Did you know that 75% of your site’s credibility depends on its design? Web visitors might perceive your business as illegitimate if there are many web design mistakes. 

However, many companies need help to build websites that increase conversions and generate more revenue. Of course, your site must be appealing, but it also needs to generate revenue.

It’s a common mistake for companies to focus on a design that’s appealing rather than one that maximizes their conversions.

These are subtle mistakes, but they can cause a lot of damage.

They make it difficult for potential customers to complete their purchases, introduce problems and objections unnecessarily, and overwhelm web visitors.

Luckily, fixing these mistakes doesn’t require much.

Consistent efforts can drastically boost your site’s web traffic, leads, and sales. It all starts with identifying every web design mistake that hurts your conversions. 

Why It’s Crucial to Avoid Website Design Mistakes

Recent surveys report that 90% of internet users abandon a site because it’s poorly designed, and 94% of consumers say web design is why they mistrust a site. So, your site’s design plays a critical role in the success of your online business.

However, web design doesn’t refer to how your site looks–it’s about its functionality. Although a site’s visual appeal may influence the first impression of prospective customers, its functionality ensures you reach your target customers.

You must also incorporate search engine optimization (SEO) into your web design process to rank higher and boost conversions. Not doing so will lead to losing organic traffic and lower rankings in SERPs. 

Although avoiding common web design mistakes is daunting, you can simplify this process by understanding what’ll hurt and help your website’s productivity.

7 Website Design Mistakes to Avoid in 2023

Anticipate and avoid these seven website design mistakes to create a site that delights your customers and makes a great first impression, increasing conversions, sales, and findability across search engines.

1. Forgetting the Importance of Accessibility

Ignoring accessibility is the number one web design mistake you can make. If your site isn’t inclusive and accessible, you’re significantly limiting groups of customers who engage with it. For instance, people with disabilities are the largest minority group, with one billion people globally. 

Without inclusive and accessible design, you risk not connecting with a substantial audience segment, ultimately losing traffic and conversions, and miss opportunities to offer excellent user experience for all internet users.

For example, a feature like Live Caption was built for those who are deaf. Still, it also caters to people without disabilities because they may also use this feature in loud spaces or when there’s a lousy internet connection.

These helpful tips can also help incorporate accessibility and inclusivity in your web design process and potentially boost conversions:

• Don’t forget to include alt text
• Use high-color contrasts
• Use large, easy-to-read fonts, with a minimum of 18px font for your paragraph texts.
• Use images and media that showcase diversity
• Include continuous feedback in your website design
• Ensure your design is compatible with assistive technologies

2. Weak Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

Most sites need stronger CTAs that guide prospective customers to carry out desired actions or tasks.

If you don’t help your target customers along in their purchase journey with clear, understandable CTAs, they won’t take the action you want them to. This means low conversions, sales, and opt-ins.

Incorporating a large button above the fold is an excellent way to make your CTAs effective. But leveraging compelling, emotional copy that makes your prospects believe in your message and brand is the key to boosting conversions, opt-ins, and sales. Consumers no longer want to be sold to, they want to align with their favorite brands.

To create a clear, strong call-to-action (CTA), take inspiration from these simple tips:

• Again, place your CTA button above the fold
• Address common consumer concerns
• Integrate your unique selling propositions into your home pages
• Communicate the problem you’re helping your target audience solve

3. Ignoring Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Although you may think a poorly designed website means the front-facing customer experience is poor, content can make or break your traffic or lead-generation efforts.

Great content offers significant value and gets discovered organically through search engines. 

But there’s no magic formula to rank higher on search engine result pages.

Without a doubt, high rankings don’t happen overnight.

Old-school SEO tactics leveraged a mix of thin content, stuffed keywords, and tons of haphazard backlinks. Unfortunately, if you’re still making these grave web design mistakes, you can get penalized and lose brand authority.

Today, search engine algorithms value a website based on much more.

Here are a few things you should hone in on to improve your search rankings:

•  Leverage long-tail keywords. It’s easier to rank for longer keywords than shorter ones, and they’re likely to bring in more relevant leads.
• Publish quality content frequently. A stale site won’t help you build strong relationships with prospective or repeat customers. Instead, you must publish unique, fresh, and informative content regularly. Posting quality content regularly is a valuable SEO practice that can help you boost conversions and generate more sales.
• Encourage social engagement. An excellent way to build strong and lasting customer relationships is through social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Pinterest. These sites offer an excellent way to boost your brand identity and customer service recognition. Combine social sharing with publishing blogs frequently, and you have a recipe for higher rankings on search engines. 

4. Not Using a Responsive Design

In 2022’s second quarter, mobile devices accounted for 58.99% of global web traffic–excluding tablets. Thus, if your website isn’t easily navigable on mobile as it is on desktop, you’re likely frustrating your web visitors, increasing your bounce rates.

Internet users today, more than ever, visit websites from multiple devices, including tablets, smartphones, laptops, and TVs. Unfortunately, if your content looks poorly on any of these devices, web visitors will lose trust in your brand and click away from your website. 

So why does non-responsive web design happen? Some web owners assume their customers will only view their sites in desktop format and don’t consider mobile users. Others make efforts with their mobile design but don’t test out their websites to ensure users can interact with them seamlessly and intuitively.

To avoid this common web design mistake, prioritize designing for both mobile devices and desktops from the start. Then, test your final product with real consumers before you launch, tweak it where necessary, and collect customer feedback once your website is live. Designing a responsive site across multiple devices will keep your website customer-centered, high-performing, and responsive. 

5. Unclear Navigation and Communication

Clear navigation will reduce the friction web visitors experience once they land on your website. Thus, unclear navigation is a huge predicament. However, as more and more companies venture into the digital landscape, web content becomes complicated and more crowded; having clear navigation and communication across user journeys and various touchpoints can facilitate a smooth transition from a web visitor to a brand advocate.

Further, complex web layouts and poor communication can make visitors click away without understanding your products and site, resulting in a negative customer experience. 

To deliver a better customer experience, you must avoid assuming that web visitors already understand your offerings and know what to do on your website–by including customer feedback in your web design at every stage of the customer journey.

For excellent communication, ensure that when a web visitor arrives on your homepage, they immediately know who you’re and what you do. Demonstrate how your offerings can help potential and repeat customers.

For incredible navigation, leverage the “three-click” rule: web visitors who don’t find what they’re searching for after three clicks will probably leave your site. Web users visit websites for a reason: they must get what they want in as little time as possible. 

6. Slow Page Loading Speeds

Internet users expect websites to load quickly. Daily social media use, high internet speeds, search engines, and emails created this expectation. Modern web design philosophies endorse that if a web user visits a site that takes too long to load, the stakes are high, and that user will instantly bounce.

• Subconsciously, no internet user likes to wait for over two to three seconds. 
• A one-second web page loading time delay can cause a 7% conversion decline. 
• A slow-loading site is a top web design mistake and a significant CRO and SEO blunder.
• Google Search Central reports that to optimize your website design, you must solve blocked JavaScript, mobile-only 404s, unplayable content, and faulty redirects as soon as possible. 

Increasing web speed is crucial for online businesses and brands leveraging their sites for ROI-generating activities.

7. Irrelevant Pop-Up Implementation

If implemented correctly, pop-ups can help you generate significant leads and subscribers. However, suppose your site has irrelevant pop-ups obstructing web visitors from accessing primary content, especially on mobile devices. In that case, Google won’t take this kindly, and you’re also likely to frustrate web visitors, causing them to leave your site instantly.

Solve this blunder by placing pop-ups in a manner that doesn’t annoy web visitors:

• Implement pop-ups to appear if a web visitor has scrolled at least 70% of your web page.
• Test the effectiveness of pop-ups on your site by displaying a floating banner pop-up that prompts users to run a trial of your product.
• Ensure the design of your pop-up matches your overall web design or landing page.
• Ensure CTAs on your pop-up banner are clear and actionable.
• Choose the right color contrasts, spacing, and fonts to boost conversions.

Avoid Common Website Design Mistakes to Boost Site Revenue

Avoiding common web design blunders will improve your brand’s reputation and offer web visitors a better experience. They’ll want to return for more, ultimately boosting your conversions and revenue. 

However, to create a site that generates more conversions and revenue, you must create a site focused on your web customers.

When you know  who your target customers are, you can easily create a responsive site with clear navigation and communication and boost conversions. 

But it begins with your web visitors. Find out what they need, when and how they need it, and then give it to them.

Then, you’ll realize that avoiding common web design mistakes isn’t challenging to master.