One of the most important investments a business can make is in its website but there are 7 website design mistakes that can hurt conversion. Websites are a huge first impression for many potential customers and can make or break their decision to support your business. If you are struggling to build your website or looking for ways to improve, continue reading for 7 website design mistakes to avoid during the process!
It takes just 50 milliseconds — one-twentieth of a second — for a website visitor to decide whether to stay on your website. That’s a short time to make a good impression, so it’s important to get things right immediately.
For business owners aiming to boost their online conversions, this information is helpful for website creation. Whether you are designing your site, using a website builder or engaging the services of a professional website developer, it’s vital to optimize the customer experience. Here are seven website design mistakes that can badly hurt conversion and what you should do to remedy them.
Design mistakes that hurt conversion
Make sure to avoid these costly pitfalls when you’re designing your business’s website:
Missing or unclear call-to-action buttons
Consumers should have a clear idea of what your website is about, what you’re offering them and where they should go to follow your lead. Ask yourself what you want your visitors to do. For example:
- Are you an influencer, a marketer or a product developer?
- Do you need visitors to follow your social media sites?
- Should they share your article or infographic?
- Do you need them to leave a comment and spark a discussion?
- Are you engaging them to buy a product or sign up for updates on an upcoming webinar?
- Are you engaging them to subscribe to your emails and eventually recognize you as an expert in your field?
A snappy, beautiful and functional web design is great, but without a prominent call to action, you merely impress your users with prose and aesthetics — and fail to guide them toward what you want them to do.
A prominent call-to-action (CTA) button clearly tells website visitors what you want of them. Make sure to size and position your CTA button so it’s hard to overlook.
Poor website loading speed
Most consumers expect a webpage to load quickly, with 53 percent of online shoppers thinking it should take three seconds or less to load, according to a Digital.com survey, and half of consumers abandoning their cart if they have to wait longer. These statistics are important indicators that poor website loading speed can be disastrous for your business and should be avoided.
Hosting plays a role in your website’s loading speed. If you’re on a shared hosting plan, when another website on the same server experiences a huge spike in traffic, it can hog loading speed for all the other sites. This would not bode well for owners on the shorter end of the stick.
If you need help figuring out the best host for your website, this review of the top hosting providers may interest you. Other factors that contribute to poor loading speed include the amount of media on your site, image sizes, video quality, the number of plugins, and the scripts you use, such as JavaScript.
Opting for a reliable hosting plan is, therefore, a good strategy, and so are resizing and compressing your images.
Bad stock images
Not too long ago, stock images were the norm, especially for professional websites. Lately, however, stock images have been getting a bad rap for appearing cheesy.
The main limitation with free stock images is that you risk having your website contain the same images as another one. If using your own photos is not an option, consider alternative sources with modern, professional and offbeat images. Better yet, make those stock photos your own, as long as modification is allowed on your chosen images.
Image quality can also affect conversions. There are many online tools for improving the quality of your images. For example, Canva has an integrated tool for resizing and manipulating images according to its intended use.
Confusing site navigation
You can’t have poor site navigation if you’re aiming for conversions. Categories should be organized, readable and clickable. Category labels should be specific and easily understood by site users. Links should work properly, and web design conventions should be followed.
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Original article published on business.com
