9 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid

If you watched the Internet grow into the giant it is today then you should remember the tacky designs of yesteryear’s websites. Sites filled with every feature and fancy frills do not often work well. The website was made more for the website owner than the website visitor in those days. However, we made do with what we have.

Now, people know better. People know that if you want online visitors to stay on your website, then you should make sure that they feel at ease using your site.

Although we now know better than before, a lot of people still make mistakes when designing their website. To combat against this and be able to satisfy your website visitors, you need to make sure you avoid common web design mistakes.

In this article, you’ll find some of the horrible web design mistakes that may be the reason your website visitors are going away.

1. Outdated web design

One of the first things you should make sure is that you keep the design of your website up-to-date. After all, how can you trust a business that didn’t even bother to modernise and update their website?

Having an outdated web design can make people feel like your business is now defunct, while your services or products are obsolete.

Let’s say you’re a marketing or advertising agency. How could clients trust you to be aware of market trends if you aren’t even aware of the overall look of your website?

It isn’t easy to hide an outdated web design either. You should make sure that you update your web design now and then. Updated web design will matter more as the years pass and especially according to your services or products.

2. Bad colour scheme

Another common web design mistake that can drive away website visitors is a poor colour scheme for your website.

Back in the day, putting up all your favourite colours and decorating every inch of your website seemed to be a hit for a lot of people. They wanted their website to convey every bit of their personality on it.

However, nowadays, people are leaning more towards a minimalistic trend. This trend doesn’t mean you have to lose your personality. It only means you have to be more intentional with how you choose your colour scheme.

If you have a branding already, then use your branding colours as reference for your website design. Make sure that everything is cohesive and that you don’t go overboard with the number of colours that you use on your site.

3. Poor website navigation

Website navigation is becoming more important for web design as the years continue to pass. One of the primary reasons this is the case because easy website navigation means that your website visitors have a better user experience.

With better user experience, you can retain your website visitors for an extended period. Thus, website navigation should be a priority.

On the other hand, if you have poor website navigation, it will be harder for website visitors to find what they need in as few clicks as possible.

Poor website navigation will not only lead to fewer website visitors and shorter time spent on your website. It will also lead to search engines not ranking your website high enough on their search results.

4. Generic and low-quality imagery

If you plan on including photos and images on your website, then try to make them as unique as possible. Another important tip is that you should make these photos as high-quality as possible. If you’re going to post a photo on your site, you might as well make it more appealing to look at for the user.

The importance of imagery is that it helps break up the walls of text on your website. If you have pure text on your site, it can be tiring to look at for website visitors. Thus, good quality images can help break up that monotony.

Aside from that, you should make sure that you’re posting images that are relevant to what you’re talking about in your content. Otherwise, it’s a nonsensical addition on your website and space could’ve been used to add something more informative.

5. Lack of personal touch

Nowadays, people are looking for the more human side of things in the tools and sites that they interact with online. The same principle works with website designs.

If you don’t add personality to your website, then not a lot of people may feel attracted to your website’s overall design.

There are many simple additions to your site that will help make it a more personal experience for your users. For example, you can consider adding a contact page where people can leave a custom message to your customer service team.

You can also try creating or adding more colour into your web design so that it isn’t so bland to look at and uninspiring to the user.

There are a variety of ways you can change your web design to make it more personal. As long as it fits your branding, then you can implement these changes and make your site look more welcoming to visitors.

6. Poor readability

If you’re going to be having text on your website, make sure that people can read them. Otherwise, you will lose out on website visitors. Many factors affect the overall readability of your site.

One is a poor colour scheme. If your text is dark and so is its background, then people will have a hard time trying to read anything.

Another factor that affects readability is the typeface that you use. If you incorporate fancy fonts or cursive fonts, make sure they’re readable so that people know what you want to convey to them.

You wouldn’t want people to misinterpret what you’re trying to say. Good readability gives you more control over the message that you convey.

7. Too many pop-ups

Having too many pop-ups is annoying, and any online user knows that.

If you have several pop-ups on your site, people will undoubtedly find your site annoying. Even two pop-ups can be you pushing the line too much.

If you genuinely want to add a pop-up, then make sure that it’s a vital part of your website. Otherwise, you might be losing your visitor’s attention to it.

8. Slow website loading speed

Search engines like to take into account the loading speed of a website as part of the user experience. If you have a slow website loading speed, then this will contribute negatively towards your search engine results ranking.

This is because you will have a high bounce rate because your visitors will be impatient and leave immediately after going to your website.

9. Bad mobile experience

When designing your website, you should also consider your mobile users who are visiting your site through their phones.

A lot of people have smartphones that allow them to access the Internet anytime, anywhere. Thus, it would be wrong to ignore the growing number of mobile internet users.

Responsive web design creates a great user experience. It will benefit you in terms of SEO, as well as your ability to retain web users on your website.

Wrap up

Although it’s alright to make mistakes, it’s better that you try to avoid making them. When it comes to web design, making mistakes can lead to fewer website visits, which defeat the purpose of having a website.

Make sure that you avoid these web design mistakes listed above so that you don’t end up driving your website visitors away.

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