Creating a unique and compelling website is non-negotiable these days. Small businesses should consider certain aspects to carry their ventures to higher levels. Having a poorly designed website can cause your business to lose customers. This translates to money out of the door.
Unfortunately, this occurs frequently when small businesses design their websites to save money and have more control over the project. But a business owner will not truly understand the concepts of excellent web design, resulting in a less than an ideal website.
Web design is a form of art. And similar to art, experts in a web design company provide their viewers with a pleasant experience. Web design unites form and function in a way that makes a website enjoyable, navigable, exciting, and functional.
To achieve this end, web designers avoid making these mistakes and must follow particular spoken and unspoken rules.
1. Busy designs
Show pertinent business information prominently on your website right away. Visitors must understand what your website is about within a few seconds of arriving on your site. Else, they will leave. Although this is important to keep in mind, it often causes small business owners to place too much information in one place. A design that looks crowded is never a good thing. Websites with too many images, text, and other items will take more time to load and potentially confuse your visitors.
2. Sparse websites
On the other end of the spectrum are websites with next to nothing on them. Although minimalism in design is big right now, it only works when done correctly. Small business websites can be overly cryptic and leave the rest to the imagination. This is a mistake.
Your visitors want to determine who you are and what your business can do for them. If you rely too much on simple imagery with no clear information or direction, it will leave many questions on your caller’s mind, and that’s not a good thing.
3. Confusing websites
Some websites apply too many clashing elements such as various typefaces, images, colour palettes, and themes. None of these factors relate to each other, resulting in a confusing design.
This happens especially if you don’t have a good idea of your brand image. It is easy to fall into this trap when you want to incorporate too many design templates and use all of them.
It can also happen when you want to relay too many ideas at once and regard your site as separate parts rather than one whole. Experts in a web design company choose only one theme, one logo, and one typeface and apply them across all other aspects of your site.
4. Unclear CTA
Your CTA is highly crucial since it is the gateway to your business. It commands your visitors to perform a specific action.
Examples of CTA are the following:
- Click here
- Get a coupon
- Learn more about this product
Your CTA must tell visitors what they need to do. There should be sufficient information about what they will get by performing certain actions and what information they need to provide.
Your CTA must be concise and tell customers exactly what to do. Form filling must be kept to a minimum. Also, give your visitors a few minutes to browse your page before the CTA pops up.