You’ve almost certainly heard the phrase, “Dress for the job that you want.” And while it’s good advice for young professionals, that theme applies in many other areas as well. Take, for example, small businesses and websites.
When it comes to reaching customers online, your website is the outfit that your business wears. And how you look, or the image that your business puts forth, absolutely has an impact on customer interest, their willingness to interact with you, and their purchase intent.
Since that’s the case, your website is critically important to your business’ success. And good web design goes beyond simply having a good-looking website. It includes all aspects of web development, from mobile responsiveness to functionality, interactivity, and everything else that factors into the user experience.
We asked our panel of trusted experts and advisors from the UpCity network to weigh in on the importance of good web design and web development, common website design mistakes to avoid, how usability affects the customer experience, and more, and here’s what they had to share.
Why is good web design so important?
If you’ve ever become frustrated while trying to find basic information like when a business is open or trying to order something from a company’s website, then you know how essential it is for businesses to have a useful, functional website.
Indeed, good web design plays a critical role in the success of any small business, and our panel of experts echoed this sentiment.
“Websites are great marketing and selling tools. By having a poorly designed website, you are signaling to your potential audience how you conduct your business…And it’s important to have a website that matches your physical presence.” –Kunal Desai, CEO of Branding And Promo
Good web design, at its most basic level, is like any good content: it draws an audience in and holds their attention. While they may arrive via search engine or a referral link, your website needs to be interesting and informative enough to keep your visitors around (or, in the case of e-commerce, to keep them coming back).
“To effectively convey a message and achieve its goals, a website has to avoid common design mistakes. A good website should offer a seamless user experience, be mobile-responsive, and make the right design choices for its brand identity. By keeping these design elements in mind, a website can be a powerful tool to engage and attract users.” –Tony Tullio, Director at Inorbital
As the first and perhaps biggest piece of your digital marketing efforts, your website has great potential for attracting customers and reaching your target audience. From useful and interesting SEO-based content to essential contact information, your website should deliver what people are looking for in a way that positively impacts your brand reputation.
“A bad website has, of course, a negative impact on brand perception. A poorly designed, difficult-to-use website will make the company appear unprofessional and unreliable to its visitors.” –Tung Bui, Design Manager at Ekoios Technology
Why does bad web design happen to good businesses?
Even the best-laid plans can go awry. And even the best plan for a functional, attractive website can fall apart due to a multitude of factors. For instance, you want your business website to look great, and you take every reasonable step to get it there, but some of those design choices can actually have a negative impact if not carefully considered ahead of time.
“One of the more common web design mistakes is using images instead of text for important information on the site, making it difficult for search engines to crawl and understand the content on your site and hurting your rankings. Another is not optimizing images for web use, resulting in slow load times and poor user experience.” –Alexander Hollingsworth, SEO Marketing Associate at Oyova
Oftentimes, moving too fast in your website development or web page redesign process can lead to omissions and missed opportunities for optimization. And even seemingly small oversights can lead to common website design mistakes that negatively impact conversion rates, metrics, and search engine ranking.
“A bunch of little mistakes can add up to a lot of missed opportunities. When a customer lands on your website, there needs to be something that catches their eye, messaging that resonates with them, and a call to action that guides them (through) the next steps to learn more and get in contact with you.” –Alex Anderson, Co-founder of Marinate Media
Most common web design mistakes and how to avoid or fix them
Even if you’ve experienced some of the more common website design mistakes–like excessive pop-ups or poor navigation menus–as a user, it can sometimes be difficult as a business owner to recognize these problem areas on your own site. Our experts have decades of experience in web design, development, Javascript, and more, so they can share several examples of common mistakes to look out for.
“Slow load time is something that I see time and time again. Poor performance of a responsive website on mobile devices, in particular, is a big problem, both from the perspective of an SEO specialist and an everyday smartphone user. If a website or its multimedia elements are taking too long to load when I just want a quick answer to a question, it can be very frustrating.” –Megan Marshall, Customer Success Coordinator & Content Specialist at WEBii
High-res images, animations, and other visual elements are terrific, but don’t forget to consider their impact on loading times. In other words, does the reward outweigh the cost? Since both your search engine ranking and user experience are so closely tied to load times–especially on mobile devices–you should carefully plan for and consider these factors.
“…cluttered layouts, poor navigation, and slow loading times. These issues often stem from a need for more focus on user experience and can result in high bounce rates and low user engagement. To avoid these pitfalls, prioritize clear and intuitive design, optimize website performance, and ensure your site is responsive across various devices.” –Maggie McTavish, Founder & SEO Expert at Mango Media
Another common mistake is focusing too much on website design to the detriment of content and readability. While design trends are important to keep up with, they should never take priority over other factors like responsive design, typography, and mobile experience.
“A website needs to be pretty but it also needs to be effective AND ranked by search engines for the key terms you want. You can have all the best keywords and meta data on the page, but if the design is hard to read or clunky, then people will leave. You want easy-to-read paragraphs, clear photography, and nice spacing (white space).” –Channing Muller, Principal at DCM Communications
Another common issue is website owners trying to fit everything, including the kitchen sink, into their website. While you no doubt have extensive imagery, content, and videos that you are proud of, putting too much on a homepage or even in a social media post is a surefire way to lose an audience.
“There are some common web design mistakes that can hurt the overall user experience and one of the most common is overloading the page with too many elements. Websites that have too many graphics, images, and videos can be overwhelming and distracting for the user, leading to slower load times and a confusing or unpleasant user experience, especially on devices of different screen sizes.” –Andrew Wagar, President and CEO at Swerve
How can bad web design harm your business?
We’ve already covered many of the ways in which poor web design practices can harm your business. But we can’t overstate the importance of the relationship between web design and functionality and business performance, no matter what industry or sector you operate it.
“People expect websites to look and function a certain way. If yours doesn’t, then people will leave. They won’t contact you, won’t click on your CTAs, and you’ll have wasted a hugely important business tool.” –Marc Levy, Owner of Web Designers Durham
Bad web design can even have a negative impact on businesses that have already earned a strong web presence. The fact that your site has generated lots of traffic and has shown positive performance metrics does not guarantee that it will continue performing at that level after an update or redesign. On the other hand, your website will start to look stagnant and behind the times if you don’t change or update it for long periods of time, which will also likely drive potential customers away.
“Simply put, bad web design reflects negatively on your business. No matter how long you have been in business and how great your products or services are, your website is often the first point of contact for potential clients. If your website is outdated, contains errors and broken links, and has a bad design, visitors will get the impression that your business is outdated or does not care about them.” –Gregor Saita, Co-Founder/CXO at PixoLabo Web Design
Your business website is also like any piece of modern content, in that you have a limited amount of time to grab a person’s attention and keep it. Ultimately, your website should quickly show visitors why they should be interested in doing business with your company.
“To me, this all comes down to trust-building. You have a very small window of opportunity to make a first impression, capture a user’s attention, and build trust. If your website looks and feels unpolished, is broken, or is cumbersome, you will break that trust very quickly and they will move on to your competitors.” –Brian Warren, Senior Graphic Designer at seoplus+
It goes without saying that if potential visitors can’t find your site at all or if they immediately jump off of it upon arrival, they won’t become customers. Solid web design principles and execution can make all the difference in telling customers who you are and why they should care.
“Bad web design can increase your bounce rate, which means (that) instead of warm leads or conversions, you are getting users to leave your site and move on to your competitors.” –Scott Arbital, Chief Creative Officer & EVP Fulfillment, Founder at M. Scott Media
And one of our panelists put it even more simply:
“Low-quality websites don’t attract customers, and low-quality design doesn’t sell.” –Alex Belov, Founder of Belov Digital Agency
Avoid web design mistakes from the start with expert help
The tips shared in this article are just a small sample of the expertise that our service providers can use to help your business grow. From reasons to avoid templates to harnessing the power of CMS systems like WordPress and more, the panelists we spoke to offer a wealth of experience, knowledge, and guidance for any small business or website owner that is looking to drive increased performance.
Whether you’re planning a big redesign and update of your small business site or your business is just getting started, reach out to one of the top-rated web design firms and experts at UpCity who can help you build a website designed for remarkable user experience and increased performance.
This article was originally published in July, 2020 and has been updated.
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