If you are interested in increasing traffic on your business’ website, it is important you improve your online presence. By having an excellent website design, you will be able to not only increase customer satisfaction, but you will also earn trust of consumers and help increase brand awareness. As a business owner, there are seven common design mistakes that you should try to avoid.
#1: Misusing Logo
Your logo should be one of the first items that viewers see when they visit your website. It helps you build trust with your prospects and makes them feel that you are professional as well as reliable. Your logo will also help them remember your brand when they are in need of your services or products.
As you are reviewing your current logo make sure it meets the following criteria: clear, readable font, is a high-resolution file (JPEG or SVG), findable at a glance, easy to distinguish between your website’s background color, and your logo also has consistent colors that are found on your website. If you notice that your logo doesn’t meet these requirements, then it may be time to make some changes!
#2: Small Font
Another common error businesses make is using a font that is not large enough for customers to read. It was found in a study that the best way for website visitors to understand and retain information found on your site is through larger font sizes.
Specifically, the font size should be size 18 at a minimum if you are wanting to help with comprehension and ensure that customers are reading your information. If you are not going to use size 18 font, make sure you organize your text in a way that helps readers understand what services or products you will be selling without having to re-read your text several times.
#3: Poor Readability
Don’t make readers climb a large wall of text in order to learn more about your business and what you are selling. According to research conducted by the NN Group, most individuals do not read through website content but instead scan for keywords. With this in mind, if you are trying to make your website material more user-friendly consider the following tricks to help engage your audience:
- Format text with heading styles in order to separate your ideas within the body of text.
- Choose fonts that are easy for customers to read such as Georgia, Lucida Grande, and Verdana.
- Consider using bold and italics to draw your visitors into noteworthy information.
- Break your text into smaller parts by using bullet points when possible.
- Lastly, don’t be afraid to use visuals like images or videos to help explain concepts to your customers.
#4 Poor Call To Action
The fourth common mistake found on websites is having inadequate “calls to action” or CTAs. Without clear CTAs, a user could possibly struggle to understand how they purchase your product or how they sign up for your service. This is why you must prioritize visibility and make sure your CTA is attention grabbing.
You should also use a different size, color, shape, or contrast in order to make the CTA prominent on your site. It is important to keep in mind that your CTA shouldn’t be longer than 4 words as it is important that it’s simple and to the point. Don’t be afraid to test out your CTA in the real world to ensure that it will provide you good results.
#5 Not Using Eye-Catching Images
Once you have created an attention grabbing CTA, you should also confirm that your product imagery on your site is eye-catching as well. If you have stale or boring product graphics you could possibly be losing customers. Consider images that have a large key object, a warmer color, high contrast, show items up-close, are of high quality, and also show others enjoying or using the product.
#6 Failing to Explain Your Purpose
Another common mistake you should avoid is not highlighting your purpose. Your site should help your audience easily understand what your brand offers and who you are as a company. Have your value proposition immediately noticeable for readers. Generally, the best eye-catching location is the upper-left corner of your homepage.
#7 Not Enough White Space
Lastly, make sure that your website design allows for enough negative or white space between elements on your homepage. Negative space helps websites to attract visitors to high-value visuals on the webpage, prevents your audience from becoming overwhelmed, highlights important marketing messages, and helps with the overall aesthetic appeal of your website.
These seven common mistakes can be avoided if you take the recommended steps to improve your website’s design. Thankfully these errors are generally quick fixes that you can make to help improve your website’s success! If you need assistance with your website and don’t have someone you know to help, reach out to use for a referral!
https://www.tailorbrands.com/blog/common-design-mistakes-business-websites-make
I’d add a couple more things…
1. Easily accessed on mobile devices, a responsive website. WordPress is good for that
2. Sticky header for better ease of browsing
3. A good footer with links to all of your core business landing pages
Hope that helps =)
Dan,
Thank you for offering your tips! Much appreciated!