By Kolade Stephen Oluwatoba
Customers are the lifeline of everyone business; they make sure that you do not run down. At the same, they are very delicate and might be discouraged by tiny little details in your business.
Having a website gives customers an assurance that your business is real and they are not being swindled, but what if there are mistakes on that same website that should assure them? That is simply money going out the door.
With the growing trend of transition from organizational boundaries to digital media, a number of small business in Nigeria are not building websites for their business and looking to drive sales via the platform.
And while making such a move is a great strategy, seeing as more people are now checking out websites of businesses from their home, having a bad website can frustrate your efforts and break your business drastically.
The thing is, most business owners are taking the bull by the horns and building their own websites by themselves, they use apps that offer the basics but fails to advise them on what mistakes they should avoid going forward.
If you are a small business and curious to know if you are among the list of website owners making mistakes, we at Black ink media have a list of possible website design mistakes you should be aware of and how to possibly avoid them :
Disorganized web features
If your web design is busy with too much going on, visitors will become confused. This is so if the disorganized website features a range of images, colour palettes, and themes that don’t even relate to one another. If visitors can’t understand what your business and website are all about within a few seconds of arriving, they’ll get fed up and leave.
Websites with tons of images, text, and videos will also take a while to load causing more frustration for users. Avoid busy designs like the plague! This mistake is easily made when businesses don’t have a clear idea of their brand image and think packing as much information into the website as possible is a good idea.
Inadequate Information
As much as overloading the website with too much information is bad, putting little information is quite worse. While minimalism is a good feature for websites. visitors should be able to get as much information needed on the homepage.
Introduction and pitching of services are important and must be on the home page. Enough information should be provided so the user can understand the business, brand and its purpose easily. It is bad to keep customers guessing even after checking out your website.
Poor Call To Action (CTA)
This is one of the most common mistake businesses make in web design. The lack of a CTA is a waste of website as users should be able to take steps after going through the website. A CTA pushes the customer to act. Examples of CTAs might include “Learn More”, “Contact Us”, “Book Now” etc.
Choosing a CTA needs simplicity and relevance to the brand. A “Book Now” CTA might be more relevant to an appointment service than an e-commerce store. A CTA is best effective after the customer has a good understanding of the brand i.e. The CTA should be put at the bottom of the services and brand explanation.
Unappealing Images
One of the captivating elements on a website is the use of imagery…but what makes an image unappealing? Think quality, resolution and placement.
No one wants to keep staring at lines of texts, so they rely on images to spice thing up. Unfortunately, when there are no images or the images available are either not well-place or of very low quality it puts off the viewer and ruins their experience.
To ensure that the image supports the text in passing your message rightly, the arrangement of images must be done rightly. Also, bad and low-quality images must also be avoided totally.
Terrible Navigation
Navigability issues will turn away potential customers fast. If your navigation menu is hard to find or have a website full of broken links and confusing signposting will frustrate users and cause them to abandon your site.
Ensure that all the navigational aspects of your website are easy to understand and notice. Remember that on the world wide web, people expect information to be delivered in an instant and if your website doesn’t deliver, they’ll look elsewhere!
No Mobile-Friendly Experience
It is no news that the number of mobile users surpasses that of desktop users. Therefore, your mobile site must be mobile-friendly in the sense that it must be available for mobile users also. If your website is not user-friendly, it wouldn’t attract visitors at all.
Poor Content
Your content is key! It is important that your customers are interested in the content of your website. Do not bore them with irrelevant and uninteresting content. Also, plan the way your content is arranged on the website so as to make it look nice.
Also, make very good use of white space so the website doesn’t seem cluttered. Content must be updated regularly too, or otherwise, customers may believe you’ve gone out of business. Furnish readers with great, informative, and fresh content. This also helps your website SEO.
Lack of Contact Information
Believe it or not, but a lack of contact information is another common web design mistake. Obviously including contact information is a huge priority, otherwise, how on earth will potential customers be able to make a purchase or use your services?
Your ‘Contact Us’ page should be clearly visible and always one click away. At least, it should be easy to find at the bottom of every page.
