Web Design Blunders to Stay Away From

Your website says a lot about you. Chances are, your website will be the first point of contact with potential customers who have googled the product or service you are offering. Your website can also serve as an important tool to establish a relationship with your potential clients, to build trust and establish yourself as an authority in your field.

The good news is that there is a wealth of information and experience about website building and design. However, there may still be some stumbles and fumbles along the way. Some of these blunders are actually very common and can certainly be avoided.

Here are some Utah web design mistakes you can watch out for:

• Poor interface design. Good website design provides a welcoming environment for your readers. Rather than going wild with your font, backgrounds and colors, go for a simple design. Wild fonts in colorful background can be a turn off since they can be painful to read. Simple is actually easier on the eyes. You may need to experiment to see which combination of color, font and design will be most readable and which will suit your brand the best. Once you decide on the overall design, be sure to apply this design consistently across all pages. Be wary of the temptation to create a different design for a different page. Having a consistent look can actually be reassuring your readers that they are still in your website. You should also keep accessibility in mind – considering visitors that may have sight or hearing problems.
• An obscure search box. Even with a great navigation strategy, a search box can come in handy so that a visitor can get to what they are looking for with the shortest number of clicks possible. This can be information about a certain product you have or that tutorial or article in your blog. Make sure that your search box is easily found and is present at all the pages of the website.
• Too much content in one page. Do not try to squeeze as much information as you can into one page. You can organize your content into bite-sized chunks. And it can be helpful to remember that although you have taken pains into ensuring that you have your content right (grammar, spelling and clarity), most of your readers will simply make a quick scan of your page. Make sure that you make it easy for visitors to scan with clear titles, headings, sub-headings and bullet points. You can also use text formatting (i.e. italics or bold) to highlight key phrases and sentences within the text. In addition, check to see that you have a good balance between images and white space.
• Asking too much from your readers. So you have effectively drawn them through a good call to action and have gotten them thinking about signing up. Then, they are confronted with this registration form that asks too much detail (at least, from their point of view). What can make this worse is setting most of the fields as mandatory so that an unfinished form is not accepted by the system. At this point, the visitor will most likely click the exit button and there goes a potential customer.
• Forgetting to take advantage of opportunities to place a call to action. Do not allow your visitors to wander around aimlessly. Rather, lead them towards the action you want them to do. Point them towards the next page, such as a sign-up sheet for your newsletter or a registration where they provide their contact details.
• Failing to keep the website updated. If you do not feed your website with fresh content, you are not giving your visitors a reason to come back. Keep your visitors up to date with the latest about your industry, your company and your products. You can also provide them with new information and articles through your blog. This reinforces the image that you are a company that continually breaks new ground, reinvents and adapts for their customers.
• Failing to test the website. Finally, before making the website available to the public, do some extensive testing. Try opening your website from a variety of devices and browsers. How quickly did the pages load? How did the website look using certain browsers? How well does the website work for mobile devices? Are there any broken links you have to fix?

About Adaptivity Pro

Adaptivity Pro provides you with SLC web design, SEO and web-based services that provide excellent Return of Investment for your business. Adaptivity Pro is here to help you strengthen your internet presence, primarily by providing you with a well-designed website, one that stays clear of the common blunders stated above.