4 crucial web design mistakes that can hurt your business
Republished Sept. 10, 2020
Many business owners choose the do-it-yourself option when it comes to building or relaunching their company’s website and mobile presence.
There are lots of tools to help with that. Unfortunately, there are also tons of common pitfalls and design errors that do-it-yourselfers make, resulting in lost traffic and revenue.
That’s why we recommend consulting a professional to ensure your digital products are designed and built to help you achieve your business goals.
Here are four of the most crucial mistakes to avoid:
Unclear call to action
In an ideal scenario, how would every visit to your website end? What would every person on your website do? Would they subscribe to a newsletter? Would they buy something? Would they contact you for a quote? Your “call to action” is just that: a prompt for users to do what you want them to do. Ultimately, this should be a clear, direct message like “add to cart” or “contact us today.”
2. Hard-to-find or absent vital information
No matter the nature of the business, the information that is most important to potential clients should be the easiest to find. It should be clear to the user what your company does and how to find more information about it and its products.
The most often-overlooked vital piece of information? How to contact you or your business. Even a lack of brick-and-mortar operations is no excuse for not providing an email address, a contact form, or a phone number that’s easy to find with one tap, click, or scroll. Worse still, completely absent or missing contact info does serious harm to your credibility. It’s not only an annoying turnoff to potential clients, but can also make your company seem like a scam.
3. Inaccessible, non-responsive design
Even if your website is perfect in every other way, if it’s not accessible to all users on whatever device they’re using, you’re missing out.
About 22 per cent of Canadians, or 6.2 million people, live with some kind of disability. Can you afford to alienate that many people? Not only is there a business incentive, but it’s also a legal requirement in many provinces. In Ontario, for example, websites for private or non-profit organizations with 50 or more employees must be compliant with certain accessibility standards, or face hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.
Inaccessible design is the enemy of conversion rates, regardless of user ability. For instance, having navigation menus that are hidden, or confusing to load frustrates users, and drives them away. Buttons that are difficult to click on, images and text that are hard to decipher, and unclear calls to action are just some of the many ways that inaccessible web design can hurt your business.
Reaching all users on the devices they actually use is also vital. A beautiful website means nothing if it only looks good exclusively on laptop screens, iPhones, or Android tablets. Good design means responsive design, to ensure your wonderfully thought-out digital experience looks good to everyone who visits.
4. Poor storytelling
Storytelling is important for your brand’s identity, messaging and, ultimately, revenue. Your website and its content should have a strong voice that aligns with your brand’s messaging. A big mistake many businesses make is not effectively utilizing great photos, well-written information, and beautifully designed marketing materials. Presentation is important, and your website’s design should leverage content by ensuring it’s packaged and displayed in a way that’s most appealing and useful to your users.
Having a good understanding of content strategy and web design is crucial for creating a digital experience that showcases your brand to your prospective clients, ensuring better conversion rates, higher revenue and business success.