When you run a business, having a website is essential. A website is how consumers verify a company, find its contact information, and research the products or services in which they’re interested. It’s a tough choice: whether you should design a website yourself or hire a professional to build out one for your company. Check out the most significant website design mistakes small businesses make here.
Poor Design
The best website designers know that a website’s function is to help users get where they want to go quickly. An unclear website structure makes for a confusing user experience, and poor user experience often causes visitors to lose interest or patience and to quickly leave the website.
Unbalanced Content
Content that doesn’t offer a variety of visual interest can be overwhelming to website-users. A pitfall that many DIY website designers face is putting far too much text in cascading paragraphs. On the other hand, stacking too many images in boring rows can create the same visual conundrum. The best websites have clear visual pathways to keep the content easy to digest.
Hidden or Lack of Calls to Action
Even if a business-owner designs a website in a visually appealing manner, if users must search to find a call to action, it’s not an effective website. Calls to action are vital, as they offer users clear navigation options. Users shouldn’t have to think about navigation—the paths to where they want to go should be clear and easy to follow.
Nonresponsive Website Design
As of late 2021, over half of global website traffic is coming from mobile device–users (excluding those who use tablets). This trend of mobile-first design is not going anywhere, so one of the biggest mistakes a small business can make with its website is not making it responsive.
Pro Tip: In summer 2021, Google released the Core Web Vitals update, which is made up of three core metrics: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Web pages will receive a score for each metric and a cumulative Pass or Fail grade. This cumulative grade is an SEO ranking factor. The Core Web Vitals update accounts for loading speeds (LCP), image user interactivity (FID), and visual stability (CLS) for SEO. As such, building a responsive website design is essential for both user experience and organic rankings.
Why These Are Mistakes
Every website has a purpose, and a business website’s goal is to increase conversions. Human behavior dictates a website’s ability to increase conversions. The website’s design must cater to these human behaviors, whether they involve moving a sale at the checkout phase, filling out a form, or making a phone call.
Website design is instrumental in making your website a success by growing conversions. When a website designer does not consider best practices, the consequences can include conversions going in an undesired direction.
How an Agency Can Help
Here at Logical Position, we have an experienced department of professional website developers ready to design your website and market it to your customers. Our team of SEO professionals can get your website working successfully so that you can take on today’s competitive online marketplace with confidence. Contact us today for a quote on our website packages for small businesses.
