Introduction
There are plenty of easy mistakes to make when designing a website. Even web designers (cough, cough, me) have difficulty avoiding some of these pitfalls, and that's okay! If you find that any of these situations apply to you, don't feel bad! This list is to help you identify some common website design mistakes that make for less effective conversions. Read on to figure out which mistakes you're making and how to fix them.
Mistake #1: Cluttered Layouts
I see this mistake a lot, and have done it myself once or twice. It's easy to get so excited about designing that you do way too much at once. If you don't use whitespace and instead put too much too close in your layouts, it's going to lead to user confusion. That is, unfortunately, unavoidable. That isn't to say you need to have bland boxes and giant gaps of space, just that you need to be careful with the placement of content and images!
Make sure that you are putting in an appropriate amount of space between different elements (photos, text boxes, edges of design sections, etc.) to really allow the viewers to digest one element at a time, and to not overwhelm them.
Mistake #2: Bad Loading Speed
This is a very easy mistake to make, and sometimes it isn't even a mistake! While slow page loading speeds can be detrimental to a website, it can sometimes be due to an outside factor like your hosting provider. A few basic tips to increase your speed is to minify your code, compress your files, and to use webp and avif images. If that all sounded complicated, that's okay! There are many online services and free plugins that will handle these tasks.
Hummingbird has a free version of it's WP plugin that does most of this for you (not a sponsorship, I just like them). If you aren't on WP, you can also use free online softwares like this one to compress images.
Mistake #3: Ignoring SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a very crucial part of ensuring you get traffic to your website. A lot of people have no idea what it is or how to implement it. And that's okay, we all start there! But to be a good website designer, you have to learn about SEO.
You don't have to be an expert to do some basic SEO on your website. I wrote an article on some of the basics here, and it comes with a free checklist! If you want to get more in depth, there are plenty of resources online. I'm currently working on a more in depth SEO guide myself, which I'll hopefully remember to come back and link when it is finished. ;) And if you want continuous updates on our guides, tips, and free resources, be sure to sign up to our newsletter!
Mistake #4: Overusing Stock Photos
Stock photos are very helpful, but they shouldn't be overused. How much use is overuse usually depends on the context of the website, but here is a simple guide:
- Make sure you don't use images you've already seen somewhere on the internet before.
- Make sure you don't include to many "perfect models" in your stock, as it leads to a cold corporate feeling.
- And finally, make sure you balance your stock with your own elements, like your logos and photos, for a personal touch.
If you use too much cold feeling stock photography, the people visiting the website will eventually catch on. The main issue with this is they might worry that the business that owns the site is a scam, since they aren't seeing real proof and images relating to the business. Although stock can be very helpful since some businesses aren't able to access great photography (or may not have a lot to photograph), you want to mix in anything personal and real to the business you can to avoid this effect.
Final Thoughts
These are just a few of many common website design mistakes made throughout the internet. It's easy to fall into these patterns, so don't worry if anything in this list applied to you!
Hopefully now that you know what is holding you back, you can go fix your website or a client's and make it more effective and efficient than ever before! And if you'd like to see more on this topic, check out my previous article on this subject!
Thanks for reading!
Meagan
