You’ve decided to create a website to promote your business or share your passion project with the world. Congratulations! Developing an online presence is a big step. But before you dive into designing your site, there are some common mistakes you’ll want to avoid.
As someone who has designed a few sites in my time, I’ve made my fair share of blunders. Learn from my experiences so you can launch a site you’ll be proud to share. The last thing you want is an unprofessional looking site that drives visitors away or fails to highlight what makes your business, product, or organisation great.
Read on to discover the top web design mistakes that can sabotage your site before the first visitor even clicks. With the right knowledge and preparation, you’ll be well on your way to developing an awesome website.
Optimising Site Speed and Performance
Optimising your website’s speed and performance is crucial these days. People have short attention spans and little patience for slow loading sites. If your site takes more than a few seconds to load, you’ll lose visitors and hurt your search rankings.
To improve site speed, compress images and reduce their file size. Scale photos to the size you need and choose file formats like PNG or JPEG over RAW. You should also minify CSS and JavaScript files by removing whitespace and comments to shrink them.
Use a content delivery network or CDN to distribute your content globally. A CDN stores copies of your files around the world so visitors download from the closest server. This speeds up load times, especially for international visitors.
Limit redirects and keep your site structure clean. The more redirects a visitor has to go through to reach content, the slower the site will be. A clear, straightforward menu and URL structure is best.
Cache static content
Caching allows you to store copies of files to serve to visitors instead of dynamically generating the content each time. Cache HTML files, images, CSS, and JavaScript to speed up repeat visits. You can cache content for a set time period before the cache expires and updates.
Choose a high-performance hosting provider with SSD storage, multiple data centres, and fast server response times. Cheaper shared hosting may be slower and less reliable. For ecommerce sites, a dedicated server is ideal.
By optimising images, caching content, choosing a CDN and reliable host, and keeping your site structure clean, you’ll have visitors staying longer and Google rewarding you in the search results. Speed and performance should be a top priority for any website owner.
Building a User-Friendly Navigation
To have visitors easily navigating your site, you need to build an intuitive user interface. That starts with a simple, straightforward menu system.
Keep it minimal
Too many options can overwhelm people and make it hard to find what they want. Stick to a single horizontal menu bar at the top with 5-8 clearly labeled links to your most important pages and sections. If needed, you can add a “More” link that expands to show secondary options.
Group items logically
Arrange your menu items in a sensible order that matches how people think about your content and offerings. For example, you might group informational pages, product categories, service types, etc. Don’t just list everything alphabetically.
Use descriptive names
Choose menu link names that clearly convey what content or features can be found on that page. “Our Products” is better than just “Products.” “Help & FAQs” is clearer than “Support.” Short but meaningful names are best.
Consistency is key
Use the same menu on every page of your site so visitors always know where to find navigation options. The links should remain in the same order and use the same wording across your entire site. This helps people quickly get accustomed to how your site is organised.
Test and refine
Once your site is live, use analytics tools to see which menu links get the most clicks. Consider reordering or renaming options if some links seem confusing or aren’t frequently used. Get feedback from real users to determine if your navigation system makes it easy to explore your site. Make changes as needed to optimise the user experience.
Building an intuitive yet powerful navigation system is an art. Follow these tips to craft a user-friendly menu that effortlessly guides visitors to the information and features they seek.
Focusing on Quality Content
Focusing on Quality Content
With website design, don’t make the mistake of focusing too much on appearance over substance. The content and information on your site are the most important elements. Even the sleekest design won’t make up for poor content.
Keep your content clear, concise, and engaging. Write in a friendly, conversational tone as if speaking to your target audience in person. Use simple words and short sentences for easy readability and comprehension. Include relevant images, graphics and videos to visually reinforce your key points and make the content more dynamic.
- Do your research to provide accurate facts and statistics. Double check that all information is up to date. Outdated or incorrect content will turn visitors away.
- Focus on benefits and solutions for your users. Explain how your product or service can positively impact them. Back up any claims with concrete examples and evidence.
- Include calls-to-action so visitors know what they should do next, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, scheduling an appointment or making a purchase. Provide clear directions for them to follow.
- Ensure good navigation and organisation. Categorise content in a logical, intuitive way so visitors can easily find what they need. Add internal links to connect related information across your site.
- Proofread carefully to catch any errors or typos before publishing your content. Double check that all links work properly. Poor quality and sloppy content reflects badly on you and your business.
By focusing on providing valuable, high-quality content, you’ll give visitors a reason to stay on your site, engage with your message, and ultimately convert into customers. Content is king, so make it the top priority in your website design.
Conclusion
You’ve just learned about the biggest mistakes that can ruin your custom website design services uk and turn off visitors. Now that you know what not to do, you can create an awesome website that ranks well and converts visitors into customers or subscribers. Focus on clean design, easy navigation, high-quality images, and content that solves problems.
Keep your site mobile-friendly, fast loading, and with a consistent brand. If you avoid these common errors and put the user experience first, you’ll end up with a website you can be proud of. Building a great website does take work, but it’s worth the effort to create something that achieves your goals and makes a good impression.
With the right design and content strategy, your website can be an incredible asset for your business or personal brand. Now get to work crafting a site that turns heads and achieves results! You’ve got this.