many visitors to your website.
Mistake #19: Placing your ads in the wrong places
Solution: Allowing ads to be placed on the sidebar or any other location that takes away from content and distracts users. Websites can generate a lot of revenue with advertisements, but it is only profitable if there is enough space for advertising banners without interfering with the user experience.
Mistake #20: Not doing a website audit
Solution: A professional website audit will provide you with important metrics for working and what's not working. You will also get a detailed report with a marketing strategy that will give you step-by-step guidance on what to tackle first to improve your website design.
Final Thoughts On The Top Website Mistakes Small Businesses Make and How To Avoid Them
We hope that these tips help you avoid mistakes so you can have a good website. If not, we are always here to help! Reach out anytime and let us know where we can assist with your business’s digital marketing strategy or if you want some free advice on how to improve your site design. You can also check out The Business Website Design Guide for valuable tips and information about website design for small businesses.
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