The Most Common Web Design Mistakes Small Scale Businesses Make

A distinct, unique and alluring website isn’t an option that we have. Having a poor site causes the businesses to lose their customers, and that is money out of the door. Unfortunately, this happens with an alarming frequency. Many small scale business owners design their very own websites to their save money and have more control over the project. Unfortunately, sometimes they don’t honestly comprehend the concepts of a good web design, leading to a website that is less than ideal.

Web design, at its very essence, is a form of art. And like any other art, web design looks to give its viewers an experience. Web design is meant to combine form and function in a way that makes a website quite enjoyable, navigable, interesting and usable. To achieve this, there are certain spoken as well as unspoken “rules” that web designers ought to follow. Often-times, people don’t follow these rules, and that’s when the websites like these happen

Don’t be that sort of website. Speaking from experience, I can say that these are the most common mistakes that web designers often commit.

1. Too Much Already Going On

Portray and display the pertinent business information right away on your website. Visitors who cannot comprehend what your site is about within just a few seconds of arriving or reaching on your site will leave. While that’s very important to keep in mind, it often leads the small scale business owners to cram and mug-up too much above the fold. Not only is the fold a myth but also a crowded website is never a good thing. Websites with tons of images, text, and other sorts of things going on will take a while to load, and they’ll often times confuse your visitors. Avoid busy designs like the plague.

2. Too Little Going On

Websites who have next to nothing on them are on the other end of the spectrum. Minimalism in design is a great trend which is followed currently, and it works when it is done in the right manner or is done correctly. Some of the small business websites are overly cryptic and leave too much to the imagination. That’s another big mistake which gets committed. Your visitors want to know who you are or what your business will do for them. Relying too much on the simple imagery with no clear direction can leave your visitors guessing, and that’s not a great thing.

3. Too Confusing

Somewhere in the midst of the too much/too little spectrum which lies the dreaded “confused brand” website. The confused website is one which features a variety of typefaces, images, color palettes, and themes, none of which can relate to each other. This happens or occurs for a number of reasons. It can often happen when you don’t have an good idea of your brand image. You can quite easily fall into this trap when you like too many design templates and want to use all of them at once. It can also occur when you’re trying to convey too many ideas at once and view your site as individual components rather than being holistic. When you are designing a website, choose one theme, one logo, and one typeface, and then stay with them across all other aspects of your website.

4. A Terrible CTA

Your CTA is the very gateway to your business. It commands your visitors to do something: Click here! Get a coupon! Learn more about this product! Of course, it’s very significant and important that your CTA clearly tells the visitors what they need to do. There should be enough information that the visitors know what they’re going to get from taking an action and what information they need to provide. On another hand, there’s a very fine line between being helpful and being vexing or annoying. Make sure your CTA is very concise and tells customers exactly what to do. Keep form-filling to the minimum, and give them a few minutes on your page before the CTA shows up.

5. Poor or improper Use of the Content and Whitespace

Content is an essential part of your website and the marketing campaign. Content is what tells the readers about your business and the products or the services that you offer. Pay a careful attention and heed to the fonts you choose and how the content is laid out on the webpage.

Typeface conveys your brand image in addition to the actual words that you write, so you should ensure that you pick a legible and compelling and attractive font. Make good use of the white space that you need to bring the eye around your site and make large block of text less scary and intimidating. Incorporating and inculcating too much text into their websites is a big mistake many people often times commit. Break text up where you can, and try using visual elements to represent and portray concepts where it is possible. Content should always be updated; otherwise, customers might think or comprehend you’ve gone out of business.

6. Ugly or Irrelevant Images

Photos and graphics are also a very important and integral part of the web design. Images can convey complex thoughts quickly and hastily without having to physically read the text. This being said, many of the businesses inexplicably use irrelevant images or low-quality images. Images that are not of the highest quality will muck up your website and turn off the visitors. Likewise, irrelevant images will only perplex and confuse your readers, making them wonder what you’re trying to convey to people.

7. Hidden and concealed Navigation

Navigability issues will kill your website’s popularity quickly and fast. We live in an era where everything is delivered to us within an instant, and anything longer will make people leave or abandon your website. Making your navigation menu hard to find is one very common web design mistake. Have you ever visited a website and you can’t find the menu or the search bar? It’s very infuriating, isn’t it? Make sure the navigational aspects of your website are very easily understood and comprehended and is even easier to notice.

Thank you for reading this blog! I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!