Today, I want to share with you the top 10 biggest website design mistakes and how you can avoid making them. When you’re ready to design a website, you’re going to have to make a lot of choices around what it looks like, how it flows, as well as how it converts and how to make the user experience easy.
Throughout my career, I have seen a lot of websites. Hundreds of websites and I have built hundreds of websites myself. I’ve seen some very specific design mistakes that people make with their websites. I want to share the design mistakes to avoid.
Here are my Top 10 and we’re going to walk through some of the reasons why these things happen:
1. Move the Logo
We read left to right, the reason the logo is in that corner is because that’s where our eye starts. Our eyes start reading from left to right, if you put the logo in the middle of the page it is not going to register.
2. Phone Numbers
Don’t make me work so hard to call you and work with you. Make it super big. I like to think of it as a BIG ASS PHONE NUMBER in the top right corner of your website. Don’t make me hunt for that guy. Lack of contact information is the reason the average person searching will not take the time to look any further.
3. No Call to Action
The next biggest website design mistake is no call to action. No more than 3 things you could ever ask of anyone on any page of your website, and even that I think is generous. When you come to a website, you should be able to immediately see what’s in it for me. Download this white paper, Schedule a findability review, or Attend a workshop. There are only so many things that you can give them as calls to action.
Be very careful to not overwhelm them. A confused mind never buys. Make sure you know what is that call-to-action as it needs to be on every single page of your site.
4. Hidden Social Media
Some websites hide their social media. They hide their social media in the footer. So my recommendation is to put your social media next to your phone number. If it’s important to you, you need to put it where people are going to subscribe, like it, follow it.
5. Not Responsive
Responsive means I can look at the website on a smartphone and any other electronic device and it looks great., does the page load quickly? Over 40% of all traffic coming to Google is coming through mobile devices.
Not having a knowable mobile responsive website is a big deal to Google and it will prevent you from ranking under important keywords.
Let’s talk about the elements I just covered. I want you to look at my homepage to see every element that I just mentioned to you. Logo on the left, BAP, or the big ass phone number on the right next to my social media.
I put my picture there so people can have a glimpse who’s behind Findability University. I also make sure that there’s a call to action. The big promise is you’re in the right place, we are the best at what we do, and here’s where you start.
That long term a connection so that people start to recognize what they’re seeing here.
6. Itty Bitty Text
You have to know about what’s the average age of the visitor on your website. I work with executives, marketing directors, CEOs. They’re usually over the age of 50. So keep that in mind, make it easy to read.
7. Bad Photography
Just say no to stock photography. My recommendation is to hire a good photographer, Wedding photographers are not busy during the week so you can get them for a reasonable price. Make sure that you take good headshots of your team, and fun shots as well, anything to make it look like you’ve got it going on.
8. Color Theory
If I see navy blue white and black, one more time on a corporate website, I think I’m going to get sick. Do something completely different, set your website apart from all the others, use bright colors that make your website pop!
9. Home
When you look at Google yourself, you will see a home button, seriously no one needs a home button anymore, people don’t need to know this. Don’t give that valuable real estate away, typically people will click on the logo and they know the logo will take them home.
10. Rethink Navigation
This is where you need to observe and think outside the box to come up with new and fresh ideas. Instead of the tried and true try: Talk to an Expert, Book a Call or Let’s Chat.
Remember your website is a direct reflection of what it’s like to work with you, If you have made Website Design Mistakes Book A Call, Let’s Chat
Watch the full video here: Top 10 Biggest Website Design Mistakes