Designing one’s first website can be very difficult, especially if one is new to web design. In order to ensure that one’s website is easy to use, visually pleasing, and appropriate, one must read guides, research, and potentially attend online courses. Designing the perfect website isn’t impossible and can be achieved by anybody, but it requires a lot of preparation and study.
If your website is fraught with errors and mistakes, visitors won’t take it seriously. This article will tell you which mistakes you should avoid when you are designing your website:
Doing It Alone
One of the biggest mistakes people make when they are designing their website is trying to do it all alone. If you don’t have relevant experience and don’t have the time to take a course, you should ask for help. It’s easier and potentially cheaper to hire a web design company, instead of spending months learning to design a website. By hiring a web design company, you will be able to get your website live in a matter of weeks. This is very good if you are starting a business and will be selling products or services online.
Excess Content
Another mistake commonly made is creating a website with too much content. When there’s too much going on, visitors won’t be able to focus or understand what your website’s purpose is. Most people will leave a website after only a few seconds if they can’t understand what it’s about. Keep your website simple, straightforward, and avoid complicating things by including too much content. Limit the number of pictures, text, and videos that you include on each page. A minimalist approach will help you to maximise visitors. Make sure the content that you do include is punchy, effective, and to the point.
Not Enough Content
You shouldn’t only avoid excess content; you should also avoid too little content! A minimalist approach doesn’t mean that your website should be bare. You should include engaging, interactive, and interesting content that’s sure to intrigue visitors. A website that doesn’t have enough content will appear cryptic to visitors, which isn’t good if you’re trying to make sales. A common mistake made by many first-time web designers is just including photographs and no text. When you do this, your visitors won’t have a clear picture of what your website is about. Make sure to include descriptive text in addition to images, to convey your website’s message.
Confusing Visitors
A common mistake made by web designers is creating confusing and misleading content. If your website features multiple typefaces, colour palettes, and themes that don’t relate to one another, then you will overload and confuse your visitors. This will inevitably lead to them leaving your website. The primary reason that this happens is a lack of brand image. If you don’t have a proper brand image then it’s understandable that you won’t be able to design your website properly. Make sure that you sit down and take time to work out what you want from your brand and what your message is so that you can convey this to your visitors clearly.
Poor Content
Your website needs to have the highest quality content possible. The best way to do this is to hire a content writer. It can be difficult to plan, write, and manage content when you are running a business. A content writer will be able to handle all of your website’s written content, while you focus on more important things. You can also hire content creators to create images, videos, and other content for your website. Make sure that you invest money into high-quality content. If your website’s content isn’t up to scratch, visitors will lose interest and may not take you seriously.
Not Optimising
If you don’t optimise your website for SEO when you are designing it, you won’t be able to increase your rankings on the search listings. Optimising your website is very important. Search engine optimisation is the internet’s biggest [and most effective] marketing technique. However, even if you don’t optimise your website at the beginning, you can still employ an SEO team to handle your website’s optimisation for you afterwards. It is best to optimise your website from the beginning though, because it will save you time and money later on.
Irrelevant Images
Another important thing to avoid is irrelevant images. If you include images that aren’t pertinent to your website’s message, you will confuse and distract visitors. Images can convey important messages when used correctly, but when misused they can be very damaging to your website. It’s also important to avoid images with a low resolution. It’s 2021, so there’s no longer an excuse for using a low resolution, grainy images. There are myriad websites offering free, HD images. Make sure to check that an image isn’t copyrighted before using it, in case you get a copyright strike or sued.
Navigation
The most important thing to think about when you are designing your website is navigation. If your website isn’t easy to navigate, then visitors will leave immediately. You need to make everything clear and immediately available. Offer a search function also. Websites without search functions can be a chore to use. Visitors who are looking for a specific item or page will be very irritated if you don’t give them the option to search for it. Make sure to also include a navigation menu, where visitors can find every single page and category on your website.
Contact Information
Finally, you need to make sure that your contact information is clearly displayed. If customers or visitors can’t get hold of you, you could lose out on business. Make sure to have a number, email, and live chat function available. Live chat can answer any queries customers have that don’t require a phone call or email. You can implement chatbots to answer these questions. If you have a large business, then you can also employ customer service staff to answer chats.
If you follow this article’s advice, you should be able to design a website that’s quality, engaging, and well made. If you doubt your abilities, then don’t hesitate in hiring a web design company to manage your website’s design for you; they will be able to sort everything out for you hassle-free.
