Our Blog

5 Web Design Mistakes You Should Avoid in 2021

Suffice to say, if you have a website that looks good and functions well, you’ll see the results. The number of people who visit your site will increase and the traffic you get will be better than before. The whole idea of building your brand and company extends to your website, which is why you need a customer-focused website.

The web design industry is always changing, and so are the design trends. We compiled a list of common web design mistakes you must avoid in 2021 to create an effective user experience and captivate the right audience.

Your website is slow.

Performance is at the core of every business that needs to be successful online. Your site is the face of your business, so you need to ensure that it functions. If people can’t access information quickly and easily, they will leave your website and perhaps never come back.

And that’s why you need to make sure your site loads quickly. There are some simple steps you can take – from reducing your file size and using a responsive design to including clear calls to action in your site map and using caching plugins – to make the most of every second that your users spend on your site.

Testing and implementing design updates to your website are good ideas. After all, you don’t want to put out a product with errors, do you? Not only will updates create stronger security for your business, but it will also help increase user experience.

Your website design isn’t responsive.

Responsive design’s goal is to have a website that is accessible across devices. Touchscreens, desktops, tablets, and even game consoles are all very different when it comes to web browsing. No matter what kind of device your customers use, responsive design ensures that they can have an optimal experience on your website.

Google has long emphasised the importance of a mobile-friendly user experience and in April 2015, they announced that mobile-friendly sites would have a ranking advantage over non-friendly sites. 

By October 2017, Google announced that they would go even further and the entire website’s indexing would be based upon the mobile version of a site if it is different from its desktop version.

Needless to say, your website would have a harder time ranking in search engine results pages if it isn’t responsive.

You don’t have a clear call to action.

A visitor needs to come away with a fairly clear idea of what they’ll learn from your site, or that your company is the best choice for a specific need. A clear call to action (CTA) accomplishes that goal. It also should pull at shoppers’ emotions to get them to that next step.

What happens if your CTA is not clear or informative enough? It clearly tells visitors what they need to do, but they aren’t sure what they are getting from it. Or vice versa — your CTA gives visitors too many options and overwhelms them with information that they get confused and abandon the page.

Your website navigation is confusing.

Navigation and accessibility issues can lead to a decrease in search traffic. If a visitor cannot find the navigation on your site, they will most likely give up looking for it and leave your website.

This results in a loss of potential traffic, leads, and sales. When people come to your website, they want to quickly navigate around it so that they can see what you have to offer.

Organising your pages into navigational categories is one thing, but arranging them sensibly is even more important. This brings us to our next point – avoid stuffing all your pages under a category only for the sake of it.

For example, don’t create a ‘Products’ category with subsections for computers, printers, etc. Arrange categories hierarchically by using sections and sub-sections if they are functionally necessary.

Your website design is too cluttered.

At all times, we should keep a balance when it comes to providing information to our visitors. Information overload is one of the most common mistakes made by a lot of businesses online while trying to deliver information relevant to their products or services.

The solution is to provide just enough and no more. Do they need a slider, animations, pop-ups, a newsletter subscription, and interactive content all at once? Of course not. These just get in the way of what your users want.

Your homepage is the perfect place to keep your customers engaged. Make it easy for visitors to understand the major aspects of your company with just a single glance. They’ll know who you are and what you do in the first few seconds they see your website.

Conclusion

Good web design can make your website stand out from the competition. It can even help you get more clicks, leads, and customers. But when poor design is used, it can make your website confusing or unappealing — without giving off that great first impression you need. 

The common design mistakes we discussed in this post should be avoided to ensure a good first impression for those visiting your site.

Need help updating your website design? Cornerstone Digital is a website design agency in Sydney that can lead your ideal customer to your website. Call us on (02) 8211 0668 or email us at info@cornerstone-digital.com.au.

• Comments (0)
• Trackbacks (0)
• Permalink

Darlyn Herradura

A self-professed book and digital marketing nerd, Darlyn Herradura focuses on building trust between customers and businesses with the written word. She understands that creating valuable content is the best way to get found online and happily spends her time doing that.