Website design is perhaps one of the most important factors when it comes to improving user engagement. Attractive and functional design has the potential to engage website visitors and drive more leads to your company. However, companies make website mistakes all the time.

The fact is, if a business gets its website design wrong, it cannot get any worse.

When a company’s online transactions are not picking up any pace, it’s time they think long and hard over whether the website design is appealing and has good enough usability and navigation for users.

Below are 7 common website design mistakes you should avoid at all cost if you want things to go in your favor. We are also including suggestions on how to avoid them or even fix them.

1. Your Website Fails To Tell Users About What Your Company Is All About

This is probably the biggest mistake companies make in their websites. Once your website loads, the users want to know what your company is all about, and they will not spend more than a couple of seconds there if it’s not clear to them. It can be a huge loss for your business.

Our Suggestion: Make sure your homepage, and all your pages, have a clear and brief message in the above-the-fold area. You can support the message by selecting the right images and colors for each page. Additionally, include other features, such as testimonials, industry affiliates, awards, and recognition, that can inspire trust in the people who visit your website.

2. Your Website Is Not Mobile Friendly

Since over 80% of the global population owns a smartphone, it is incredibly important your business website is responsive, i.e., it works well on both desktop computers and mobile phones. Not having a mobile-friendly website can spell doomsday for any business. In fact, Google has been ranking landing pages based on mobile speed since 2018. Even an increase in speed of 0.1s can improve conversions by 8% according to a study conducted by Google & Deloitte.

Our Suggestion: If your website isn’t responsive, you should probably invest in redesigning your website to make sure you are not losing out on traffic and conversions.

3. Your Website’s Fonts and Texts Are Not Reader-friendly

If a website visitor cannot properly read your website’s content because its fonts or texts are too small, then you cannot expect them to enjoy their time navigating your site or searching for information. Having a text that’s difficult to read is a website mistake you should avoid.

Our Suggestion: Body text should be above 14 px and all body copy should be in a Sans Serif font for better readability and compatibility across different types of devices.

4. Having a Website With a Lot of Links That Open New Browser Windows

This website mistake leads to a bad user experience because opening a lot of different browser windows makes navigation a real pain, especially for mobile users. They also consume bandwidth—which can slow someone’s device and ruin their experience.

Our Suggestion: For the most part, you should create links that open a different browser window or tab, when absolutely necessary. We use them only when the link is a PDF, or another type of file that will take the visitor out of the website.

5. No Search Box in Your Website

Most websites hold a sea of information. Not having a search box on the homepage will make users frustrated as they struggle to access desired and relevant information. This can add to their frustration and make them leave your website.

Our Suggestion: There are many ways to program a search box. You can decide to create an indexed database of your content, this way every time someone searches they get pre-selected results. Otherwise, you can program a search bar that looks for keywords in all your content.

6. Stale Content

Irrelevant, stale content can take your website to the bottom of the search rankings. Only engaging and well-structured content will drive traffic to your website.

Our Suggestion: Use proper headings, subheadings, bullets, paragraphs, and keywords. Review your SEO performance at least quarterly, and make any updates to pages that have decreased performance. SEO is continuous work, you can’t just select keywords once and hope they rank forever. Internet navigation changes and adapts to trends, so you have to adapt your content as well.

7. No Call-to-Action 

Not having a call-to-action (CTA) will keep visitors away from signing up, buying, subscribing, or contacting your company. If your visitors aren’t inspired or reminded to take any action, they are mess likely to make a purchase from your company.

Our Suggestion: Always ads a CTA button to your top navigation menu, and pepper in lots of CTAs throughout your website to encourage visitors to show their genuine interest in your products or services.

Why Some Companies Fail to Fix These Common Website Mistakes

The aforementioned website design mistakes mean that a company’s marketing team has to constantly review the website to track progress and make changes. Some changes even require specialized programming and design knowledge that not every company has. Additionally, not every company has a large marketing team that can dedicate so much time to their website. This is one of the main reasons why some companies fail to fix common website mistakes that can hinder their growth. If your company is in that situation, we suggest finding the right partner or service provider that can help you keep your website up to date.

Just Digital is a top-rated digital marketing agency specializing in website design and development. We are recognized as a top California Digital Marketing Agency on Design Rush and Cluth.co. Read more about our website services here, or schedule a call with our team if you want to know how we can help you and your company grow.