4 Web Design Mistakes Small Business Owners Make
Daniel Flynn
-Managing Your Digital Information eBook
-Run Your Free Business Report
Obviously, the ultimate web design mistake a business owner can make when it comes to his or her website is not having one at all. However, design aspects and layouts greatly influence the experience a user has on your site.
As explained throughout our blog, web design is very important to the modern consumer. In order to capture the attention of a visitor to your website, your design and the overall flow of your website needs to be on point.
Unfortunately, many business owners do not know their way around a website. Therefore, it makes sense, in most cases, to outsource your web design needs to a reputable agency. Nevertheless, there are some common web design mistakes that we see when we first come across the websites of our prospective clients.
I ask that you take a look at this list and think, truthfully, to yourself about how you may surpass these common pitfalls and optimize you website for conversions. After all, your website is your online storefront. You should take pride in it.
Here are 4 common web design mistakes that small business owner make.
1. You are choosing the wrong fonts and colors
The font of your website copy should be professional. However, you do not want it to be boring. While you can deviate from the traditional Times New Roman or Arial fonts, you do not want to use a font that cannot be easily scanned by a reader.
Therefore, you should stay clear of curvy or cursive fonts.
As for your font colors, some colors are harder to read than others. White, black, and grey fonts are timeless for a reason. They are readable as long as the copy is in a font color that has a sharp contrast to its background color. With that being said, colored bright colored backgrounds should have an opacity overlay that makes them look transparent, making them softer on the eyes of your website’s visitors.
Use font colors that are not in the black, white, or grey sparingly. In most cases, you should reserve colored fonts for headings or titles.
Pro Tip: Make sure that your fonts and colors are consistent. Although you may feel that the differences between shades of a color do not matter, the human eye sees patterns and picks up on inconsistencies. In addition, you want your brand to be unified in its design, communications, and practices.
2. You do not have any calls-to-action
You know what’s nearly as bad as not having a website? Not having any calls-to-action on your website. If you don’t give your website’s visitors the avenues to take next steps, then why have them on your website in the first place?
Place calls-to-action on your website that spark the curiosity of your website’s visitors, influencing them to act.
Possible calls-to-action include:
- Call Now (click-to-call)
- Order Now
- Schedule An Appointment
- Place An Inquiry
- Download [eBook, Case Study, Recipe, Guide, Map] – the possibilities are endless
Nevertheless, the main goal of a call-to-action is to incentivize a visitor to your website to carry out some action. Without them, your site serves ZERO conversion value to your business.
3. Your layout is clunky and outdated
The new standard for web design is an open layout that is inviting and in no way clunky. If your website looks like it was built 10 years ago then odds are that you need an update. However, the capability of your website’s design greatly depends on the theme and/or builder that you use (unless you custom-build your website).
Outdated design trends include:
- Sidebars with tons of stuff on them
- ‘Cheesy’ sliders
- Infinite scrolling
However, you can open up your web design layout with interactive elements.
- Add hover elements to your buttons so that they change color when somebody hovers over them
- Have images transition onto the screen as a user scrolls down a page
- Use video backgrounds to bring your website to life
4. Your Website Is Not Mobile-Optimized
If we have not hit this point home hard enough by now, then here it is again: everything you do online needs to be mobile-optimized, especially your website. Go to your website on your mobile phone right now.
How does it look? Are the proportions of your content fitting correctly within your screen?
If not, then before you doing anything else on your website, you need to make sure that it looks great on mobile.
Related Resources
How We Can Help
Our web design services cater directly to small businesses and follow modern best practices. We have a team of web design and development experts here right in our office, ready to service your business. We’ll work with your existing site or build you a new one.
To learn more, visit our webpage. For more articles on digital marketing, visit our blog.
Next Step?
The worst action is inaction! Our team is ready to find your next big move. Over 20 years of experience means we have the tools to get it done in your local market.
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