One of the best things about the Internet is that it levels the playing field for business owners. Anyone can set up a website and as long as it’s well-designed, and many of your visitors will have no idea whether the company behind the site is a one-man-band or a multinational corporation.Â
A well-designed website makes your company look trustworthy and professional. A poorly designed website, however, will drive visitors away and could do a lot of damage to your brand.
Common Web Design Mistakes
While anyone can make a website, it takes skill and training to make a good one. Common mistakes made by novice designers include:
• Inconsistent choice of fonts
• Layouts that do not scale well to different screen sizes
• Slow loading times
• Failure to close the sale with a ‘call to action’
• Lack of cross-browser compatibility
• Confusing user interfaces
• Poor search engine optimization (SEO)
• Creating a site that is difficult to update
• Poor security choices leaving the website open to attack by malicious users
The Cost of Bad DesignÂ
According to a survey by Hostway and Zeus Technology, poorly performing websites cost businesses more than £5.6 billion each year. This survey focused on the “abandon rate” – the number of consumers who start to make a purchase and then leave the website before completing the shopping cart process. This abandonment could be due to a process that was confusing, slow or difficult, or the user was put off from making the purchase because something made them lose faith in the website.
The survey did not take into account the cost of lost consumers because a website is not visually appealing, suffers from a lot of ‘down time’, or is so difficult to update that the business owner leaves out-of-date information on the home page. Nor does it cover the cost of security breaches, which can shatter even the most loyal customer’s faith in your business.
It is particularly important to use a professional web development company to set up ecommerce websites where good security is essential. Remember that your website is the first thing that most people will see when they look for information about your company. Think of your website as a 21st century brochure, designed to impress prospective customers and build your reputation – and, crucially, close the deal on potential business sales.
If you are planning to update your website, think carefully before trying to take on the job yourself. You may have learned HTML at school, but modern websites are usually fully-featured, complex applications which require an understanding of programming languages and databases, as well as knowledge of the latest versions of HTML, JavaScript and CSS. If you don’t know how to tie everything together then designing a website will be a time-consuming project.
If you are looking for a professionally designed website then consider First Internet web design Manchester to make the most of your online business opportunity.
