Maybe it be marketing your brand and ensuring that its voice reaches all your potential customers or creating an online global presence, a website comes at the center of it all. A website is a portfolio of your brand and more often the first point of contact between you and your potential customers. Therefore, it’s like an investment that is meant to help you reap the benefits in the future. That being said, there is not enough stressing the importance of a good website in today’s digital world. But what one needs to remember is that while a good website promotes your business a bad one can potentially lead to its downfall. 

So, to secure you against these bad choices, from our Web Designers in Melbourne we have brought for you 5 common web design mistakes that any web designer must avoid if designing a good website is their goal. So, let’s go through them and have an efficient and beautifully crafted website on the go. 

1. Cluttered/overcrowded Pages

While a website should be informative, it should never bombard visitors with too much information at once. Considering how we are always in a hurry, seeing a lot of words often dissuade us from actually engaging with the content but sometimes when the information is just too little, we begin to question the credibility. So, there is always this ongoing debate about what is better for a website, short-form content or long-form content. To navigate through it, what you need to do is create a balance. 

There is this common ground that a minimum of 300 words is needed for SEO. So, this much needs to be there on each page and you can very well add more without cluttering the pages by placing and structuring the content right. Divide the content into smaller paragraphs, sections, bullet points, and that way even if the content is more, a visitor can skim through it easily without feeling too overwhelmed. 

2. Not Designing a Multilingual Voice Optimized Website

Do you know that Google recognizes and allows searches in 348 languages? Google’s voice recognition technology is improving day by day and with this are increasing the number of people who voice search the web in their native languages. Considering this, your websites need to be not just voice search optimized but multilingual voice search optimized, especially if you are targeting a global audience. Also, contrary to popular belief English is not Australia’s national language, majorly because of its multicultural identity, so if you wish to reach all of Australia’s linguistically diverse population through your business, a multilingual voice optimized website is something that you have to consider. 

3. Using Inappropriate Visual Content

We all know how effective a medium visual content is. As compared to written content, our brain absorbs and registers visual information faster and retains it for a longer period of time. And therefore the importance of having visual content on your website. But the thing is, it’s a double-edged sword. When you assign certain images to your website, people begin associating that image with your brand, and if those images appeal to them it creates a positive image for your brand and if it doesn’t, naturally it will reduce the chances of them engaging with your brand. So, it’s of key importance that you pick the right images and videos for your website, and neglecting this is one of the common mistakes that one makes. 

• Using Stock Images/Videos 

Just copy-pasting images and videos from the web can challenge the credibility of your brand itself. So, always use custom photos that properly reflect your business rather than using those overused stock images from the web. 

• Incorporating Irrelevant Images/Videos 

Images/videos echo the vision of your brand and therefore you need to carefully choose what you present on your website. You cannot be a construction company and have visual content of your team chilling in your office space. Use visual content relevant to each service or product. 

• Not Using Website Optimized Images

While high-resolution images are to be used against low-quality ones, their pixel and size shouldn’t be too big so as to compromise the efficiency of the website as they increase the loading time. So, it’s important to use images of the right resolution and size. 

4. Not Giving Enough Importance to Website Testing

What editing is for content, testing is for web designing. You never post written content before giving it a proper edit as it avoids any errors from going live, your website also demands such a procedure. While building a website you must have proceeded with a proper plan but there are certain things that we sometimes overlook and some things that don’t turn out exactly how we imagined. So it’s important that you give your website a test run before opening it to the public. This includes testing the website for its loading time, responsiveness, cross-browser compatibility, visual impact, and therefore overall efficiency. That way you can detect any faults in the website’s interface and rectify them immediately. 

5. Not Prioritizing Navigability

A good website is always easy to navigate and a website that is easy to navigate tends to attract more customers. According to a survey, for 94 percent of users, navigability is the most important website feature. Now, more than often we visit a website with clear intent, and if we are unable to find that product/service immediately, it dissuades us from engaging with it any further. So, it’s important that you make a website that is easy to navigate. 

Top Website Navigation Practices

• Always highlight the hypertext. 
• Always keep the sidebars distinct from the rest of the content.
• Use simple language.
• Divide the content into smaller sections or paragraphs. 
• Create a mobile responsive website.
• Have attractive call for action buttons that stand out. 
• Use chatbots for real-time support. 
• Highlight the hierarchical distinctions by using different font colors and sizes. The USP of your website should stand out. 

The Way Ahead!

These are the five common web design mistakes that impact the overall efficiency and reach of your website. Prevent indulging in them all by leaving web development to the experts. Do you have a business that needs a website for creating an online presence or an existing website that needs an upgrade? If yes, Get in touch with us at Make My Website and have all your web design needs taken care of by experts.