One has to be living under a rock not to appreciate that pretty much every business these days can benefit from a website. However, simply slapping up a template in the name of a website and calling it a day is not the answer either.
Perhaps you may have recently set up a website of your own and have been promoting it for months—with little to no success. Wondering why you’re still not getting the opportunity to enjoy the conversions you expected? Perhaps, some elements on your website could be the reason behind scaring away potential customers!
Now the question is, what kind of elements can turn a great website into a messy experience for the user? To answer your question, website design and website development are a lot more objective than you might believe.
Read on to discover what makes a website intrinsically “bad.”
Table of Contents
Bad Website Design Ideas
It’s 2021, and it can’t be said enough that a website can make or break your business. Today, you can’t have a business and not be on the web. Besides, a website has evolved into an indispensable tool for businesses, from providing information to selling online to multiple marketing efforts.
Business owners often seek to save money by creating their own websites; however, they are prone to go overboard or make a few web design mistakes here and there.
Let’s look at the nine most common web design mistakes that are indeed a turn-off for visitors!
# 1 Visuals without a strategy
People often consider web design as to how a website looks; however, there’s more to it than just attractive fonts and soothing colors. A great design considers user experience and creates elements that work flawlessly, are simple to interact with, and are useful for your visitors.
And the best websites are both appealing and functional. Remember, your website’s primary goal is to get visitors to buy your products or services, and if they cannot even locate the buy button, that is a huge problem.
# 2 Homepage-focused design
One common around a website is that only the homepage matters.
While the homepage often gets the most number of visits, it’s a long way from the only page that matters, either to the visitors or Google.
Consider how you usually stumble onto a new website. The odds are you find it by googling a keyword, then visiting the page that seems most useful, right? However, it’s not likely that the homepage would always be the first one you find on that website.
So, if your homepage is the only one with an outstanding design, while the other pages are either copied or too dull, your visitors may leave your website instantly. Therefore, to avoid losing visitors before they even get the chance to convert into customers, try to put the same amount of planning and strategy into every page on your website, not just the homepage.
# 3 Excessively long forms
Forms are an incredible way to get visitors to convert to leads. Your forms may be for scheduling an appointment, making a reservation, sending queries, or simply providing contact information.
Once someone chooses to fill out your form, it’s a sign that something on your website worked to arouse their interest, and they believe you can be worth working with.
However, unfortunately, some businesses restrict this exciting process midway by asking for way too much information. Filling out a form is a huge commitment for someone who’s never worked with you and may never have even heard about you. So, if they are giving you personal contact information, you need to be transparent about how you will use their data.
So instead of overwhelming your visitors with really lengthy forms, stick to the basic information you need to reach out to them. Besides, you can use your follow-up to get all the other relevant information.
# 4 Overcrowded Site Map
Creating a sitemap can be tricky.
Most business owners aren’t always sure how to hit that perfect balance of structure and content throughout the website. And the result is often a super-cluttered website with multiple, overly complex dropdown menus under the main navigation. While some pages might be missing from that main navigation, some may have fewer words, and some may have too much content.
However, your website should only have as many pages as required to show visitors how you can help them. A strategically planned website may likewise include one page per service, a page to highlight past work, or a page to book appointments based on your business’s needs.
If a page doesn’t help solve anyone’s problem, it doesn’t have to be on your website. Be careful about which pages to include under your main navigation, and make sure to keep things as simple as possible.
# 5 Never-Ending Pop-Ups
Indeed, it is important to let users know something major is going on with your business- a sale, an announcement, an invitation to join a mailing list, etc. However, anyone will tell you how annoying it can be to click out of a pop-up, only to have a new one instantly sprout up at you and another one after that.
Well, if we haven’t said it already, enough with the pop-ups and irritating ads! Any good website design company will certainly warn you about this. So, restrict your pop-ups to only one at a time.
#6 Unclear Message
Most users will indeed know what a business does before they hop onto its website.
However, in any case, if they don’t already know what it does, it’s always best to have a clear message. You may have perhaps been on a website at least once in your life where you had to struggle to understand what the company does. Well, this is never good for any business.
Not that you need to spoon-feed your visitors, just try not to make them hunt for what you do. Businesses often make the mistake of being so edgy, leaving the visitors scratching their heads. Word of advice- don’t be that business! Be helpful and informational to your visitors while upholding the branding you want.
# 7 Videos on Auto-Play
This one is extremely annoying. No one enjoys being served something they don’t want, so when a website automatically starts playing a video or audio, for that matter, it isn’t enjoyable at all.
So, let your visitors make a choice for themselves to click or not to click a video. Try not to compel them to watch something or hop a mile when the loud music blares from their screen. Otherwise, it will only make them not want to revisit your website.
# 8 Too Much SEO
Good thing you and your website designer know all about SEO optimization, and you’re excited to get those ranking keywords all over your website.
However, a definite sign of a poor website is too much SEO and “keyword stuffing,” wherein sentences don’t have a proper flow because they’re overstuffed with keywords and key phrases.
Also, there’s no point in making your content almost unreadable. Besides, keyword stuffing can indeed damage your SEO marketing efforts since search engines today are now intelligent enough to know the difference between good SEO and too much SEO.
# 9 Sales-pitch everywhere
One basic mistake that businesses often make in their content is trying to persuade people that their product is worth trying, they have the right level of experience, they offer the most excellent solution and whatnot.
While your content should naturally highlight the key points of your business with a positive tone, some business owners often slip into the mindset that their content is the seller. However, if your visitors aren’t convinced that you truly understand their needs, they won’t stay on your website long enough.
So while content can certainly help market your business, that shouldn’t be it’s sole mission. Instead, use your content to connect with your visitors on a broader level. The content on your website is the ultimate voice of your brand, so think about what you want that voice to say and how you want your visitors to feel when they hear it.
The Bottom Line
These nine website design ideas are more or less annoying intrusions that often make your visitors want to flee instantly. Remember, a website should be welcoming and let people choose their own experiences by visiting specific pages. Besides, they’ll appreciate this so much better than having an over-the-top multimedia extravaganza offered to them.
Keep in mind that your website’s initial goal is to benefit those looking for information about you and your business and then bring in leads. However, to see significant results from your website, you don’t essentially have to invest in a complicated and extravagant web design. Sometimes, keeping the design simple can be the key.
Hopefully, by avoiding these nine web design mistakes in the future, you’ll get one step closer to converting those visitors to loyal customers.
