Business websites are meant to be functional and user-friendly. In fact, great user experience can help boost your site’s ranking on search engines.
However, we are not perfect and we tend to make mistakes. Unfortunately, these mistakes can bring our money down the drain.
Thus, web designers and business owners must keep this list of website mistakes in mind. That way, you can avoid committing these errors that can negatively impact your bottom line.
Complicated navigation
Users want smooth navigation whenever they surf online. In fact, flawless navigation can help boost your website’s conversions.
According to Alex Bashinsky, “Not only is unclear navigation bad for your on-site user experience, but it’s also bad for your SEO as well.”
In order to make clear navigation, try to put yourself in your target customers’ shoes. How would you expect them to find the necessary information on your site? What and how many steps do they need to take in order to find that information?
A clear navigation should not be ignored.
Non-responsive design
Mobilegeddon took the website owners and digital marketing professionals by storm back in 2015. Three years later, Google rolled out its mobile-first indexing for better user experience.
Thus, having a non-responsive web design could mean that you are losing organic search rankings.
Sure, having a mobile-responsive website can be a pain in the neck. However, can you afford to lose your rankings? Moreso, can you afford to lose your site visitors just because they are having a hard time reading your content on their mobile phone?
Slow page loading time
According to KISSmetrics, 47% of website visitors expect a website to load in two seconds or less. In addition, 40% of site visitors leave a website when it takes more than three seconds to load.
Thus, it is advisable to always optimize your website’s load speed. That said, MOZ shares some of the many SEO best practices that can enable you to boost your site’s speed:
- Enable file compression to reduce CSS, HTML, and JavaScript files that are 150 bytes or larger.
- Make sure that the images on your website are not larger than they need to be, and make sure that they are in the right format (PNG, JPG, or GIF).
- Optimize your CSS, JavaScript, and HTML codes by removing spaces, commas, unnecessary characters, code comments, formatting, and unused codes.
- Remove render-blocking JavaScript in order for browsers to parse and render a web page with ease.
- Reduce page redirects so that your site visitors will not need to wait for additional HTTP request-response cycle.
- Take advantage and maximize browser caching, so that browsers do not need to reload an entire page whenever a visitor returns to a website.
- Look for performance bottlenecks in order to improve your website’s server response time.
- Use content distribution network (CDN) in order for users to have a faster and more reliable access to your site.
Not user-friendly design
Just because it is your website does not mean that its design should please you in particular. In fact, you have to keep user-friendliness and user experience in mind.
Remember, you are not designing a website for yourself. It should be created for your target audience.
In order to do this effectively, you need to work with your sales and marketing team. That way, you can identify your target audience’s pain points, interests, and preferences with close accuracy.
But what about creativity, you ask? Well, you can let all the creative juices flow after ensuring that all the necessary UX/UI principles are put in place.
Not enough white space
According to Carla Cook, “Whitespace is the negative areas in any composition. It’s the unmarked distance between different elements that gives viewers some visual breaks when they process design, minimizing distractions and making it easier to focus.”
Imagine reading a text on a phonebook. Those columns of tiny texts make it challenging for you to find what you are looking for.
With the help of whitespace or negative space, your content gets a little breathing room. Not to mention that it helps you get your website visitors’ undivided attention. After all, internet users nowadays are content-scanners and skimmers.
Poor and irrelevant content
Another factor that can ruin your website’s user experience is how you develop your content. That said, the fonts you use, the font color, and its background can determine how your audience can consume your content.
If it is not easy to read, your content may not convert well.
In addition, your content may not live up to your promise. The best example are click-bait content. It is when you click on a link because of some promising headline, but the landing page itself or its content is irrelevant.
Sure, it is an awesome click-through trick. However, it is not user-friendly. Worse, it can skyrocket your website’s bounce rate.
By addressing these websites UX/UI issues, you are sure to provide a great user experience for your site visitors. As a result, you can help boost your website’s conversion rates.
