One way to improve your existing website, or design your new one properly, is to look at the common mistakes that businesses make. In fact avoiding the mistakes on this list is more important than any other design consideration.
Before we look at the mistakes, what makes a good website? Is it a stunning visual experience and fantastic design? No. Is it cutting edge features and cool interactivity? No, it’s not that either. According to research, 76 percent of people think good websites make it easy to find what they are looking for.
With that unambiguous figure in mind, here are the top 8 mistakes that businesses make with their website.
Mistake 1 – Designing Something You Like
Yep, this one sounds strange. Why, after all, would you get a website designed that you don’t like?
This comes down to priorities, and your top priority should be user experience. It doesn’t matter how much you like any of the features on your website: if they don’t make it easier for your visitors to find the information that they are looking for, you shouldn’t have them.
Always design your website for your users, not for you.
Mistake 2 – Talking About Your Business
We’re two-from-two here, as this one also sounds strange. Of course you want to talk about your business, products and services on your website, right?
You shouldn’t. Visitors arrive on your website with a problem. They might be looking for a product, a price, information, a solution, or something else. They are not interested in you or your products – they are interested in their problem.
That means you should tailor your text so that it demonstrates that you understand the problem, and that you have the solution.
Let’s say you are an accountant. You could have a headline on your tax page that says:
Professional Personal Tax, Business Tax, Corporate Tax And VAT Services. Cost Effective And Efficient.
That sounds strong and describes what an accounting business does, but it is not written from the viewpoint of the visitor.
A better headline would be:
Are You Paying Too Much Tax? File Your Returns On Time And For The Right Amount. And Save Money On Fees In The Process.
Tell your visitors how you can solve their problems rather than what your business does.
Mistake 3 – Putting Too Much On The Homepage
Many websites put so much information on the homepage of their websites that it is overwhelming and confusing for a visitor. You don’t need to list all your products or services, and you definitely don’t need lists of all the towns and counties that you serve.
Instead your homepage should include helpful information that is comprehensive but succinct, and it should lead naturally and intuitively to the other pages of your website.
Mistake 4 – Not Putting Enough On Other Pages
Ironically most websites that have too much content on the homepage have too little on the internal pages. You don’t want too much content but it should be enough to answer the main question of your visitors – can your business solve their problem.
You are unlikely to do this in two or three sentences, so flesh out the internal pages a bit.
Mistake 5 – Using Sliders
Sliders are a common feature of many websites, but they are awful. Rather than improving the user experience of your website, they actually detract from it. Here’s why:
- They slow down your website
- They are distracting
- They force the user to scroll in order to access the content they really want to see
There is a simple solution – get rid of the sliders on your website.
Mistake 6 – Using Stock Photos
Stock photos and supplier images do have a place on websites and can be useful, but they are no substitute for actual images of you, your business and your team. Take the commonly used customer service image of a model wearing a telephone headset in a staged office environment. This looks okay, but your visitors would much rather see the real people that are answering your phones.
Mistake 7 – Not Including Calls To Action
You have a website for a reason. That reason could be to get visitors to make a purchase, to fill out an enquiry form, to visit your business location, or to give you call. Whatever your objective, make sure you asks visitors to do it – clearly and directly.
Using the example of the accountants mentioned earlier, you could include the following sentence on your homepage or services page:
To find out how much you can save in tax, and to arrange a free consultation, give us a call today.
Mistake 8 – Designing For Desktop Only
The final mistake is another example of businesses and website designers failing to think about the user of the website. Do you know what devices your websites visitors use? Google Analytics will tell you, plus you can ask people directly. If a large percentage of your users access your website on mobile (which is more common than you might think) then you should get the design of the mobile version of your website right before you think about the desktop version.
Even if desktop devices are more popular among your visitors you should still have a well designed mobile option.
Website design for small and medium sized businesses is like all other forms of marketing – to get it right you have to think about your potential customers and design it for them. Avoiding the mistakes on this list will help you achieve that goal.
