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In today’s fast-paced world of business, a responsive and attracted website is something all companies need to ensure they offer. Doing so means they can reach as many prospective customers as possible to showcase their products and tell their story.
However, in recent years there has been a shift in what many people would perceive to be a successful website, as the move towards mobile browsing and slicker, more optimised layouts has led to some websites falling behind the times.
With this in mind, here we offer a short guide to some of the common misconceptions surrounding web design and the pitfalls companies and marketers can face when making key design choices. It pays to understand the bad practices of others, so they can be avoided where possible by the savvy web designer.
Lacking top-quality content
Key to achieving a positive ranking in the latest Google algorithm Penguin 4.0 is the ability of a website to demonstrate it is offering outstanding quality content that is of interest to the reader, relevant to the target audience and is written without errors or with excessive links.
This means focusing on the content of the site as much as its appearance. Make sure every page offers something unique and interesting that your target audience will want to read and get rid of any old pages that may not be up to scratch as we head into 2017.
Poor use of headers, sidebars and footers
Poorly laid out pages will automatically turn off the reader, as people are less likely to stick around and fully engage with a business if their site is cluttered with ill-thought-out headers, sidebars and footers.
It, therefore, pays to make these necessary items as unobtrusive as possible, while also limiting the number of ads and banners that can prove distracting to the eye.
Failing to consider responsiveness
The growth in mobile browsing during recent years has been immense and it is a behaviour that is only likely to become more commonplace in the future. As a result, web designers that fail to optimise their sites for viewing on mobile could be missing out on millions of hits.
Not only that, Google now penalises sites for being unresponsive in mobile searches, meaning maintaining a positive ranking can be more difficult without proper optimisation. Click here to learn more about this update.
Making core information hard to find
Nothing is more frustrating to a visitor to a website than when they are trying to find important information like contact details or links to a particular product or page, and they are unable to do so.
Top tips to avoid this include adding a search bar for easy site navigation and making sure that frequently viewed content like blogs and product descriptions include a sub-menu that enables visitors to easily move to other areas of the site.
Ignoring insight from analytics
With the massive number of hits that a properly optimised site can receive, many businesses may feel they have done enough to capitalise on their efforts when all of the above issues have been addressed. However, one key oversight that many developers make is to ignore the wealth of data that can be discerned through the use of Google Webmaster Tools.
Taking the time to set up these tools effectively can provide a wealth of information to identify everything from poorly-performing pages to analysing conversion flows. It really does pay to know how people are interacting with your website.
So that’s it, creating a site that fulfils the needs of the consumer and showcases your business to the very best is essential. Take the time to address any failings that we’ve listed above and your domain will be fit to keep drawing in those important business leads for years to come.
For further information and advise please get in touch with our team.