It’s the start of another New Year and whilst the rest of the world is nursing their festive hangovers, you instead want to kick start this year with professional progress. But, how can you move forward if your website is not representing your business to the best of its abilities? Discover how to avoid bad website design.
Do you ever wonder why you aren’t getting the conversions you were hoping for? Have you just launched your own website and have been diligently promoting it for months but still are getting minimal orders or inquiries? If any of this sounds familiar, then we at White Digital are here to help.
As website designers and digital marketing specialists, we have seen it all, from poorly designed pages to overly colourful eyesores. There are countless areas people can easily trip up on when designing their own websites, which begs the question ‘what exactly makes for a good or bad website design?’.
If you are wondering how to give your online business the right kind of makeover and want to avoid turning your online storefront into a creative catastrophe, then keep reading.
- What Makes a ‘Bad’ Website Design?
- What You Should Include in Your Website Design
- Your Images Matter
- Personal Touches Count
- Keep Your Theme Consistent
What makes a bad website design?
Typically when we say that a website design is ‘bad’, there will be multiple aspects of the website that have not been considered during the design process. Therefore, it’s hard to just pinpoint one factor that overall makes a website bad, instead let’s take a look at some of the major elements that you should categorically avoid doing to your website.
- Minimal Content – Your customers or clients will be seeking information, so provide some depth. If you run a business, you need to provide your customers with details and images of the goods and services you provide and that means writing about them! It can also lead to Google considering your website untrustworthy and will ultimately rank you lower for keywords within your pages. Wondering how to get on the good side of Google and rank for page one? Then check out our SEO services now.
- Your website takes too long to load – Slow loading speeds are basically website killers. In the digital age, nobody wants to wait for your website, no matter how great it is. That’s why big companies such as Amazon and Asos spend hundreds of thousands a year just on loading speeds.
- Too many colours – Unfortunately, too many colours are not actually a good thing. Your website becomes confusing and makes it tough for users to know where to look when it has too many colours. You don’t want your website to end up looking like a technicolour nightmare!
Does your current website include some or all of these factors? Check out our web design services today to see how we can help. You can also inquire about our SEO services which can help launch your business to the next level through organic traffic means.
What You Should Include in Your Website Design
If you are feeling like your website might be committing some of these sins, then don’t panic. Upgrading your website with a web design agency could not be easier and you can potentially get government funding to cover most of the costs.
There are some easy changes you can make to your website now that will potentially help your website before you jump right into a full upgrade. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can improve your website design.
Your Images Matter
Think of it like a real storefront and your homepage is a shopfront window. Most shopfronts are full of that business’s best work, for example, fashion brands pick the most flawless designs to entice customers in. That means when curating exactly what to put on your website, every image matters.
- Avoid using too many ‘stock photos’ – Royalty-free images are an amazing tool to use on your website, but adding too many of these can make your website look messy and lifeless. It can also take away from your brand identity and users might find it hard to trust that your business is reputable and even real.
- Try to use images that your business owns – If you already have some images of your office space, your team or products then you should be using those on your website. Make sure that all your images are high quality to avoid making your website look outdated.
- Photoshoot your office and staff – A photoshoot is a perfect way to produce high-quality content for your website and allow you to tailor your images to fit your brand identity. It can also be a great bonding exercise with your staff, which ultimately gives your website content and could make your staff more united.
Personal Touches Count
Whether you are running a small family-run business or a global empire, you are more likely to make meaningful client relations by just adding some personal touches to your site. People want to make sure they are purchasing from reputable, reliable and trustworthy organisations, so just adding some of these pages below can be the difference between one-time purchases or repeat customers.
- About Us page – This is one of the easiest integrations that your business should be doing, adding an About Us page. If your website is just listing your products, it can appear rather cold. Write a page all about why you got into this business, and the experience your company brings to the industry, top it off with your business’s ethos and you have a polished About Us page.
- Meet-the-Team – Your team makes your business. Adding a meet-the-team section will humanise your business and is a great personal touch that will allow your clients to form connections with your employees for years to come. Make sure to add images of each of your staff and a little section detailing their role, experience and personal interests.
- Client Testimonials – If you are a B2B business or are selling a service rather than a product then client testimonials can make a huge difference to your conversion rates. Your customers will want assurance that the experience they are inquiring about is good and that providing them with as much positive research as possible is in your business’s best interest.
Keep Your Theme Consistent
Time and time again we have seen websites that have great content, and spectacular products/services but are an absolute visual virtual mess. When creating your website design you should go with the philosophy, ‘less is more’.
- Include your brand colours – You have chosen your brand colours because they are your identity and that should be reflected in your website. Make sure to include your brand colours throughout your website and we recommend sticking to only using two to three colours per page.
- Same text on all your pages – Text fonts are so important when it comes to your website design. You need to be careful when choosing your font styles, as they need to be easily readable for your users. Your website should only use one to two fonts throughout your whole site as too many different styles can look messy and bring down your brand’s image.
- Make sure the layouts on every page are similar – Just like the text on your pages, your layouts should be similar on every single page. This will create unity through your website and overall a more professional look.
We hope you found this information useful, if you are looking for advice on your website design or are in need of complete overall, check out our web design services or take a look at our previous work.
