You have a business, and you want a website for it. Your Website is your virtual office, and not just a pamphlet that most people think it to be. It should not just have the information regarding your business, but it should also give a feel that you mean business.

Like every domain, researchers have identified stuff that works and also the stuff that doesn’t work. You must make sure that you don’t make these mistakes when designing your website.

1. Copying another Website

Usually when designing a website, people seek to replicate the design of their direct rivals. Since most of the people copy the websites of the best in the field, you are left with a design that everyone else has; failing to distinguish you from the crowd. If you deem your website to be important for the business, it is very important to have a website that distinguishes your from everyone else. Having a plan from the onset is a very important first step!

2. Thinking your website as just a source of information

Most people think that having a website is all about providing information about yourself and your product. But that’s not true! Research proves that even something as minor as color changes the viewers perception and change their behavior. Most people are not even going to read all the text you have on your website. It is important to have images, headlines and summarized text so that the viewers feel connected. It is also a good idea to consult with an expert graphic designer and discuss the psychological impact of the elements, colors and placement of text before starting out.

3. Not knowing what you stand for

• What is the purpose of the website?
• Are you trying to sell something, or you are planning to inform people?
• Do you want people’s information?
• What’s your SOP (Statement of purpose)
• and USP (Unique selling point).

It is extremely important to know the purpose of the website, because the website will be designed accordingly. Telling a developer to develop a website for you without consulting with a designer to identify the style and structure that will suit your purpose will lead to creation of a generic website, immensely reducing its performance.

4. Failing to have a Clear Call to Action Prompts

This is the most important consideration for every website. Now that you know the purpose of the website, your call to action has to be the most prominent and clear element on the website. It should stand out, prompting the user to click on it and act on it. Otherwise it will only make the website extremely complicated.

If you want people to subscribe to your website, then the subscription prompt has to pop-up.

• If you want to sell something, then the “Buy Now” button should be very prominent.
• If you want people to call you then “Call Us Now” prompt should be clear.
• Having a chatbot for interaction can also boost your sales.

5. Lack of white space

Overcrowding your website with information confuses the user and tires them out. It is extremely important to minimize your text by summarizing the information that you want to convey and spacing them out properly. People interact with information in a particular way, and there’s a concept of looking space that decodes the pattern in which people look at information. It is also important to design the websites keeping this in mind.

6. Making Navigation Difficult

When visiting many websites, you might have a hard time finding things that you want to search for. It is important to have a clear navigation/ menu bar so that people can easily get what they want. Many times the contact information is hard to find, sometimes the product details are not easy to find, and many times the purchase button does not work.

Relevant read:

• Guide to MVP development for SaaS
• Stages of web development

7. Failing to have the mobile version in mind

When developing a website, it is important to make sure that the website is responsive. A responsive website responds differently to different devices and browsers, making it easier to access across devices like laptop, tablet, and mobile phone. Usually the website opens with a three-column layout and a menu bar in case of a computer, while it changes to a single column website for a mobile phone.

8. Undefined Colour Scheme

If you look at a website and it looks horrendous, then the reason could be the choice of colours. Many times you might feel that you can pick any colour of your choice from the pallet and it will work. Poor colour choice can reduce your sales by upto 93%! Different colours trigger different emotions, while the use of right set of colours from the palette is extremely important in order to give your website an nice look and feel. A good designer follows one of the many colour schemes: Analogous color scheme that uses the colours that are next to each other. Complementary scheme uses colours that are on the opposite end of the colour wheel. While monochromatic scheme has varying levels of value and saturation of the same colour. There are many other schemes that are used to different effect.

9. Not thinking about Hosting & Speed

You have bought a domain name, and you have developed your website as well. Now is the time to have hosting. Hosting is the space you buy to keep your content online, so that people can access it. You might have seen websites crash many times, while sometimes you might be stuck and unable to access the website. It is important to know about them, so that you are not stuck with a well designed website that is very slow and fails to load. We will write about it in detail in the next articles. You can subscribe to our blog for regular updates.

Conclusion

If you want a website for your business, and want to have a decent website that works, it is extremely important to consider these mistakes and try to avoid them. Having a good designer, who can guide you through the process instead of just committing to design your website is extremely important first step. For any support, you can write to us at [email protected] and we will respond to you at the earliest.