When we talk about having a website, the first question that comes in our minds is what elements our website should incorporate to make it appealing as well as effective. Websites are not only about pretty-looking pages that can bring the audience to our brand, but it is also about making the audience have a good experience which highly depends on the quality of content, format, style and user interface of the website and not just its appearance.
Website designing involves initial investment and people might not want to invest such hefty amounts. But one needs to look at the number of benefits a website can serve in terms of profiting business and making people aware of its existence. A few benefits that having a website can offer are- it can expand your business, extend your local reach and bring in new customers, improve the effectiveness and productivity of your business and many more. One major factor to look at is the advertising and broadcasting costs that website cuts down which otherwise are needed to increase your brand visibility.
But even while designing a website, there are some common web design mistakes that designers usually make. These mistakes might not be evidently seen but they can majorly affect your online reputation and impact it in a negative way. Below given are a few web design mistakes to avoid:
Responsive Web Design
It is very important to have a responsive website design that can function properly on desktops and laptops as well as phones and tablets. People no more are restricted from browsing through big screens only, instead of people now conducting searches more through phones which are easier to access and convenient.
Keeping this in mind, it has now become necessary to design websites that support proper navigation in different devices. Your navigation should be easy and effortless for the customers. You should make sure the elements on your website can be easily clicked on (size and location), be it any size of the screen.
Excess Resources
Uploading a lot of resources can be trouble. Too much information and resources both internal and external can lead to problems like slow loading time of the page and confusing content for the customers.
Loading so many external resources on the page can also be very costly. Thus, designers are not just making a mistake that can affect the customers, but also the business in terms of increased costs which in anyways is going to result in a problem. It is thus important to not overload your page with resources, instead keep them limited and follow the rule of simplicity that will limit the number of resources and help make your website more adaptable, fast and user-friendly.
Unsecure Website
Websites that are not secured with SSL certificate can be a big barrier for the website visitors as well as SEO. When a website is not yet secured, the users get a label called “Not Secure” when they visit the website or Google might also warn the visitors before accessing. Such labels and notifications can majorly affect the number of people visiting your website.
It is thus very important to secure your website with an https in order to assure your visitors that your website is safe, secure and accessible.
Lack Of Quality Content
Quality content is one major factor every business needs to focus on when it comes to developing a good website. People are not going to visit your business on the basis of how good your website looks, instead they are going to analyze your content and accordingly draw conclusions on how good and promising your business looks from the words you’ve said.
People do not like reading huge chunks of content, instead, it needs to be to the point and relevant. Instead of majorly focusing on the story behind your business, you can highlight your products and services more as that is what the audience is looking for when they visit your website. A website can have an average of 300-500 words on each page with not just words but also pictures and videos to make the quality of content better.
Annoying Pop-ups
Pop-ups on the website can be annoying and irritating for the viewers and it might also compel them to leave the website. Relevant pop-ups can turn out to be helpful but not when they hinder a viewer’s experience. A person might be looking for something in particular on your website and it might happen that right when they are about to find it, a pop up appears.
Thus it is necessary to keep pop-ups in a way that does not cover the main content and pop up immediately when the viewer navigates to a new page.
Image Quality and Optimization In Web Design
Visuals definitely appeal to people more than words. Having images uploaded on your website is a must as it will make your website more appealing as well as interesting for the readers to see. What needs to be assured is the quality of pictures- they should be of good quality and visually good looking. Good images help in engaging with users as well as in creating a positive brand image.
Images should also be optimized so that they don’t slow down your website’s loading speed. Uploading high-quality images might develop chances of slowed loading speed and thus it is necessary to optimize images to boost the speed.
While there are numerous benefits that a website can serve, there also are quite a lot of potential mistakes that web designers can make. Thus it rests upon individuals to make sure they don’t fall in the trap and avoid any kind of negative impact of the website on the business. Keeping in mind the wide spectrum of business opportunities a website can offer, designing a website for your business should be the first thing you must do. All you need to take care of are the steps you should take to avoid major mistakes.