Common Web Design Mistakes to Avoid

Your business may live and die by its website, but all too often, websites are poorly designed, have features that detract from their usability, or simplify are not optimized to draw a customer in and get them to make a purchase or sign up to learn more.

Don’t feel bad if your business’ website is guilty of any of these technical SEO problems. Website design is changing quickly and what might have worked just a few years ago is a mark of obsolescence today. Do you need help creating a high-performing website for your business? Chicago web design services from Digital Authority Partners can help get you there.

To learn how Digital Authority Partners can create a standout website for you, watch this video!

Read on to find out if you are guilty of any of these common web design mistakes:

The Website is Too Busy

Yes, you may do it all – sell services, consult, design, and give motivational talks – but if your website is leading people in too many directions at once, using too many different colors, too many different images, and too many calls to action – you run the risk of alienating and confusing visitors who will move on to someone who portrays their services in a way that is simple, direct, and easy to understand. 

So what do you do if you actually do have a large range of services? Consider utilizing landing pages that lead customers from a search engine to a particular service page, or creatively lump your offerings into broader pages that make it easy to drill down into specific services.

Terrible Calls to Action

Your call to action, or CTA, is where the rubber meets the road. No matter how great your website design is, no matter how original or fresh your language is, and no matter how custom your graphics are, everything on your site needs to be geared towards getting people to do one thing and one thing only: Click that button. 

No matter what yours says, the CTA button does a lot of work for you. Make sure it is optimized: Your button should clearly tell visitors what they need to do, inform them what action they are going to take, be concise, and be compelling. There are innumerable examples of great call-to-action buttons, some examples include Buy Now, Shop Now, Sign Up, Learn More, Get the eBook, and Speak to an Expert Now.

Hidden Navigation

You probably won’t be able to describe your entire company and everything you do or sell on your home page, which is where navigation comes in. Website visitors need to be able to navigate easily from your homepage to your product page to your About Us page, your Contact Us page, and to their shopping cart. 

Website users today are generally savvier about finding navigation bars that don’t shout, “I am a navigation bar,” but a minimalist approach can create confusion and detract from your overall goal. While it is OK to make some pages less prominent, don’t make users click all over to get to a page that you desperately want them to be on. You have too many competitors who they will gladly turn to instead!

Not Having Enough White Space

Related to the first point above, your website has to be nice to look at, and that means a sufficient amount of white space that will let your visitors rest their eyes while also highlighting important components of your website. The content of your website should not span the width of your site, and while some images can be full width, copy never should be. Keep white space on either side of your written copy as well as above and below it.

Including Text That is Difficult to Read 

Many designers innocently make the mistake of including font colors that are too light. While the color may look good in your palette selection tool, it’s too hard for many people to read. Contact is an important factor when designing your website – don’t make your website visitors squint, grab their glasses, or wonder if their monitors are about to go bad. 

Along the same lines as this, make sure you use a font that is easy to read – as in not too small or with too many fancy flourishes. While you don’t want to use a font size that is so large that your website seems to scroll on forever, it is perfectly permissible to use a font that is more interesting than the standard Calibri or Arial. 

Make sure the text is large enough that normal readers can easily and quickly read it. This also ensures that the font style is pleasing and easy to digest. On top of this, avoid using all caps and too many different fonts. And, of course, using all caps should never be employed, even if you actually do feel like yelling. Remember – don’t ever give your visitors a reason to click away!

Forgetting Your Metadata

Metadata includes a meta title and meta description for each page, and meta descriptions for each image. Meta titles are a key component of what search engines use to find your website and images, and meta descriptions are the text that appears below your page title in search engine summaries. Description meta titles of about 60 characters will be your number one tool for getting people to visit your page, and a meta description of about 110 characters will help ensure that visitors are going to the page they want rather than clicking on your site and then bouncing away immediately.

Yes, technical SEO is a multi-faceted part of your brand development, and as you can see, there are many details to focus on. Need help? Digital Authority is your Chicago web design services partner, ready to help you build a high-performing site that serves your business goals.