There are a few functionalities and features that stand between making an ok website a GREAT website. And why would anyone publish anything less than GREAT, we say!
The reasons websites fail to convert sales and impress their visitors vary. These particular digital faux pas are the ones most commonly found by our team when it comes to redesigning and developing sites for our clients.
Poor Readability & Flow
When we talk about readability, we are referring to the comfort of ingesting the information on your site. This comes down to font, text size, text colour on the right background colour, and more. There are lots of things to consider, and this is something your graphic designer will naturally do. They will know what works best, and how to ensure your content is easy to read – keeping visitors on your site!
The legibility of your content comes down to your messaging. What are you saying? Is there structure to your content? Things like headings, subheadings, and breakouts will help to index your content allowing visitors to skim through and read the parts that appeal to them most. Block text can appear thoughtless and uninviting, especially in this fast-paced, consumer hungry, digital age.
A graphic and copywriter duo is worth engaging with to nail this element of your site.
Poor Call To Action
Make your objectives clear. Make sure your visitors can easily contact you with just one click. If you only provide your customers with a contact form, you might not hear from them – ever. Forms can be viewed as an extra step, and impersonal, so why not provide your email address (as well) for those deterred by forms. If you’re serious about having people contact you for business, be sure to have your contact on each page. In the header or footer, or both.
If you’re an online store, provide an “add to cart” button each time an item is pictured. The less clicks it takes a visitor to add to cart, and checkout, the more inclined they are to go through with a sale. Statistics show that upto 70% of carts are abandoned, with almost 30% of these being due to a slow checkout process – baymard.com
Poor Navigation
Hello! Can anyone help me? I am lost!
Not the phrase you want your visitors to be saying when they hit your site. Before you get too deep into the appearance of your site, and how many cool features you can sneak in, your site must make sense. It must bring people to the areas which bring in the business. This comes down to site mapping (AKA step one of building a website), and well-thought-out navigation which is based on proven consumer behavioural patterns.
If you content isn’t clearly laid out, or its simply content heavy, a search box will ease the issue, and help your visitor find exactly what they need. Highly recommend!
Hiring Someone Cheap
What’s that old saying? “Buy cheap, buy twice” … and that is the truth. Sometimes, offers really are too good to be true. This might involve further costs for you down the track to fix or redo your entire site. If you’re ready to really invest in your business, it’s worth spending money on your website first time around. You want to be proud of your site!
Some sites like freelancer.com and upwork.com may seem like a dream come true – until you see the quality of work delivered, if it’s delivered on time at all. Basically, if you want to pay someone offshore less than average wage, you’re going to get a less than average job.
Going It Alone
Don’t do this. If you want to showcase an innovative brand who cares about what they do, don’t jump on Wix, Squarespace, or one of the DIY web tools and expect to end up with an amazing design with functionalities that impress and convert sales. It just won’t happen. If you aren’t a web designer, don’t design a website. Leave that stuff to the experts who can make something long lasting which will be an asset to your business, not a hindrance.
If you aren’t shouting from the rooftops “come see my new site!”, it’s not worth it. If budget is the deciding factor, see our blog about how much a website really costs.
Undefined Branding
First comes website, then comes brand? No. No way. Your branding should be defined way before you get started on your site design. The functionality and goals are something you can work on ahead of time, but the branding is not.
Branding is important. This sets the scene for your entire business. Keep it consistent! A branding expert can jump on board your project and help you with everything from logo design, to colours, fonts, and themes. This will then be carried out throughout the design.
Based in Hawthorn, VIC, the team at SGD is lucky to have all the right hook-ups to get this in order for you. Contact us to chat more about this!
SGD HQ | Ground Floor 737 Burwood Road, Hawthorn, VIC 3122
