By helloDarwin
June 28, 2023
7 mistakes to avoid when creating a website
Creating a website provides an essential online presence, enabling a company, organization or individual to promote itself and reach a wider audience. It's also a powerful tool for promoting products, services or ideas, facilitating communication with customers and establishing credibility in the ever-changing digital world.
However, embarking on the creation of a website is a complex task that requires a certain amount of care and attention. Here are 7 mistakes to avoid when creating your website!
1. Lack of structure
Poorly organized navigation menu
When creating a website, avoid the mistake of neglecting structure, especially in the navigation menu. Poor organization can make navigation difficult for users. Prioritize the essential sections of the site in the menu and highlight the most important pages. Avoid overloading the menu with too many elements to avoid losing visitors. A well thought-out structure promotes a fluid, clear user experience.
No clear hierarchy of elements
Lack of structure when creating a website becomes an obvious mistake when key elements such as CTAs, images, links and products overlap in no apparent order. Important elements that should be highlighted, such as new products and essential information, go unnoticed in this mess. This lack of a clear hierarchy creates confusion for users, who find it hard to find what they're looking for. Well-defined organization is crucial to highlighting relevant elements effectively.
Abundance of elements
An abundance of elements with no clear distinction as to their importance is also a sign of a lack of structure. This overload makes it impossible to determine which section is more crucial than others. As a result, like a poorly organized menu and lack of hierarchy, it can confuse visitors, who have difficulty finding their way around and identifying priority information. It's essential to be discerning and limit the number of items displayed to avoid this confusion and offer a more intuitive user experience.
2. Few call-to-actions which leads to a decrease in conversions on the website
Buttons for purchase
The mistake of lacking "Call-to-action" when creating a website is the absence of clear, visible purchase buttons for the subscriptions, products or services on offer. These elements are essential to facilitate the flow of the potential buyer's visit. By integrating these strategically placed buttons and links, we improve conversion rates by encouraging visitors to take concrete action. These purchase buttons optimize the user experience by simplifying the buying process. Optimizing these "Call-to-action" guarantees a website that converts well and achieves its commercial objectives.
Buttons for social media
The absence of social media buttons makes it difficult for visitors to access the company's means of communication. Integrating buttons for sharing and following social networks encourages the creation of a community around the company. It also encourages direct contact with consumers, facilitating interaction and strengthening customer relations. Ignoring these "Call-to-actions" for social media limits opportunities for growth and engagement. It is therefore essential to include them to strengthen the company's online presence and foster engagement with the public.
Contact buttons
The mistake of lacking "Call-to-action" when creating a website also manifests itself when contact buttons are insufficient, preventing visitors from quickly finding help. Including clear, visible contact buttons facilitates communication and assistance for users with questions or concerns. These buttons also play a vital role in improving conversion rates by guiding potential buyers to the information and resources they need to make an informed purchasing decision.
Learn more about creating effective call-to-actions!
3. Poorly executed site design
Design no longer up to date
Poorly executed site design can result in a design that is no longer in step with current trends. It's essential to adopt a modern design that reflects the latest aesthetic advances. Opting for an attractive, contemporary design enhances the user experience by offering a visually pleasing aesthetic in line with visitors' expectations. An outdated design risks giving the impression of neglect, which can damage a company's credibility. It's therefore essential to keep abreast of design developments, to ensure a competitive online presence and an optimized user experience.
Low-quality photos and videos
These visual elements play a vital role in showcasing products, and can have a considerable impact on conversion rates. Low-quality photos and videos show a lack of care, and can compromise a company's credibility and professionalism. High-quality visuals, on the other hand, demonstrate attention to detail and boost visitor confidence. So, it's essential to use quality media to ensure a positive corporate image.
Confusing design
Quality design is essential to provide a fluid and accessible user experience. A careful arrangement of visual elements such as colors, typography and images makes for a pleasant visit to the site, encouraging users to spend more time there. On the other hand, a confusing design can disorientate visitors, causing them to abandon navigation. It's therefore essential to adopt a clear, well-organized design to encourage engagement with the site and enhance its content.
Learn more about web design best practices!
4. Having a slow and not optimized website
A good server for your site
One of the mistakes that must be avoided when setting up a site is poor site performance. This typically means that the site is too slow. A fast site is essential to offer visitors a pleasant and satisfying user experience. When the site is excessively slow, this can cause frustration and discourage users, prompting them to leave the site before they've had a chance to explore its content. To speed up download speeds, it's essential to adopt certain practices.
Light content and optimized source code
First of all, it's crucial to ensure that site pages are not overloaded with photos, videos or other multimedia elements. Optimizing these elements in terms of size and format reduces their weight, and therefore the time needed to download them. Well-designed and efficiently implemented code can also help improve site performance. Eliminating superfluous elements, optimizing queries and using caching techniques can reduce site response times and improve overall site speed.
Good site performance is crucial in delivering a smooth, enjoyable user experience, boosting visitor retention rates and contributing to user satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Your website is not responsive
A site must adapt to phones and tablets
When a site is designed to adapt to all types of screens, it greatly enhances the user experience. Users accessing the site from their smartphone or tablet will enjoy smooth navigation and a display adapted to their device. On the other hand, a non-responsive site can be difficult to view on these devices, with elements overlapping or requiring zooming to be read.
Google now goes for a mobile first strategy
Optimizing the site for mobiles and tablets increases the chances of conversion for a greater number of visitors. Users will be able to make purchases, fill in forms or interact with the site easily, which will promote engagement and loyalty. Ignoring the importance of responsive design can result in lost visitors and business opportunities especially now that Google prioritizes mobile devices for its platform.
So it's vital to create a site that delivers an optimal user experience across all devices, to maximize results and meet the expectations of increasingly mobile users. By adopting a responsive approach, we ensure that the site adapts to all screen sizes, offering a fluid, pleasant and functional experience for all users.
Find out more about responsive web design!
6. Not caring about SEO from the creation of the website
Little effort made to strengthen SEO
Well-exploited SEO is essential for increasing site traffic and improving search engine visibility. Several techniques can be implemented to optimize referencing.
First of all, it's important to include relevant keywords in the site's content, and to enrich this content with blogs, videos and images. The use of well-structured titles (H1, H2, H3) also helps to signal the importance and hierarchy of content to search engines. In addition, the use of meta descriptions and the insertion of outgoing links to quality sites reinforce the site's credibility in the eyes of search engines.
A technically solid SEO
To achieve technically solid SEO for your website, it's important to consider the theme, element structure, and readability of your content. Select an SEO-friendly theme that loads quickly and is well-coded. Pay attention to proper element structure, including headings, meta tags, and structured data, which helps search engines understand your content. Lastly, focus on creating high-quality, readable content that engages users while incorporating relevant keywords for Google. By addressing these aspects, you can improve the technical SEO of your website and enhance its visibility and ranking on search engines.
Having an optimized content strategy
Optimizing your content is vital for SEO success. By conducting keyword research and strategically incorporating relevant keywords into your content, you can increase its visibility on search engines. Providing valuable information, using proper formatting, and ensuring readability further enhances the optimization of your content.
Neglecting these essential aspects of SEO limits the site's potential and reduces its chances of ranking highly in search results. It is therefore crucial to devote efforts to SEO optimization right from the site's creation, using recognized methods to maximize its potential.
Implementing a solid SEO strategy enables the site to attract qualified traffic, improve its online visibility and stand out from the competition. In short, SEO plays a central role in the success of a website, and it's essential not to neglect this dimension when creating it, in order to exploit the site's referencing potential to the full.
More SEO tips for your website.
7. Lack of company information
No "about" section
This section is essential for providing key information about the company, such as its values, history and mission. Providing this information allows visitors to familiarize themselves with the company, understand its identity and develop a sense of trust. The "about" section also provides an opportunity to highlight the company's skills and expertise, as well as the differentiating factors that set it apart from the competition. The absence of an "about" section can create a feeling of lack of information and leave visitors with unresolved questions. It is therefore crucial to include a detailed and engaging "about" section to establish a connection with the visitor and reinforce the company's credibility.
Unlinked social networks
The mistake of lacking company information when creating a website also occurs when social networks are not linked. It's crucial to establish links to the company's social network profiles on the website. This integration informs site users of additional company initiatives and communications. Social networks offer an additional platform for sharing news, promotions, events and other relevant information. Linking social networks to the website encourages visitors to follow and engage with the company on these platforms, fostering the creation of an engaged community. Neglecting this connection deprives users of easy access to additional content, and limits the opportunities for communication and interaction with the company. It is therefore essential to ensure that links to social networks are visibly integrated into the website, to inform users and foster an ongoing relationship with the company.
Contact information not present
It's vital to include the company's contact information on the site, as this quickly directs visitors to the company's physical location. Contact details, such as address, telephone number and e-mail, provide users with a direct means of communicating with the company, asking questions or obtaining further information. Neglecting this essential information creates a barrier to communication, and risks missing out on conversion opportunities. It is therefore imperative to clearly display the company's contact details on the site, preferably in the "Contact" section or in the footer, in order to facilitate getting in touch and ensure a complete and satisfying user experience.
The information to know before creating your website
In conclusion, creating a website is crucial for establishing an online presence and promoting products, services, or ideas. However, it's important to avoid common mistakes to ensure the success of your website.
- Establish a clear and well-structured navigation menu for easy user navigation.
- Create a hierarchy of elements to ensure a logical and organized presentation of content.
- Prioritize important elements and highlight their significance to guide users effectively.
- Implement clear and strategic call-to-actions to drive conversions and encourage user interaction.
- Design your website with a modern and visually appealing aesthetic, using high-quality visuals.
- Optimize your website for optimal performance, ensuring fast loading speeds and smooth user experience.
- Embrace responsive design to cater to mobile users and provide a seamless browsing experience across devices.
- Incorporate SEO best practices from the start to increase visibility and attract organic traffic.
- Provide comprehensive company information, including an engaging "about" section and easily accessible contact details.
As mentioned above, setting up and designing a website is a daunting process. That's why we recommend that you seek the valuable assistance of professionals with expertise in this field to help you create your website.
Work with the best web agencies and developers!
Related Tags
Website
UX
Website Creation
Web Design
About the author
helloDarwin
We create successful business alliances through tailor-made partnerships. Web marketing, video production, ERP/CRM integration... Whatever professional service you need for your business, helloDarwin helps you find the best service providers for your project. Free of charge, without any obligation and within 48 hours on average. We help you find grants, loans, aid and assist you throughout your digital transformation.