May 12, 2021

7 Web Design Mistakes That Could Be Driving Away Your Site Visitors

Your website can make or break the online success of your business. Poor web design could be driving away potential visitors and clients and is completely avoidable if you know what to look out for.

Web design can seem daunting for some, but it doesn’t need to be. The following article will deal with seven common web design mistakes that will not help you bring in visitors.

Slow Loading Times

Nobody likes waiting for websites to load, so much so that your slow website will actively drive visitors away. Few things put people off visiting and engaging with a website more than a tediously long wait for it to load.

Research has shown that visitors will quickly abandon a website if it doesn’t load quickly enough. Slow website loading times will also put visitors off from returning to a website.

There are several tools that can help you improve your page loading times and your overall website design. Consider using things like Google PageSpeed Insights to gain a better understanding of areas that require improvement.

Not Being User-Friendly

In the same way that a brick and mortar shop can put you off with a poor layout, poor web design can also drive away customers. If your navigation and website design leaves much to be desired, you will struggle to maintain the attention of your visitors.

The navigation menu should be intuitive and easy to work with. Pages shouldn’t be hard to find and your website shouldn’t remind visitors of a maze. Search functions are a great way to simplify things, as are sub-categories.

Layout Issues

Mobile use is becoming more and more common. The majority of web traffic now comes from mobile devices and that is only likely to continue and grow in terms of mobile users. As such, mobile optimisation is absolutely vital for your website to be successful in 2021.

Your website has to be able to cope with mobile and tablet use if it is to stand up to today’s modern standards. Websites that aren’t optimized are a pain to use for users on these devices and they will quickly be abandoned in favor of more responsive websites.

This factor also extends to search engine optimisation which will help your website rank well in Google’s search engine results. Mobile-friendliness is an important factor in their formula and will improve your website’s chances of being seen via the search engine. Investing in optimizing your website for mobile is a worthy consideration that could vastly improve your traffic and engagement.

Choice of Typeface

Fonts can be easily overlooked but picking the wrong ones could do more harm than good. It’s important to give it some thought before picking one at random and potentially driving away visitors.

Well-chosen text, colors, and sizing can improve your website immeasurably and benefit the user’s experience. If text is difficult to read for whatever reason, it will make the whole experience less enjoyable and perhaps require more effort than it is worth in the visitor’s mind. There are lots of resources online that will help guide you through picking the right typefaces for your website so they are worth making use of.

Intuitive Design

Being able to understand where to go and how to use your website without instructions is a key part of website design. Users should be able to easily work out how to get in contact with you or how to subscribe to a newsletter.

Any calls to action should be straightforward to follow through or you will likely find that visitors will be put off. Think carefully about the placement and arrangement of your website from a new user’s point of view and adapt it to suit them.

Online Safety

Safety is a valued aspect of online browsing and privacy is at the forefront of that. As a result, your website needs to be absolutely free of malware, viruses, and other unwanted safety risks.

An SSL certificate is a good starting point that will give your users a sense of security. Using a solid web host and improving your HTTPS are also good ways to improve your website’s security. In addition, you can use secure plug-ins, and back up your site on a regular basis for added safety.

Offer Quality

Your visitors need to feel like they are getting quality from visiting your website regardless of the form this is presented in. If this isn’t the case, then they have no reason to come back.

Top-quality content that engages users and drives traffic will help build a following and encourage growth. Poor content, irregular content, or a lack of content are all ways to reduce your audience size and drive away visitors from your website. Whatever the format, make sure that you can provide valuable regular content to keep your visitors coming back for more.

About the author 

Peter Hatch


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