There’s little argument these days that plenty of relevant content is the key to a successful web site, and the presentation of that content is a major factor in holding the attention of your visitors. The look of your site is undeniably important, because it says something about your business and presents an image to your prospective customers; however many web designers destroy their efforts by making simple mistakes in how they present their content.
Here are 5 examples of common web design mistakes and our tips on how to avoid them.
1. Being hard to contact. If you don’t have your contact details on your homepage, the second most popular page of most websites is the ‘Contact Us’ page. Users want to be able to reach the people with whom they are doing business, quickly, easily and without fuss. Having to navigate through lots of pages vainly hoping to find a telephone number will lead users away from your site. Providing an email address and a phone number (on every page, if possible) can help alleviate your customers’ concerns. If you want to automatically track the volume of calls you receive from your website find out more here.
2. Slow-to-load pages. Most designers understand that web users want to go straight to the content they’ve searched for; however there are some who still insist on either making you sit through a splash page, while others use annoying and long winded flash introductions. For the web visitor there is nothing worse than watching ‘Loading’ for 40 seconds as your page loads up in their browser. Numerous online studies show that no matter how well-intentioned these introduction pages are, their main result is to drive traffic away from your site.
3. Navigation hell. If visitors to your site cannot get where they want to go in two clicks, many will just leave out of frustration. Too many choices (pages and sub-pages of options), the omission of a simple “back” button that fails to take them to the last page they visited, and other such navigation mistakes will cost you many customers. Keep it simple is the rule of thumb here.
4. Jargon. Business-to-business and high-tech sites are usually the worst offenders in filling their content with industry jargon. When writing any content for your site you must keep the user in mind. It’s highly likely that they just want the basic facts of what your business is all about and what services or products you provide and will be put off by unnecessary jargon and three letter acronyms.
5. Bad photos. Bad photographs - and bad graphics for that matter, can totally ruin your website and make your site look horribly amateurish. Remember, for many users, your website is your shop window. Poor photography means your chance to impress may be lost and you can ruin any chance you may have of converting a visitor into a customer. When you choose your photos and graphics, choose strong pictures that say something good about your business. Better still, get some professional website photography done. It is going to be more than worth it in the long run.
The above list is by no means exhaustive. We’d love to tell you more. Why not contact us to find out how we can help you.
0845 833 9588