Common Web Design Pitfalls: How to avoid warring services

Unless you’re in digital marketing getting a website that does what you need it to do and is SEO optimised to boot can be a highly daunting task. What doesn’t always come up when planning a website is how warring services (e.g. marketing, IT, sales etc.) can destroy the functionality of your website and dilute your message.

To help you know what to avoid, here are the most common web design pitfalls:

not communicating

When you employ a creative agency to build your website, you’ll need to start with the initial brief. Taking the time to talk face to face with your agency about what you need your website to achieve, what styles you like, which competitors you’ve got your eye on and what websites you like visiting all ensures that everyone is on the same page. It’s also good to get people from other departments or business services involved at this stage to ensure that the website is future-proof.

Your website needs to have a clear message for visitors, be easy to navigate and represent your company. The best way to achieve this is through talking to your agency about who you are as a business and what your goals are.

overdoing the brand

Having a clear brand is important and it’s understandable that the marketing team sometimes gets very protective of it. It’s crucial for getting your unique voice as a business across, but it can get championed too much.

If you’re sacrificing website usability, ease of navigation and copy clarity for the sake of branding, then something is going wrong. Your website is the time to clearly state who you are, what you do and how visitors can buy from you. Don’t let over the top branding get in the way of this. It’s also vital that visitors have a pleasant user experience (UX), so also don’t let branding destroy your website’s overall UX.

missing out on sharing information

A stylish and nice design is good for overall UX, but be sure to back your style up with some substance. A common pitfall for businesses can be assuming that if someone is visiting your website that they’re experts in your industry. There’s no guarantee that visitors are experts of your products or know all the industry jargon you do.

Product and service descriptions, how to guides, demo videos etc. are all good ways to help your visitors decide if you’re the brand they want to buy from.

Be sure to include information about your products and services. It helps to encourage sales, is good for overall SEO and customers appreciate you clearly communicating what you offer. If they have to call you to work out what your offer is, then they’re likely to go with an alternative option.

not needing content

There are 3 types of content to consider when developing your website:

Page copy – the content in the individual website pages that will be a constant part of your website, i.e. ‘about us’, individual product descriptions, ‘contact us’ page etc .

Evergreen content – likely to be longer content pieces, which may be a product or ‘how to’ guide. Something that will consistently support website visitors and goes into more detail than product descriptions or business updates.

Ongoing content – regular articles or blog posts providing inspiration or informing visitors of what’s new at your business. Ongoing content is a great opportunity to be creative, engage with your audience, build your brand as an expert and improve your overall search visibility.

Content is a very broad term, so it’s understandable that some businesses believe that they don’t need it at all. Brands, which have embraced content are now reaping the rewards of having a library of supportive, inspirational or informative content, which provides SEO benefits and helps visitors.

So, if content has been on the back of your priority list for your business, consider putting it to the top.

design focus only

A good-looking website can be functional, too. And you could be missing out on SEO rankings and website usability if you’re only thinking about website design from a visual perspective.

Common design mistakes include:

• Having large images with no alt-text and long load times
  • Help Google and users understand what they’re looking at and don’t slow down your website. People want to see your content quickly.

• Dominating above the fold with images
  • Above the fold is the time to make your offering clear, especially on your homepage. Don’t miss out on clearly stating with text who you are by using the space for an image only. You can strategically combine imagery and even video with H1 tags and text boxes.

• Overusing pop-ups
  • Google rolled out the intrusive mobile interstitial penalty in January 2017, but many brands are still unsure what sizing and frequency are acceptable for pop-ups. Oversized and overused pop-ups aren’t just a Google penalty but can put people off completely.

• Putting your creativity in a corner
  • Formatting and size restrictions can destroy the impact of your content. If you build a website that can’t cope with rich media, such as video or infographics and has a very narrow blog size or automated small text sizing, then this will make your content less engaging for the audience. Make sure your creativity comes across in every possible way.

• Forgetting about responsive design
  • Mobile is here to stay and it’s a mobile-first world. Make responsive design a fundamental part of your web design.

losing your message

Arguments amongst services over copy, design, layout and functionality can result in your whole website simply confusing visitors.

Don’t let warring services and messages get in the way of having a responsive, clear and easy to use website.

Users are in a hurry to find the answer to their query and you’re more likely to make a lasting impression if you help them find the answer.

If you want to avoid the common pitfalls of web design, our integrated approach to digital marketing can help you.

Take a closer look at our website design and development service page or get in touch with us today.