Websites can do miracles to your business. It can help potential clients find you on the web and boost your sales. Unfortunately, not every site works. Website design blunders may drive your customers away or give a negative impression of your company. A poorly designed website may suggest the quality of services and products that you offer. Here are some of the common website design mistakes that many companies should avoid.
Failure to Make the Website Mobile-friendly
Over 40 percent of internet searches are now made on mobile phones and tablets, so having a website that displays properly on these devices is important. If your site does not provide a mobile-friendly experience in a place like Mountain Home, Arkansas, make sure to ask a website design service to fix this as soon as possible.
You likely have potential customers out there who would be searching for your products or services using their smartphone, and you may lose them with this web design flaw. According to the Google Mobile Playbook, 40 percent of users go to a competitor’s website following a poor mobile experience. Nearly 60 percent of users also say they would not recommend a business with poorly designed mobile sites.
Hard to Find Information
Websites are meant to provide customers with basic information about the company, products and related details. But many sites make these core information challenging to locate. Make sure the homepage has easily visible links to things such as the store hours, address with directions, return policies, FAQs, contact information and shipping details. A search bar should also be placed near the header of the site to make it easier for users to find particular information on your site.
Slow Loading Pages
How quickly does your website page load? If it takes more than a few seconds before your site completely loads, there is a strong possibility that users will click the back button on their browser, where they will likely land on your competitor’s site. See to it that your site is fast enough users can easily find and read the content they need.
Forty-seven percent of people expect web pages to load in two seconds or less, so make sure your site has comparable loading speed. If not, a redesign may be needed. You may want to do away with too many images and flash animation to improve your site’s speed.
Placing Social Media Icons at the Top of Your Site
People will leave your site immediately if the first thing they do is click the social media icons on your website. Do not encourage this distraction. Place these icons elsewhere on the website but the top.
Using Very Small Fonts
It’s difficult to read contents of a website that are too small, so make sure the texts on your site are reader-friendly. The body text needs to be above 14px, and all body copy should be in a Sans Serif font, so it is compatible across a range of devices. If you squint whenever you read the text of your website on a mobile device, it’s time to update the fonts you use.