Your website's appearance could have a major impact on your company's success. In fact, 38% of people stop interacting with poorly designed websites. Over 38% judge a business based on their website's appearance at a glance.

Another 40% of consumers stop engaging with slow websites. Conversions can drop up to 20% for every second of site load time, too.

Before your website can hurt your business, audit your site to make sure you're avoiding these web design mistakes. Creating an eye-catching, user-friendly, mobile-friendly website can help you generate leads and sales. You can use your website as an effective marketing tool to grow your business.

Read on to learn more about designing business websites without making costly mistakes today.

1. Pages Without Purpose

As you audit your website, ask yourself why each page exists. Every page on your site should have a singular, specific purpose. If you can't determine a page's purpose, your website visitors won't either.

Try to avoid covering too many concepts on a single page. Otherwise, you might overwhelm or confuse visitors.

If they leave your website without clicking around, your dwell times will drop. Your bounce rate could start to rise, too. A higher bounce rate can hurt your search engine rankings.

Lower search engine rankings might make it more difficult for you to appear in front of potential customers online. They'll encounter your competitors' websites during a search instead.

Before that can happen, make sure each page has a singular purpose that's apparent through the page:

  • Title
  • Headline
  • URL
  • Body text
  • Imagery
  • Call-to-action (CTA)

Keep visitors focused on a single concept as they move down the page. Use supporting text and imagery to illustrate your point. Make sure the call-to-action aligns with the page's purpose as well.

Maintaining a singular focus on each page could help you generate more conversions.

Take the time to review your navigation bar, too. Avoid putting too many pages in the navigation. Otherwise, visitors might not know which pages to visit first.

Instead, focus on core pages, including the home, contact, about us, blog, and service/product pages. Then, use a sidebar to direct visitors to sub-pages under these categories.

Simplifying the navigation could improve your dwell times and bounce rate. Your search engine rankings might also improve as a result.

2. Stock Imagery

As you make an effort to avoid these web design mistakes, consider reviewing the images on your site. Stock imagery can make your brand look cheap. Instead, consider hiring a professional photographer.

Unique, high-quality imagery can better communicate your brand. It can also give consumers better insight into your products and services.

Consider adding more video content throughout your site as well.

3. Brand Inconsistency

Make sure your business has set brand guidelines. Your branding should remain consistent across every page. Otherwise, visitors might click through one page to the next and think they're on a different site.

They might leave your site altogether as a result.

Instead, make sure your logo appears in the top corner of every page. Link the logo to your homepage, too.

Then, maintain brand consistency by using the same color palette, font styles, and imagery styles. For example, perhaps you use professional, unique photography as part of your branding. Avoid using quirky drawings on a single, random page.

If you use a specific style for iconography, stick with that style.

Brand consistency could help brand awareness and recognition grow.

4. Clutter

As you strive to avoid these web design mistakes, make sure to review every page. Focus on pages that look cluttered and full of content. Consider adding more negative space to these pages instead.

Clutter can overwhelm website visitors. They won't know where to turn their attention, either.

Instead, you can use negative space to draw their eyes to specific areas.

For example, you can add more negative space around a CTA button to generate more conversions.

5. No CTA

What should visitors do on each page? What action do you want them to complete?

Make sure each page has a call to action. Use strong, compelling language for your CTA buttons, too. A strong CTA can help you generate more leads and sales.

As you explore new website design ideas, make sure to use contrasting colors between the button, page background, and text.

6. Not User-Friendly

Nearly 90% of online shoppers won't return to a website after a negative experience. As you find new website design ideas, look for user experience (UX) design trends. You can simplify the user's experience and encourage them to explore.

If your website isn't user-friendly, however, they could leave.

Make sure your pages are easy to navigate and the text is easy to read. Use short sentences and paragraphs to improve readability. A web design service can help you make UX design changes to your site.

7. No SEO

When designing business websites, it's important to consider search engine optimization (SEO). SEO can help you rank higher on search engines. You could generate more brand awareness, traffic, and leads as a result.

As part of your SEO strategy, you'll need to consider your website design and development. Look for a web design service that understands the importance of SEO.

8. Not Mobile-Optimized

More people are using their smartphones to find what they need online. Make sure your site is optimized for smaller screens. Otherwise, frustrated users might leave without clicking around.

Creating a mobile-friendly website will help you appeal to users regardless of the device they're using.

Designing Business Websites: 8 Web Design Mistakes to Avoid for Your Site

Don't miss the chance to set your business up for success. Make sure you're avoiding these web design mistakes when designing business websites. Avoiding these mistakes will ensure visitors have a positive experience on your site.

Then, you can direct them to convert on the page, encouraging more leads and sales.

Eager to start designing? We can turn your website into a marketing machine.

Explore our plans and pricing today to get started.