Having a captivating company website is indispensable in 2021. Today, the majority of customers research businesses online before buying. And 56% say they don’t trust a business without a solid online presence.
However, if you’re just starting to build your business website, there are several common pitfalls along the way. And in many cases, a badly designed website can be worse than none at all.
To help you, here are four common mistakes and how to avoid them.
Sacrificing Speed for Design
To start off with, a fast-loading website should be an absolute priority.
According to recent statistics, one in four users immediately leave sites that take longer than four seconds to load. And half of them never come back.
Many elements that slow down your site are design-related. Animations, images, elaborate fonts, and interactive elements all add to the time it takes your site to load.
When you’re building your business site, it’s easy to go overboard on these elements. After all, you want your design to wow your customers, right? And most modern website builders offer a huge range of options.
To a certain extent, caching and lazy loading techniques can balance out an excess of visual elements. Ultimately, though, you have to avoid sacrificing your loading speed to non-essential design.
Trying to Be Too Creative with Content
Next, avoid trying to be too creative with your website content. Understandably, one of your aims will be to stand out from the crowd of competitors.
However, toying too much with your website content or structure is not the way to go. While it’s absolutely OK to go for variations on a common theme, there is a set structure that most website users expect.
Adhering to the traditional format of having a “home”, “about”, and “contact” page, for example, makes it easier for visitors to navigate your site. In the same vein, all the relevant information about your company and its products and services should be available directly on the home page. Not hidden behind elaborate prose or a whole chain of links.
Cluttering Your Space
Another hallmark of badly designed company sites is a lack of whitespace.
It can be tempting to squeeze as much information onto one page as possible. Especially if you’re new to web design.
However, this will likely make your site look cluttered and unwieldy. And most users are irritated by having to face unstructured walls of text.
Instead, aim to leave sufficient margins, and structure your content with images, sections, and dividers.
Not Considering SEO
Finally, you have to consider search engine optimization (SEO), even for small websites.
SEO refers to a set of practices and technical specifications that make it easier for search engines to find your site and show it to potential customers in their results.
Many website builders offer SEO plugins to help you hit the mark. They make it easy to tick boxes such as writing meta descriptions and selecting keywords and optimize the crawl ability of your site.
