Every web design involves a lot of investment of time, money and effort. However, not all web designs will reap the right results. The problem with web designs that don’t obtain satisfactory results is that most of the essential elements are often overlooked when creating a website page. The homepage is where most of these mistakes take a toll on a website conversion.
But the thing is that web design elements help to guide or navigate a user across a site. So even the slightest web design mistake can affect the SEO and marketing strategy of an online business. Let’s take a look into what those missing elements are, understand their importance and implement them wherever you have missed them out –
8 Common Web Design Mistakes in your Website Home Page
1 – A Cluttered Home Page
That’s the first thing you would have to avoid. The home page is not the place where you stick every bill like on a notice board. Of course, you would want to grab the fastest way out to draw your visitors’ attention but here’s a secret – less is more.
Stick to only the essential elements on the home page, while trying to make an impression with a good theme. Do not use too many font styles and images. Stick to only one or two font styles.
2 – Frustrating Navigational Links
Organizing the navigational links of your website demand a lot of logical and intuitive decisions. You don’t just like pages but make sure that every information you provide is arranged in a hierarchical order so that your readers find the right information at the right time. I call this the mind mapping navigation where you direct your visitors which information to click on and when.
However, navigational links should not be too flashy. Use simple fonts to match your textual description. Also, it’s better to stay away from adding sounds and images to the navigational links. Do not forget to maintain the clarity all throughout your website’s navigational structure and style.
3 – Contents that Don’t Converse
There’s a lot of difference between a website with a good content and a site with a good content structure. A site with a good content might not consist of a heading, sub-heading, paragraph, keywords, bullet or even an appropriate page title – important elements that make a website content SEO friendly and viewer friendly. Unfortunately, some designers decide to look over this issue.
Apart from that, most websites do not update their content. An updated content does not mean replacing the old content with new content. It also means correcting any previous mistakes in the content. Also, make sure that there is sufficient white space visible between the paragraphs of your content and the images.
4 – Bad Call to Actions
A wrong Call-to-Action button will fail to fulfill your business goal. After all, it’s the gateway of converting your visitors into customers. But most often, the Call-to-Action button is seen hidden down the web page. Also, there are home pages that have more than one CTA buttons, and these confuse the visitors.
CTA buttons are not meant to get your visitors confused. They should be visible on the homepage and easy to make your customer say yes. An ideal place where the CTA buttons could be placed is either on the top of the page or somewhere in the middle. You can in fact place on CTA button right at the top followed by another in the middle. Putting a second CTA button in the middle is a way to recapture your visitor’s attention in case if they forget.
5 – Insufficient Negative Space
Negative space is good when it comes to website design. They leave plenty of room for the eyes to navigate comfortably across the website. You can, in fact, use the power of the negative space to guide the visitor’s eye to the most important elements of a website. So don’t hesitate to leave negative space on the website when you are designing one.
6- Automatic Background Music
If you are creating a business related website, then music is nothing but a distraction. You can apply music for gaming website designs because it could be relatable. But if you are designing a business website, it’s best to keep a website as simplistic as possible, lest you don’t want people to feel distracted by the music as soon as they arrive.
7 – Missing Social Sharing Options
Social sites are the next search engine platforms where you can engage more target customers. It is an inevitable element that you just cannot ignore. Adding a social share button will allow people to share relevant information within their friend circle. As a business owner, this will help you reach out more and more target audience. So why not make the best use of this possibility?
Best places to add social share buttons on the website – all important places where you would want your target customers to take the required Call-to-Action. Be sure to add social share buttons at all the relevant places on the home page.
8- Poor Readability
Some websites have complicated font styles and sizes that make reading painful for visitors and customers. A website should be user-friendly, and for which, you would also have to make sure that it is readable and comprehensible.
Try using sans serif typeface for better readability on screen. Also, make sure that the background color perfectly contrasts with the font color that you are going to apply. If you are choosing a white font color, then go for dark hued colors like black or blue. Check your color palette before application.
The success of a website depends on a lot of its design and presentation. Also, it is the first building block to gaining trust. Hopefully, the list mentioned above can now help you to keep a check of the most common blunders that are found in webs designs. At the same time, if you are planning on experimenting with something new, don’t hesitate to.
So Can You Now Avoid Making Web Design Blunders?
You can always consult with a website design expert in that case or run an A/B split test to check out whether your new attempt is working or not. If it works well and if not, keep on experimenting, and you will discover a solution for your requirement.
Image Courtesy: Pixabay.com
