Building and creating your own website can be tough. It’s even tougher when you’re relying on it to help your business succeed. “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” as they say, and this couldn’t be truer regarding the first time a user comes across your site. First impressions are important. Most users decide fairly quickly if they’re going to stay or leave your site, avoid these common web design mistakes to keep visitors scrolling to the next page.
You’re Doing Too Much
A quality web design instills trust in your potential customers. You’re guiding people to take some type of action, buy a product, join an email list, care about what you’re saying. Aesthetically, it’s your job to show users why they should trust in you and what you’re offering. Just like in your house, the less clutter the better. Your homepage is your first impression, and you want to present your information in a clean and logical way that is also catchy to the eye. It is important to have just the right amount of content that is engaging, but also not overwhelming to look at. Tips to a successful first impression are keeping it simple, staying consistent, and leaving enough white space and room between elements.
Responsiveness Matters
We all know the use of mobile devices is only growing and, due to this increasing trend, responsive website designs are must have today. Mobile responsiveness is how your website responds or is viewed when a user is browsing on a device other than a standard desktop. This could be on a mobile phone, tablet, iPad… and the list goes on. By not addressing this and choosing to forgo making your website responsive, you are alienating a huge number of possible users from fully utilizing all that your site has to offer. You want your site to look good on all devices, and for that to happen, you need to be sure the theme you’re using is responsive.
Poor Site Navigation
The menu on your site is the primary way for users to navigate through your site’s pages and find their way around. Since the menu is the central hub for users to flow through, you want to keep it simple and neat. You don’t want to have too many pages listed at the top – that just gets confusing for visitors. Only the most important and beneficial pages should be featured. Sub menus can be used to direct to other pages without having to visibly show them in the menu.
If you’re catching on, the overall theme to follow in order to avoid common web design mistakes are keeping your content straightforward and clean.
