Website Shame to Website Sparkle
The Worst Mistakes You’re Making on Your Website (That are Costing You Clients!)
And how to fix them!
We’ve all visited at least a few terrible websites. You know, the ones where you end up closing out before even diving into the content, or get frustrated because you can’t find what you’re looking for. What are these specific red flags and how do you make sure these things aren’t happening on your site?
Watch the live video or read below to hear Allyssa & I, the creators of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Bundle, cover these (all too common) mistakes and how to avoid them on your website!
Mistake #1
Not being clear on what you do or who you serve
People should immediately be able to tell what you do and who you serve. Don’t make them hunt to figure things out! It should be super obvious for site visitors to know what you offer and who can benefit from the site.
You may know all the ins and outs of your business, but make sure the basics are covered right away to new-comers! Clear, cohesive visuals, direct messaging and concise content are key to translating successfully, right away.
Try having the most important info above the fold, so site visitors immediately know what your site is about. They shouldn’t need to scroll to know they’re in the right place.
be consistent
Always keep your mission and goal of the site in mind. All content & visuals should reenforce your goals and intention, and including anything that doesn’t will just muddy the waters and confuse site visitors.
Mistake #2
Not being user friendly
Consider the visitor’s journey
When someone lands on your site, where do you want them to go and how will they get there? What’s the main goal of your site? Is it easy to reach that goal from wherever someone lands? For example, if people are finding you through blog posts, can they easily find and access your available services?
keep things simple
Are you easy to get a hold of? If you want site visitors to reach out, be sure that your contact info readily accessible on every page of your site.
Delete anything that isn’t serving a purpose. This will keep things clear and make the important aspects stand out even more.
Encourage engagement by making your content easy to access and share i.e. ‘click to tweet’, social share links, browse related blog posts, etc.
simple, intuitive navigation
Avoid fancy wording that may confuse your audience. I’m all for fun and fancy names for things, but be sure that your navigation is easily understood. Site visitors will get frustrated and close out if they can’t quickly find what they are looking for.
Make the choice simple. Analysis paralysis is a real thing! Don’t overwhelm site visitors with way too many choices in your navigation. Use a footer navigation for secondary pages or bucket things onto hub pages, but be sure your main navigation covers the most important aspects of your site.
Be strategic
What pages do you actually need to include in your navigation? Avoid looking at other websites to make this call. Determine what the main goals are of your website and ultimately your business and draft your navigation / site map from there.
Brainstorm/plan > test > rework/tweak
The great thing about web is that things can always be changed and updated! Your site can always be improved, so be sure to watch how site visitors are interacting and using your site and adjust as needed. Try using a heat map software like Hotjar to gain insights on how users are behaving on your site so that you can adapt to get the best possible results.
don’t be that person
Keep things speedy and avoid having a slow loading time. Size your images appropriately for web (without sacrificing image quality) and be mindful of how much content you’re placing on each page. More images = more loading time. Same goes with showing relating blog posts. Instead of loading the gallery of all posts ever, try having a few suggested posts featured so the page can load faster. 40% of web users will abandon a website that takes longer than 3 seconds to load.
And be sure to only have (at most) one pop-up so you’re not continuously interrupting visitors browsing experience. Multiple pop-ups have use trained to think ‘spam’ and will usually make a user untrusting or at least annoyed by your site.
Avoid auto-playing content
Don’t have loud music or video audio start playing when users land on your site. What to do instead? Embed! Not only will this speed up loading time, it will keep your visitors from getting annoyed by sudden sound surprises.
Be nice to your readers
Be sure to avoid crazy fonts, too small of a font size, text that is too light or other reading woes. White text on black text is not usually a good idea for large sections of content. Speaking of these large sections — break up your text! Site visitors won’t read long walls of text. Use headlines, or simply add an extra enter to give the reader breathing room (and increase the changes of them actually reading more of it!) Also, be sure to avoid tall sticky headers that hide half your page as users scroll. It’s hard enough to read content on a website, don’t restrict that space to even smaller.
mistake #3
Call-to-action issues
Is it clear where site visitors should go on your site? Are they prompted to think, do or interact somehow on each and every page? Be sure to direct their journey through your site by using intuitive calls-to-action that introduce the next action (i.e. buy now, learn more, etc.) Stay concise on link and button text — keep things short & simple. Also, be wary of adding too many calls to action. You don’t want to confuse visitors so it’s unclear what you actually want them to do on a page.
Make sure it’s clear that these actions are interactive by adding hover effects and unique styling (color, weight, size, etc.) Make use of a heat mapping software to watch how these actions are converting and adjust as needed to get users where you want them to go.
Mistake 4
Unappealing, unbranded & unmemorable
The internet is full of noise. Make sure your site stands out and is a memorable, positive experience for site visitors. Make an impression with clean, unique to your business visuals and graphics. Stop looking at what everybody else is doing and build a site that looks & feels like YOUR business. Copying what’s ‘trendy’ or ‘popular’ will only lead to frequent redesigns in the future to keep up with things. Keep in mind that your design should not distract a visitor from your content.
Design should emphasize your content, not take away from it.
Ready to build a site that avoids all these mistakes & showcases your business in it’s best light?
bibbidi bobbidi boo, we got you.
If you’re ready to lay your brand’s foundation and get serious on prepping for launch, let’s start on this first step together. Answer a short questionnaire telling us more about your dream and start finally making your brand + website dreams come true!