Did you know that the first impression of a website is 94% design-related? Yeah, that’s true!
If your website design is not appealing, your brand will not likely capture your audience’s attention leading to 38% of them not exploring your web pages again. So, it is imperative to have a bug-free & high-performing website as it is the face of your company informing your audience about your products and their benefits.
Here are a few web design mistakes that you must avoid to ensure your website does not lose traffic and conversions.
Are you aware of the most effective way to tackle such design-related hurdles? On behalf of JanBask Website Design Company, we shared details about common web design mistakes to avoid and the best design practices to scale up your online sales.
Now, let’s dive into the topic for an insightful experience ahead!
Various elements in your website design can make or break your company’s reputation among your audience if not used properly. Here we have discussed the web design mistakes to avoid for ensuring a user-friendly website for your business.
In terms of web design, a responsive design is an approach for creating websites that functions beautifully on any device or platform. Unresponsive websites are those which does not perform great on all devices, particularly on mobile devices. You may wonder is there any need to optimize a website for smartphones or tablets is essential!
Let’s state some fun facts!
57% of internet users say they will not recommend any business whose website is not mobile-responsive. This is not surprising as the number of unique smartphone users was 4.32 billion in 2021 according to Statista. This number is expected to increase further in the coming years. Statista also reveals that nearly 55% of website traffic was from devices in 2021.
This data lays the importance of having a responsive website that must perform smoothly on smartphones to tap this tremendous business potential on mobile devices.
So, has your website been dropping from the ranks? You might need a redesign!
If your website is responsive enough, it adapts automatically to various devices. Hence, your audience will like to spend more time exploring your website. This will reduce the bounce rate and increase the chances of conversion.
Now, you may be asking yourself how to create a responsive website?
Bookmark the following tricks to avoid such basic web design mistakes to create a more responsive theme.
In a responsive web design, a breakpoint is known as a “point” at which your website’s design and content adapt in a way to offer the best UX.
To ensure this, a professional website design company will help you in creating a mobile-friendly device using the various responsive breakpoints.
These points are also called media query breakpoints or CSS breakpoints. Your web page content will respond to these breakpoints and fits in perfectly with your device’s screen size and display.
Nowadays, websites are built using a fluid grid. Fluid grids position the various elements of the website as per the device’s screen size. Various elements of a fluid grid will respond to your screen size perfectly. If you are designing your website on your own or have hired a website design company, ensure that you use such fluid grids.
Mobile devices are equipped with touchscreens these days. Hence, while creating a responsive web design, this factor should be taken into consideration. Even, laptops are using touch screens these days. You must ensure that various smaller elements like buttons or CTAs are easier to select and click on your mobile or laptop display.
Use modern image tag attributes to ensure your images are more responsive on various multiple devices. A simple text on the web easily wraps at the device screen’s edge so that the text doesn't overflow. With images & videos, things are different. Both images and videos have an intrinsic size. If they are wider than the screen, the image will overflow.
You can declare in your stylesheet that your image size should not breach the containing element. For videos as well, you can write CSS & JavaScript codes additionally or use a video player based on HTML5 and Video.js
You must use a pre-designed responsive theme that works on all devices. WordPress offers a range of fast and mobile-friendly themes in both paid and free versions. You can try such themes out!
After designing your website for mobile-friendliness, it's time to test to figure out the usability of your website. It is always important to test your website at various stages of its design and development. Testing your website’s responsiveness will find out the gaps that still persist. You can try out the website responsive checker tools of BrowserStack.
Hence, you must consider the importance of web design that is compatible with any device. Creating such designs requires a professional hand. You can also look for professional web design services offered by an experienced website design company to help you create a responsive website.
404 are those errors that you get after clicking on a link that doesn’t exist. Are 404 errors responsible for lowering rankings?
Here’s an excerpt from Susan Moskwa, Webmaster Trends Analyst:
“The fact that some URLs on your site no longer exist/return 404s does not affect how your site’s other URLs (the ones that return 200 (Successful)) perform in our search results.”
As per Google Search Console Help, “404 errors won’t impact your site’s search performance, and you can safely ignore them if you’re certain that the URLs should not exist on your site.”
However, such errors can affect your ranking when your inbound links point to a page that doesn’t exist. Hence, you must find out such links on your website which do not exist any longer.
But, how to remove 404 errors?
Often we delete obsolete blogs or web pages randomly from our website. However, those blogs or web pages are still live on Google SERP. If your users click on those links, they will experience 404 errors. So, before you delete any web page or blog. Use a 404 redirect to a relevant web page.
Many website themes come with custom-made 404-pages. You must use them to guide your users better. For example, you can put a link to your Home Page or Pillar Content on your 404 error page and ask your audience to click on them.
If you are able to access the URL on a laptop but not on mobile, try clearing your browser caches on mobile devices.
In case your entire website is returning a 404 error on clicking but is working smoothly on other networks (mobile network or friend’s network in another city), consider changing your DNS server.
You can use various broken link checker tools like that Ahref, small SEO tools, Google Chrome has broken link checker extension, and much more.
Bookmark these above steps to avoid 404 errors, else hire the best web design services to do this job.
Your website needs to load within 3-4 seconds to get maximum traffic footfall. Google’s Page Experience update further backs it.
Google’s Page Experience Update in 2021 recommends the need for a fast-loading and mobile-friendly website. Google has categorized the page experience ranking factors in the form of the below parameters:
Taking these factors into consideration, it is important these days to have a website design built for speed.
You can use software like Gzip to compress various CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files that are larger than 150 bytes. For image size optimization, you can use TnyPNG. You can also use a WEBP converter which compresses images further to reduce the load on your website. Hence, your website loading speed will get reduced.
You may also read - Website Navigation Best Practices as businesses often fail to create a smooth navigation structure.
Another way to increase your website speed is by optimizing your code. By optimizing your code (including removing spaces, commas, and other unnecessary characters), you can dramatically increase your page speed.
You can do this by removing spaces, commas, and other characters which are not required. Google recommends using UglifyJS and CSSNano.
With each redirect, your audience has to wait for an additional HTTP request-response cycle to complete. For example, in case your mobile redirect pattern looks like this:
example.com -> www.example.com -> m.example.com -> m.example.com/home
Every additional redirect will slow down your web page speed.
The time for the server to respond depends on the traffic footfall, traffic footfall, and resources used by the web page. You can definitely improve your server response time, by figuring out performance bottlenecks like - slow routing and database queries, slow routing, lack of optimum memory, and others. You need to fix such issues as the optimal server response time is under 200ms. You can also take help from a professional website design company to optimize your website for speed.
Using typography that does not resonate with a brand is one of the most common web design mistakes to avoid.
Typography means the font type used on a website. Such fonts can make or break your brand image. So, your website’s typography must always be in line with your products and services. For example, if you are an IT Company, extremely flamboyant typography like Dragon Ball Z fire blasting font style will not work.
Let us make things more lucid for you!
Are you aware of font psychology? Font psychology means your emotional or visual reaction after seeing a specific font. According to Albert Mehrabian’s Rule of Personal Communication, nearly 93% of personal connection is non-verbal. So, it is very important to capture such minute details to select a font that resonated best with your brand.
So, how to choose a font best suited for your business?
Website fonts are very critical to your business’s branding. Hence, your website fonts should be in line with your visual brand assets. Whether you choose a stylish and creative font or a simpler one, make sure that your typography is able to speak your brand story effectively.
As a practice, avoid using more than 3 font types on your website. Don’t make your website cluttered with too many typographies that lower the impression of your audience about your company. Each font that you use must associate specific importance with it. You can categorize your fonts into primary, secondary, and tertiary. Use the primary fonts in main titles and headings. The secondary font can be used in the content body. While the accent font should be used for specific purposes like CTAs.
After choosing the fonts and segregating them as per their importance, it's time to decide pon the font size. Ideally, people use the below pattern.
However, choosing the right font for your website can be confusing especially when you are a start-up. In that case, availing of professional web design services for small businesses can be a game-changer!
Next in our list of web design mistakes is…
What is content hierarchy? Content Hierarchy is a term in content marketing that involves placing the various sections of content strategically as per their importance. In simple words, it is like placing the most valuable information at the top of the page and the least valuable at the bottom. But you may wonder why content hierarchy is important?
Well, you have just 50 milliseconds to create an everlasting impact on your audience. Also, your users spend an average of 5.59 seconds on your website’s written content. So, maintaining web page content hierarchy does matter!
So, how to create a perfect content hierarchy? To understand this we have shared the rough outline of creating a content hierarchy for your service page:
First, start with informing about your expertise in dealing with a specific problem that your audience is facing.
Next, discuss the problem in detail and how you can help in solving it through your services. The focus should be on benefits and not the services you are offering.
Explain why your product or service will provide the most absolute solution to a problem. Tell your audience why you are unique and different from others.
Do not push for sales or conversions. Rather guide your audience towards possible sales through your content.
For example, if you are offering web design services, then within your content while explaining your products, you can ask your audience to click on the case study link of one of your clients. This is how you can build trust within your audience who are interacting with your website for the first time.
Finally, summarize your business, products, and service once more. Do not forget to use Calls-to-Action smartly within your content.
You can follow the below format-
You may also seek the help of an expert website design company to help you build a perfect content hierarchy for your business!
Keywords are one of the most critical aspects of SEO. Keywords are the search terms that internet users search on the web to find information about a specific thing.
However, often businesses fail to optimize their web content with necessary keywords. If you skip using keywords then Google will not be able to identify your web portal as an information provider for a specific term.
If your website doesn’t appear in Google SERP, how will you get traffic? So, we have rated forgetting to use keywords in your web content as one of the most important dreaded web design mistakes to avoid.
So, how to optimize your keywords? Check these effective website design tips:
Simply, use keywords that are relevant to your business. For example, if your company provides website design services, but your website lacks little or no phrase related to that. You will not rank!
There are free keyword finder tools like Ubbersuggest or Keyword Planner which you can use to figure out keywords related to your business. These tools will provide you with the search volume of a keyword, the competition level, and also CPC value. It is always suggested to choose a high-volume keyword in tandem with your product or service.
You must use a combination of primary and secondary keywords wisely throughout your web content. Also, try using long-tailed keywords in your content. Use questions like “how to design a website?” in the form of keywords that can help your website rank. Remember, around 8% of search queries are question-based as per MOZ.
Keyword density is the volume or number of times a specific search term is used in your content. Maintain at least 1-2% of primary keywords out of the total word count in your web page or blog. For the rest keywords, you can use between .5-1%.
Do not stuff keywords unnecessarily. Use them evenly throughout your blog or web page. Mention the primary keyword in the headers (H1, H2, H3) and the content meta description.
Try to implement these steps if you aim at increasing your search ranking and traffic footfall.
However, deciding on the right keywords can be a herculean task. We will suggest going for professional services from an experienced website design company.
A website design company for small business and large business can help you out with keyword planning and other professional website design tips.
This is one of the most common web design mistakes that businesses commit. Often you must have realized after launching your brand that your logo doesn’t tell your brand story. All the more surprising, people often don't realize this gap!
According to a report published on Study Find, 42% of Americans say that logos tell them about a specific brand’s personality. So, your company’s logo should be something that must align with your products and services and resonate with your visitors who visit your website.
So, how to create a perfect logo for your website? Here are some tricks…..
You know your brand best. However, many people fail to translate their company's brand voice into their logo. So, make sure that your target audience can easily relate their wants and needs to your company’s services by seeing your company’s logo.
Doing competitor research on logos used by other companies in the same industry won’t harm. Through this research, you will get a rough idea of the design of a logo. Don't start creating a logo randomly without proper research.
You can add some visual elements in the form of icons that resemble your brand well. For example, if you are a Travel Service provider, the below logo sample can be apt:
Keep a simple color that resonates with your products and services and is also in line with your website theme. If your website theme has a blend of white and green colors, try using the green element in your logo design.
You can share your new logo design in your company forums or social media groups to get feedback. This will help you to understand what your customers and the general public think about the logo.
We will also suggest hiring an expert website design company that can help you create a logo that matters for your business!
So, these are the 7 most common web design mistakes committed by businesses across the world.
Still not convinced? Here’s what is at stake if you don't take proper care while designing your website!
This is what you will face if you skip designing your existing website or get a newer one.
1. Affect Ranking Google SERP: Mr. John Meuller once said - “Changing the layout of your pages can affect your search results. This is something that some people work on activities as well with regards to on-page SEO.So things like figuring out how to use titles properly on a page, how to do internal linking properly, and how to provide more context for the article itself. All of this can affect SEO.”
According to Google’s page experience update, the overall aesthetic of the website (not only SEO) will be taken into consideration to appear in Google searches consistently. So, poor web design can lead to a fall in ranking and traffic consequently.
2. Restrict Amplifying Your Brand Voice: Poor rankings in Google searches will definitely limit your business reach. Hence, your brand voice will not spread among your target audience properly.
3. Lost Credibility: Nearly 75% of people opinionate about a website’s credibility based on the overall website aesthetics as per studies. So, poor website design, faulty logo, and poor loading speeds can drastically hamper your brand’s image. This will result in a loss of conversions and credibility.
4. Your Competitors Will Topple You: If you don’t work on these bare minimum aspects as mentioned above, your competitors will do it! And, soon, you will find yourself at the bottom of the leader boards!
Popular Sports Channel ESPN increased its revenue by 35% after it redesigned the website homepage. Like this, you can also increase your company’s revenue by tweaking the website design.
You can hire a professional website design company for small businesses and large businesses to get help on web design mistakes to avoid.
As a website design company, we create digital experiences that matter!!!
Your customer’s first impression is their last impression. At JanBask Digital Design, we offer cutting-edge web design services for small businesses to established ones for an ever-lasting digital experience for your customer.
So, they keep visiting you again & again!!
Whether it's a startup or an established brand, our professional web design services are tailor-made for every industry as we aim to:
Avoiding these common web design mistakes and modifying your company website’s design in the right way can increase your business’s reach 10X times. Consequently, you will be able to increase your traffic and achieve more sales.
A minimalistic yet visually compelling website that loads fast will keep your audience stay interested in your page longer and reduce the bounce rate.
But revamping your website’s design can be an exhaustive and tough big project, but JanBask Website Design Company can surely take that task off your to-do list. At JanBask Digital Design we offer the best and flawless custom web design services that make every second worthy for your customers when they visit your website!
Don't forget to comment here and share your thoughts about what else can be avoided to create a flawless website. Till then, happy reading!
P
Nice motivational blog, really helpful for upcoming entrepreneurs and listed tips are valuable and worthful.
J
Glad you found this useful! For more such insights on your favorite topics, do check out JanBask Blogs and keep learning with us!
J
What a blog, I like it!! I am planning to start a business but was very confused about how to design my website and also afraid of failure but the moral support and guidance given by this post are amazing. Thanks, team!
J
Thank you so much for your comment, we appreciate your time. Keep coming back for more informative insights. You can connect with us at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
J
Thanks for mentioning website design mistakes to avoid. Do you offer website redesign services?
J
Glad you found this useful! For more such insights on your favorite topics, do check out JanBask Blogs and keep learning with us. Also, connect with us at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us to know about our website design packages.
k
Earlier I was really confused as to whether to get a new website or redesign my existing one. But this blog on website design mistakes to avoid have made me feel that a new website is not required. Doing a few things here and there can solve my problem!
J
Thank you so much for your comment, we appreciate your time. Keep coming back for more informative insights. Cheers 🙂
B
Must read blogs for those whose website design is not conversion-driven. I have got some great ideas that really inspire me.
J
Glad you found this useful! For more such insights on your favorite topics, do check out JanBask Blogs and keep learning with us! If you have any such plans to redesign your website, connect us here https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
V
In how many months can I see effective results if I follow your website design ideas? Do you have any idea?? Please let me know!
J
Hi, Thank you for reaching out to us with your query. Drop us your email id here and we will get back to you shortly! You can also directly contact us at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
A
Do you guys help in setting up a conversion-driven website for small businesses? I wanted to know because I want to hire your team for my organization as I am not familiar with the process well and will require professional help. Please let me know!
J
Hi, Thank you for reaching out to us with your query. Drop us your email id here and we will get back to you shortly! You can also directly contact us at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
R
My friend and I were seeking information on website design ideas that can increase both traffic and sales for a long time but could not find anything relevant. Then one of our colleagues shared the link to your article. I must say you have shared some effective ideas, I am impressed!
J
Thank you so much for your comment, we appreciate your time. Keep coming back for more informative insights. You can also directly contact us for a free consultation at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
A
Overall a nice blog, got ideas about the website design mistakes for greater profitability for my business. Thanks, team!
J
Thank you so much for your comment, we appreciate your time. Keep coming back for more informative insights. You can also directly contact us for a free consultation at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us
A
am new to a small business and also don’t have much idea about building my business website. Also, the team that I had hired didn’t respond well. Can your team help me with some more effective and useful marketing ideas!!
J
Hi, Thank you for reaching out to us with your query. Drop us your email id here and we will get back to you shortly! You can also directly contact us for a free consultation at https://www.janbaskdigitaldesign.com/contact-us