Avoid These Website User Experience Mistakes

To be successful online, you need a great website. In 2017, there’s no cutting corners around your web presence. Your site visitors will know the difference between a good website and a poor one—even if they aren’t particularly knowledgeable about web design. Your visitors can detect when a site isn’t functionally sound, and if a site doesn’t meet their expectations, they will hastily exit your website. The first impression is extremely important.

To have a visually and functionally compelling website, you must avoid some of the deadly mistakes that many businesses make. In this blog post, we’ll highlight the common user experience mistakes, and how you can avoid them.

Too Much Clutter 

Many businesses make the mistake of cramming too many details into their webpages. There is only but so much space that you have available, and it’s important that you use that space to display the most pertinent information—whether that’s content, images or video. A website that’s too busy will take too long to load and it will confuse and frustrate your visitors. In web design, “less is more”.

Lack of a Hierarchy in the Layout 

When visitors enter your site, their goal is simple: Find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. However, this won’t happen if there is no clear visual hierarchy that the visitor can see and understand. Here are the essentials for a clear visual hierarchy:

• Clear navigation. The navigation bar should be in a conspicuous position on the website (preferably near the top), and the navigation labels should use clear language that describes the content of the web pages. Navigability issues will kill your site’s user experience.
• Attention-grabbing headline. Headlines are especially useful when there is a large amount of text on a webpage.
• Relevant images. Photos and graphics are a very important element of web design, as images can quickly communicate ideas without the use of text. Don’t make the common mistake of using weak or irrelevant images.
• Prominent contact info. The moment that a site visitors wants to contact you, they need to be able to quickly find your contact info. If your info is hidden or hard to find, these site visitors won’t hesitate to bounce from your site.

The Lack of a Strong Call to Action (CTA)

If there is a certain action that you want the customer to take (e.g. sign up to your email list, or click the checkout button), you need to direct the customer to that action. A CTA is a commandment that directs the customer to do what you want. Here are some example CTA’s:

• To receive a free consultation, contact us today
• Want to get exclusive discounts to our catalogue? Sign up for our loyalty program
• To receive these daily tips directly in your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter today
• 30% Off newly released products! Shop Now

A successful CTA will, in very clear language, tell customers what to do and the reason why they should do it.

Your CTA should be clear and concise. The customer shouldn’t have to guess want you want them to do.

Conclusion 

Your site’s user experience is directly correlated to the overall success of your online marketing efforts. To ensure that your site is user-friendly, avoid the mistakes that were listed in this article. Have a question? Call us today at 778-285-2288