Do you know some website mistakes can cost you money, frustrate your customers and even hurt your brand image?
Yes, because your website is the very first impression of your brand. Therefore, a good website design with appropriate content is vital to help users understand what you stand for.
True, you have designed your website to taste; lovely colors, images, themes, and you’re so sure you have done an excellent job.
Only to discover your content was not getting the conversion you wished coupled with an increase in bounce rate.
So, what could have been wrong?
Is it possible you are making some of these mistakes on your website?
There are many of them, but this guide will focus on the most common ones and how to avoid them for increased conversions.
What Has Changed?
The truth is website design has changed a lot over the past few decades, from simple HTML pages to the latest UX/UI designs.
People who visit your websites want to find their desired items and services, and they expect it to be attractive enough for them to stay on it for longer.
A good website structure should be user-friendly and appealingly provide information with clear text and images, making it easier for everyone to understand.
18 Most Common Website Mistakes And How To Fix Them
1. Improper Written Content
Low-quality content can significantly impact your website, especially as visitors may leave your site, resulting in a loss of customers.
It may, in addition, cause a decrease in SEO rankings. Because as we all know, high-quality content remains the king.
Visitors will only stay on your website if they find it useful, informative, and engaging. So, if your content is poor, you stand to lose all of these benefits and more.
Also, search engines like Google know when you publish quality content regularly, which leads to your website staying visible in SERPS (search engine result pages).
2. Cluttered Images
Websites with too many images and content on one page can cause confusion, dissuade visitors from staying on the site, and even deter potential customers.
Of course, images are an essential part of a website, but the quality can affect how visitors relate to your site content.
Furthermore, research shows that articles with relevant images have 94% more views than articles without visuals.
That is why websites must be visually appealing with high-quality images.
For example, even if you are selling only one type of product but have different color variants of that product, you need high-quality images to display all the colors so customers can see what they are getting before they make a purchase.
Hence, using cluttered images of low resolution can result in low ranking and traffic.
3. Poor Website Navigation
Poor website navigation can be a huge setback for your business if you wish to connect with potential customers.
Of course, we all want our visitors to click those links but overdoing it will only lead to confusion. A website can be a bit confusing to navigate for many.
If visitors can’t find what they’re looking for or figure out how to navigate your site, they will most likely move on and never return. But when you put position navigation at conspicuous places, they will find it easier to move around.
So, instead, use internal links to help your readers move around your site with ease.
4. Slow Website Speed
Remember, visitors have short attention spans. So, your website’s loading speed can have a significant impact on its success.
Studies show that websites with a loading speed of fewer than 3 seconds had a conversion rate of 15% higher than those with a slower loading time.
So, if your site takes more than 3 seconds to load, it may be too slow for visitors, and they might bounce off.
In addition, slow page speed can hurt your SEO rankings. This is because crawling and indexing take time, and if Google crawlers don’t visit your site often enough, you may not rank high.
So, avoid uploading large images and videos directly to your website. Instead, use an image optimizer to compress images on your site to the smallest size.
Then to run your website through Google PageSpeed insights. And follow the recommended steps to fix all issues.
Helpful article 25 easy ways to improve your WordPress website speed
5. Not Having A Blog
Many people think that blogs are just a way to promote products or services, but they are actually a great way to communicate with customers.
One of the ways to differentiate your website from competitors is to improve the users’ experience and provide various ways for them to reach out and interact with you through comments or other channels.
In addition, it gives you the chance to showcase your expertise in a variety of topics.
So, don’t look at blogging as time-consuming or expensive. On the contrary, one blog post could potentially generate dozens or even hundreds of visitors because people will want to know more about what you have written.
6. Not Mobile-Friendly
With the number of global smartphone users now over six billion, optimizing your website for mobile is a must.
Moreover, Google gives priority to the mobile versions of the content for indexing and ranking.
7. Not Measuring Website Performance
There are many site mistakes that small to medium business owners make, and not measuring website performance is one.
One of the vital metrics in determining how successful your content strategy is understanding where your traffic comes from.
If you don’t have this information, optimizing conversions and improving monetization opportunities won’t be easy.
To make this process easy, connect your website to Google Analytics and Google search console.
With that, you will have
– increased customer conversion rates
– improved SEO rankings
– and information showing what parts of your content are performing best.
8. Improper Use Of CTA
A call to action is what starts the conversion process for your business. It’s the phrase that prompts readers to take some action, whether it’s signing up for a trial, purchasing an item, or entering their email address.
So, make it visible and clear and concise such that visitors know exactly what to do.
9. Annoying And Disruptive Pop-ups
There’s nothing wrong with using a pop-up on your website; it only becomes a problem when it blocks users’ views from content on your site.
Pop-ups can affect your website by increasing users’ bounce rate, which could be caused by them being annoyed or not getting the information they need.
10. Not Having Enough Whitespace
The point of a website is to look good on a screen and to have enough white space for the user to feel comfortable reading.
But, when you fill up your page with content, it becomes harder for the reader to digest the information. In essence, too much information makes it harder for people to understand or use what you say.
11. Poor UX And UI Design
One of the most common mistakes that website owners make is not to focus on the importance of UX and UI design.
Poor UX and UI design can drive potential customers away and ultimately affect the success and revenue of your business.
A great example of poor UX is when your website requires too many clicks for users to find what they’re looking for.
Similarly, bad UI design can lead to cluttered interfaces that are unnecessarily complicated to use.
12. Using Small Font Size
Too small font size is one of the common mistakes made by small businesses. Font size less than 12px or 14px can be challenging to read on a webpage with smaller screens.
So, make your text readable and maintain the same font size and theme across your website.
13. Not Adding alt Description To Images
When uploading images to your site, ensure you put in the suitable alt description.
Adding alt descriptions to images is not just for SEO. It’s usually the first thing that comes up in the image search. The more information you put into it, the more likely it will appear in an image search.
In addition, adding alt descriptions is one of the ways for people with disabilities to find your website if they can’t read or use a keyboard and mouse.
14. Not Using HTTPS
No website is free from the risk of hacking and data breaches. It’s even more worrisome if your website is not secured with HTTPS, as this leaves your users vulnerable to hackers tracking their browsing habits and exploiting them.
You can avoid all these issues by simply purchasing an SSL certificate and configuring it on your web hosting account.
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) provides a secure connection between your site’s server and your visitors’ browser keeping safe all your data and preventing any third party from accessing it.
In addition, it gives visitors the impression that your website is safe to use.
15. No XML Sitemaps
A website without a sitemap is just like an office building without a floor plan. You can wander around all day searching for the fitting room, but it’s only when you have a blueprint that you can find your way.
XML sitemaps are among the most important things for search engines to get your content crawled and indexed. They provide search engines with the list of URLs on your site.
The first is to install SEO plugins like Yoast or All in One SEO on your site. Then submit your sitemaps to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster tools.
16. No Social Sharing Options
With the rising popularity of social networks, having these buttons can be a great way to get people to share your content and increase your site’s traffic and popularity.
Often, readers will want to share something they find interesting with their friends and family. Without these sharing capabilities, it will be hard for them to do so.
17. No Contact Information
Your potential customers need to be able to contact you.
A lack of contact information can affect your website because visitors cannot get in touch with you. This might lead them to leave your site without completing the desired action.
18. Not Optimizing The Meta Description
A meta title and meta description are the first things someone sees when they land on your site. You can use these to entice them to stay longer and explore more of your content.
Making it difficult for visitors to find their way around the website
I’ve seen it more than once. A website is cluttered, messy, and challenging to navigate.
It can be really frustrating for visitors, who might not know where to click or what to do next.
Over To You
Now you know the worst website mistakes and how to avoid them. So, identify them on your site and fix them as soon as you can.
Doing that will improve your site performance, traffic, and conversions.
Thank you for reading!
And if you have any questions, please drop them in the comments.
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Hello Muslimah,
These are very good information for people starting with website and blogging. It is better to avoid the mistakes in the beginning, rather than correct the mistakes later. I have to agree with all of the mistakes you mentioned. Mostly I would highlight the pop-up windows. They are so irritating for me. I would like to ask you what UX and UI stand for? Thank you.
Thank you for your contribution to the discussion.
I also don’t like when pop-ups blocks users’ views from accessing content on the website.
UI (User Interface) is about visuals, how your site looks, e.g., graphic and brand designs.
While UX (User Experience) is the personal experience customers have while using the website. You want to make their experience enjoyable.
Cheers