When it comes to web design, there are some common mistakes that small businesses make. While there are many different kinds of mistakes in web design, we’re going to outline five of the most common mistakes we see whenever onboarding new clients. Having a poor site isn’t an option any longer, with the World becoming more digital by the day.

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1. Too much information being crammed onto one page.

It’s important to display the most important information for your business right away, instead of just throwing everything there is to know about your business on your homepage. When confronted with an extremely text-heavy website, users are more likely to click away as 9 times out of 10 they won’t have the patience to scour through blocks of text looking for the information they came for. This is where we see a lot of people go wrong, and that’s why we help with adjusting copy to increase conversions.

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2. Not enough information being available.

On the other hand, we also see not enough information being displayed, instead just a few photos on the website of their general industry and a contact number. As stated above, it’s crucial to provide visitors with the vital information they need, and then link to other pages on your website if they wish to learn more about one particular service, or about the team for example. Usually sites with barebones information perform terribly as likewise to the point mentioned above, people do not have the patience to scour through pages on a website just to discover the basic information they were searching for.

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3. A poorly executed call-to-action (CTA).

A call-to-action is important to get right. It’s the place where you convert the visitor into a prospect/client. If you have a solid, visually appealing website with all the right information but a poor call-to-action or lack thereof, then your conversions will suffer tragically. Make sure your CTA is concise and clear, telling people exactly what to do. If you have a form on your website, ensure it’s not overly long - trying to keep it as concise as possible. However, the overuse of CTAs can also have a negative impact on your conversion rate as you may appear too spammy, and drive visitors away. If you have a pop-up on your site, ensure a delay between when the visitor loads into your website, and when it shows. This allows visitors to navigate your site and find the information they came for, before being prompted with a pop-up.

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4. Weak search engine optimization (SEO)

So, you’ve had your lacklustre website redesigned and now you have a sleek and responsive website you’re proud to put at the face of your business - that’s great. However, with weak search engine optimization, no one is going to be able to find your new sleek website on the major search engines. There’s no magic formula to achieve high rankings on search engines, it’s necessary to be constantly working on search engine optimising your website in order to go up the rankings over time.

Here's a few things to consider:

• Improve site speed
• Focus on long-tail keywords
• Post quality content on a regular basis

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5. Poor design and/or layout.

Your website needs to be functional for your visitors in order to convert them into leads/clients. However, the design shouldn’t be neglected due to a focus on function. Having a substandard or generic design will bunch you with the hundreds of other businesses in your industry. Standing out with a unique web experience whilst being functional will make it much more likely for your visitors to interact with any call-to-actions on your website there and then.

The idea is to allow a visitor to checkout with a product, or contact your business with the fewest clicks possible no matter what page of the site they’re on.

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