A website is a crucial branding and marketing tool for any small business. It is essential that you get your website design right, or you risk losing out – not only on the money you spend on developing the site, but also on the potential business that a properly functioning website offers. Below are some of the common website design mistakes you should avoid.
The Top Website Design Mistakes
1. Rushing your website
Every day that your website is offline means lost business revenue. However, the need to get your website up and running should not mean a hurriedly done job. Your aim is not to have just any website; allow for proper website planning, design, and development.
2. Lacking a clear Call-to-Action
A call-to-action prompts visitors to your website to give an immediate “response”. The action might be to subscribe, buy your product, sign up for an offer etc. Whatever the case, your call-to-action must be concise and clear to enable customers to understand.
3. Get the design right
The design is simply the look and feel of your website i.e. general layout, fonts, colors, and images. Website designs vary depending on the kind of business you engage in – and consequently, the potential audience that you are targeting. The design you choose should clearly bring out who you are as a business.
4. Lacking a website marketing strategy
A website on its own is useless – unless you incorporate it as part of your overall marketing strategy. You need to come up with a comprehensive strategy that defines how to use different tools such as the website, direct mail, email, social media, and newsletters – as well as activities such as SEO and advertising – to achieve your marketing goals.
5. Search Engine Optimization
Without SEO, it would be practically impossible for customers to find your website. It is a fact, most Internet users rely on search engines to find products/services online. The millions of search results for any given search term/phrase means that your website should appears within the top pages; this is the only way you stand a chance of being found. For this reason, you should incorporate SEO as part of your web design, and go further to carry out off-page SEO to boost search engine ranking.
6. Going for cheap
Limited resources drive many a small business to find the cheapest web design services possible. However, the adage, “cheap is expensive!” holds even in web design spheres. Cost should never be an overriding factor when designing your website; the amount of money you end up paying should not matter, provided you get a quality website.
7. Outdated content
Small businesses don’t usually have the capacity to have dedicated staff for various non-core tasks – managing a website is one such task. As a result, the content might end up being outdated. Failure to update content denies potential customers accurate information about your products/services and business.
8. Broken Links
Having links that don’t work is a sure sign of neglect. Potential customers visiting your site get frustrated and leave when they receive “404 error” messages.
9. Lacking a clear target audience
Every business has its target market. As such, your website should be designed in a way that it speaks directly to your audience/market segment.
10. Form over substance
Some businesses choose flashy website designs instead of focusing on content that gives a complete, relevant, and accurate picture of what the business and/or product is about. A flashy website design will only go as far as bringing potential customers to your homepage – after that, only the value proposition matters.