I have been running my business for over 5 years now and I have made almost every common website mistake that could possibly be made. And let me tell you, if you are making any of these mistakes on your website… you are going to lose! BIG TIME!
When you make these common mistakes, your site fails to convert, your traffic drops, and you lose potential sales.
No matter how beautiful your website is, or how amazing your services are, if it doesn’t drive people to buy, it won’t earn you a dime.
Most businesses that rely on selling products or services are aware of the importance of having a well-designed website. They know that a professional website design can add a huge amount of credibility to a company.
However, what many people do not realize is that a poorly designed website can actually kill their sales.
In this article, I am going to share with you 8 common website mistakes that will send visitors running and how you can fix them for a better conversion rate.
1. Bad Design
One of the biggest mistakes businesses make when they launch a new website is not properly preparing for the design and functionality of the site.
The first thing your visitors notice when they land on your website is the design and layout. If it looks amateurish, disorganized, and confusing to navigate, it will negatively affect your chances of converting those site visitors into potential clients.
The second thing they notice is the content. If it’s hard to read, and doesn’t provide a lot of useful information or value for your visitors, it can also send them running.
They will do a very quick scan to see if the information will be relevant to them or not and then make a decision to read more or leave. You need to make sure that your content is easy to read, easy to navigate, and includes all the information your audience needs.
Quick Tip:
People tend to become inundated with sensory overload when there is too much happening on the same page so be sure to tone it down and create a more simplistic layout so that people can focus and enjoy your content.
2. Not Using CTAs
The problem is that many websites don’t have a clear call to action (CTA). A call to action is a specific button or link you include on your website to guide users through your customer journey. By including a CTA, you’re essentially guiding people through your website.
When creating a call-to-action, you have to ensure that visitors know what action you want them to take when they arrive on your website. They need a very simple and straightforward path to follow so that it’s easy for them to take the next step.
A great example of an effective call-to-action is, ‘Sign up for our newsletter’ or ‘book a call to get started’. When a user sees this on your site, they know what to do and when to do it.
A call to action is the key to a great conversion. Without one, your visitors simply won’t take any action to convert.
3. Inconsistent Branding
Inconsistent branding is one of the most common website mistakes that are used to kill sales. When visitors see inconsistent branding throughout a website, it causes them to lose trust in your brand and your company, which will affect the conversion rate.
It’s important that a brand has consistency throughout its website. If not, your company’s website will seem disorganized, which could cause visitors to lose interest and ultimately drive them away.
Both images and color schemes should be cohesive. From page to page, vary the images and content but not the color scheme to provide continuity. Too many styles mixed together give a schizophrenic feel to the entire site and viewers can become easily distracted.
QUICK TIP:
Creativity does make your site unique, but too much of it and everything becomes a disaster. Keeping everything at its simplest level works best.
4. Poor Navigation
Navigation is one of the most important things when it comes to building a website. Poor navigation can quickly kill your bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who visit your site and leave immediately)
In fact, the average website loses nearly 10% of its traffic because of poor navigation. This means that you are losing potential customers and reducing the likelihood that they will make a purchase in the future.
If a user is confused or overwhelmed by your website design or navigation structure, it’s a huge turnoff. You need to make sure that the user is able to find exactly what they’re looking for quickly.
Around 61% of users will not return to a website that’s hard to navigate and 40% visit a competitor’s site instead.
An intuitive, well-designed navigation can help visitors find what they need and make your site accessible to everyone. It should a clear and organized menu that is easy to follow.
5. Poor Typography
Poor typography can lead to visitors giving up and leaving your site before they even realize what you have to offer. The worst part about this design mistake is that it’s easy to avoid with a little attention to detail.
In order to keep your readers engaged, you want to make sure they can read your content easily. When viewers have a hard time reading your content, they will most likely take their business elsewhere.
Typography is one of the most important elements of your website’s design, and it’s important to understand the basics.
Some tips for using fonts:
- Readability is the key so make sure that they’re all legible.
- Only use 2-3 different font types (heading, subheading, and body).
- Be sure to use the fonts are consistent across your entire website.
6. Not Mobile-Friendly
As I’ve mentioned above, when it comes to your website, the first impression is important. A good website is one that that looks great, is easy to navigate and is responsive. Meaning that it should work well on all devices, including desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones.
If your website is not responsive, it won’t look good or load properly on all devices. This is frustrating and irritating for your visitors.
Users on a mobile device are more likely to leave your website than those browsing it on a computer. A recent study found that if a website isn’t mobile-friendly, users will leave the site within 8 seconds of landing.
If your website isn’t responsive, the number of people who will visit your site on mobile devices will plummet and your conversion rates will plummet as well.
Statistics:
57% of internet users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website on mobile.
85% of adults think that a company’s website when viewed on a mobile device should be as good or better than its desktop website.
Nearly 8 in 10 customers would stop engaging with content that doesn’t display well on their device.
83% of mobile users say that a seamless experience across all devices is very important.
48% of users say they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that’s not mobile-friendly.
50% of people said that even if they like a business, they will use them less often if the website isn’t mobile-friendly.
7. Poor User Experience (UX)
A poor user experience happens when you make a visitor’s interaction with your site annoying, slow, or painful. The result is a frustrating experience and is what will keep your customers from converting, moving on or simply never coming back again.
If your website doesn’t feel and look like a professional, easy-to-use resource, then it’s not likely to perform well with visitors, much less generate leads and sales.
It’s important to note that while your website should be visually appealing, you want your site to load quickly and be easy to navigate through the pages.
When it comes to load time, less is better! While some business owners want to add a bunch of special effects and extra features to their website, they forget that these features will add to the load time and slow down the site. If your website takes too long to load, people will leave.
Free Tools:
Here’s a free tool from Google to check the speed of your website’s pages, so that you can diagnose any potential loading issues.
And here’s a great tool for optimizing the size of images with large file sizes.
8. Lack of Content
Most people are aware of the importance of content in their websites, but how many of them actually implement it properly? Without good content, a website will have a hard time drawing attention from visitors.
Having content isn’t a necessarily a matter of having enough content on your website. Rather, it’s a matter of make sure that your website has quality content geared towards the specific needs of your target audience.
This means that you should take the time to research the specific needs of your target audience and write content accordingly.
In short, your website isn’t going to convert traffic if you don’t have enough content that’s compelling enough to persuade them to choose your brand over your competitors.
If you have a business with a blog, social media, or a web presence, you have a huge opportunity to use your website to drive sales. The more content you have, the more chances there are of driving sales and converting visitors into customers.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Launching a website is the first big step you have to take if you want your business to succeed. But most businesses don’t have the time or the expertise to do it right and end up making some (or all) of these mistakes.
To get your website visitors to stay on your site, you need to understand their needs and wants, their expectations, and what they’re looking for.
You need to make sure your website is mobile-friendly, optimized for conversion, and contains the proper content and navigation for your audience. There are many things to consider when designing a great website and it’s not as easy as you might think. To create an irresistible website, you need to understand the basic principles of design and be able to implement them into your website.
When you combine a great content marketing strategy with a stunning, effective website design, you create an experience for your visitors. To do this effectively, you need to create a set of website goals that answer some basic questions such as these:
1. Who are your website visitors?
2. What do they want from your website?
3. How does your website help them achieve their goals?
The answers to these questions will help you create content that aligns with the needs and wants of your site visitors and the end result is that you’ll be able to attract more website visitors, keep them on your site longer, and convert more of them into clients.
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