So, you published your new website a few weeks ago, and you have been waiting for the leads and sales to pour in. Only to hear crickets.

As a website designer, the above is a very common issue with many of my clients who started off building their own websites but were not generating enough traffic and revenue.

In this article, I will uncover top 5 website design mistakes beginners make, and of course, how to avoid them.

1. Not Mobile Responsive

This is a huge one I cannot stress enough. In 2021, more than 50% of website traffic comes from mobile phones (Source: Statista), and the number is only getting higher. Building an optimal mobile experience is key to retaining website traffic and preventing your clients from going to your competitors.

How to Avoid: Develop responsive website designs that are simple and effective on both desktop and smaller screens like mobile phones and tablets. (e.g., Apple and Lyft).

2. Low-Quality Stock Media

Don’t get me wrong, stock images and videos are great resources for website designs. However, the use of low-quality stock media can be a big turnoff to your visitors. This refers to using cheesy, blur, and unrealistic stock images that can appear impersonal and hurt your brand reputation.

How to Avoid: Source for authentic-looking and lifestyle images that help readers connect better. Try to search for more concrete and specific components of the image, rather than for generic concepts.

3. Cluttered Content

One of the most common website design mistakes I see in my clients is having chunks and chunks of unorganised content or graphics on their website. On the user end, it may lead to a case of information overload in the readers, causing unnecessary stress and anxiety. This can adversely impact the decision-making process, resulting in a poor user experience.

How to Avoid: Minimise the use of lengthy paragraphs in complete sentences and arrange them in bite-size pointer. Organise your content to put the most important text in the headings.

4. Lack of Call To Action (CTA)

A call to action is a prompt on the website that informs the user on what to do next. Failure to have an effective call to action is a costly website design mistake – without it, it can lead to confused visitors leaving the webpage all together, hurting your conversion rates.

How to Avoid: Strategically place call to action buttons on parts of the site easily found. This could be above the fold (top of the page), in the navigation bar, in the margin, or above the footer. Ensure that your CTAs are convenient to reply to and contextually relevant.

5. Poor Brand Style

Using too many fonts, or conflicting colours, might be making your website hard to read. Poor design choices can cause readers to develop negative impressions about the brand and its products or services.

How to Avoid: Understand the meanings behind colour and typography to improve your brand style by associating with those qualities. A good rule of thumb is to stick to three fonts and colours throughout your entire site to keep a consistent and uniform look.

In a nutshell,

Websites are essentially your brand’s identity in the virtual world, so take the time to make it a good one. If you have little time and knowledge for website designing, consider hiring an expert web designer. They will have the professional expertise to design a website that not only looks good, but most importantly, converts.