Website Design Mistakes to Avoid When Building or Revamping Your Site
Designing a website does only mean making it pretty.
It is also about making it functional, fast-loading, and, most importantly, aligning for user convenience and experience.
People think aesthetics attract people. That’s true to some extent. But if even an appealing design attracts users, its’ poor functionality and user experience will quickly drive them away.
So, when it comes to website design, what people overlook is paying equal attention to other aspects as well.
Some mistakes in web design are not silly and significantly impact website ranking in SERPs
Here, we will discuss some major website design mistakes to avoid when building or revamping your site in 2023
Not having a mobile responsive website.
You already know that since 2016, Google has been giving more and more importance to mobile-first crawling and indexing.
But it will leave you concerned if we tell you that the recent announcement of Google says that it will mostly give preference to the mobile version of the websites in search results.
That means Google will mostly use the mobile bot crawler instead of the desktop bot crawler.
Now, more and more people are accessing websites through mobile devices, which is why Google said it is shifting to favouring mobile websites.
This is how the Google bot currently crawls different versions of your website.
As you see this, it becomes important for you to neglect the importance of mobile responsiveness, whether in website design or website redesign.
Slow load time of pages
Even Google recommends that no website should take more than 2 seconds to load. People always remain in a hurry, so they do not wait long for a website to load. If your website loads slowly, users will not take even a second to abandon it.
This not only affects overall ranking in SEPRs but also makes people lose trust in your brand.
If you listen to Google, it says;
- 53% of visits are likely to be abandoned if pages take longer than 3 seconds to load
- One out of two people expect a page to load in less than 2 seconds
- 46% of people say that waiting for pages to load is what they dislike the most when browsing the web on mobile phones
Seeing these stats, you would agree that not paying attention to the speed makes your overall website design cost and SEO efforts go in vain.
Neglecting Content Quality
Content slays everywhere, including the website design process.
It is not only about text content that you come up with to entice readers or optimise it with keywords for SEO purposes.
Rather, every visual, like images, infographics, videos, and charts, are part of it.
As we also mentioned in our previous article related to handyman website design, quality of content is really an essential element of a website design and its success.
Note: read that article here – The Essential Elements of an Effective Handyman Website.
So, if you do not pay attention to the quality of content, you are putting all your website design efforts at risk.
It means blurry images, videos, or any kind of content you use is what you need to avoid.
Also, adjusting the ratio or resolution of the content to align with your website design theme is important.
Making Navigation Complex
Confusing users with a complex navigation path is not cool. If people do not find what they are looking for on your website within 3 seconds, they get irritated and eventually exit the website.
That is why, whether designing or redesigning a website, it is important to present information in an easy and clear structure, importantly with clear calls-to-actions guiding users so they can predict where the next action will take them.
Hierarchy on every page with subheads, if needed, is what makes the website easy to use. Also, headers in the menu should have common titles instead of witty or riddle ones. Like it is an “About Us” or “Contact Us” page, name them as it is instead of using heavy or fancy words.
Going for Unreliable Hosting
Creating a website is just the start of your online presence. For growth, obviously, you would want no going back or downtimes.
To live long on the internet without any disruptions, reliable web hosting support for your website is important.
That means if a user visits your website and, in the meantime, your host server goes down, so will your website. It not only makes you lose a potential customer but also leaves a poor impact on your brand identity.
So before going for a website design or website redesign, conduct a market analysis of which company is the best website hosting services provider, and ask yourself which kind of hosting you require at this moment.
Like, as being on the initial growth, you would want to go for shared hosting. On the other hand, if you do not want to handle server headaches on your own managed hosting with full-time support, you can choose, depending on your requirements.
Not adding search functionality.
You may overlook the search bar on the website, thinking It is just a minor component. However, it remains one of the most important elements that you add to a website.
The search bar, whether on the home page or any website section, helps users find the specific thing they are looking for. It not only saves their time but also increases the time and chance that they stay on your website and convert.
In the case of an e-commerce website design, adding a search functionality becomes even more important. People may look for a product with a specific adjective, e.g., colour, size, material, etc. In this scenario, they do not have to go through a long list of all your products, saving their valuable time and your potential sales.
According to the Econsultancy blog on-site search:
- 30% of visitors will use the site search box
- 50% more than the average site search conversation rate
That’s it
Apart from these major website design mistakes, there are some aspects also to look upon. However, even if you deal with the major ones properly you can make most of your website.
If we you are looking for professional help for effective web design, our team can assist you. Call us on 020 374 52786.