User Experience: 11 Design Mistakes

Don’t Let a Bad Web Design Kill Your Business:

Everybody knows that a website is a vital part in any digital marketing strategy, but that’s just one aspect.

You can have a good website that gets heaps of traffic, but if the design does not go along with your audience, then this will kill your conversions, and as a result, hurt your business.

In this opportunity we will let you know the 11 design and Ux mistakes that kill your conversions, so you can spot them and fix them as soon as possible.

#1 – Lack of Focus:

You are smart enough to understand that the main purpose of a website is to sell your services, but if your site lacks of focus, then this will hurt your conversion rate.

Some websites are truly beautiful, a real artwork, but they lack of focus, and beauty alone won’t generate a positive ROI for your business.

When there’s not a clear focus, too much clutter and a complete disorder, your visitors will get distracted, lose interest and finally leave. You have got to avoid that if you want to convert more visitors into clients or sales.

What can you do? Something as simple as adding a frame around an important element, like a button or contact form, is everything you need to improve your conversions. Using arrows have also proven to be of great help.

That’s why at SEO Heroes Bangkok we design websites with a clear focus, so your visitors land on your site and know exactly what to do. We go further than simply adding a frame around important element, so you can get more conversions.

#2 – Poor Call to Action (CTA):

It doesn’t matter how much traffic your website receives, if you don’t let them know what to do, then you will get low conversions, and therefore, leaving plenty of money on the table.

That’s why CTAs exist, so you can let your visitors what to do. Your calls to action must be straight to the point, there’s no room for ambiguity. People need to know what you want them to do, as simple as that.

What can you do to improve this situation? If your website is plagued with bad CTAs, then you can fix it by simply getting rid of the ambiguity and writing clear and straightforward calls to action, here you have a few examples:

1. Book Now!
2. Call Us
3. Add to Cart
4. Buy Now
5. Buy This

Adding some sort of scarcity like “just for 24 hours”, “just 10 left”, “limited edition”, “available only until tomorrow”, etc. has proven to an excellent way to trigger your visitors’ emotions, and hence, improve conversions.

There are many other psychological techniques to persuade your visitors to take a concrete action, and here at SEO Heroes Bangkok we implement them in every website we design, so you can obtain an amazing conversion rate.

#3 – Bad and Complicated Navigation:

There are bad things, but nothing worse than a website with poor navigation… that’s the worst!

If you want your visitors to stay in your website, then you need to provide them with an easy navigation, because if they cannot explore your website easily, then more often than not they will leave unsatisfied, and you should know that this will not only affect your conversions, but also your Google rankings.

The navigation should be intuitive, so your visitors can find the information they are looking for fast and easy. This will make them stay on your website for longer, which is of great help for improving your conversions.

How to fix it? For starters you should avoid crowded menus, those are the worst and people hate them. Your menus must be functional, straight to the point and simple. You don’t need to overcomplicate it.

#4 – Incorrect Use of Images:

There’s no doubt about it that images constitute an essential part in web design. As you probably know: a picture is worth a thousand words.

But well, the incorrect use of images will simply kill your conversions. How so? Allow me to explain you how: if you don’t optimize your images, then they will wreck the load speed of your website, and this will reduce your conversions.

Another issue is that when your website has too many images with no clear order or focus, then this will distract your visitors, and you already know that this is a killer for conversions.

What can you do about it? If you really need to use JPEG images, then you should compress them. But my personal advice is to use PNG images, and if you have Photoshop, then make sure to save them for the web. This will make them lighter, and hence, make your website faster.

#5 – No Responsive Web Design:

Nowadays more than 50% of search queries in Google come from mobile devices.

Let’s imagine this scenario: you are finally ranking for your top keywords, getting tons of traffic but your web design is not responsive.

What do you think will happen? It is easy to tell: a large part of those visits will leave your website quickly, because it doesn’t look well on their mobile devices.

Can you already see how an unresponsive website can kill your conversions? If people cannot visualize your site in a good format, then they will leave very fast. This will hurt your conversions and your rankings too, something that will reduce your traffic as well.

What can you do about it? Simple hire a good web design company to take care of the problem. There are many WordPress themes which are mobile responsive, but if you really want to cut it, then you need a fully-customized solution, something that we can offer you!

#6 – Wrong Use of Color:

Colors are an important part in web design, and when they are not chosen correctly, then this will affect your website negatively.

Every professional and experienced web designer in Bangkok should knows that colors have different effects on people, and hence, choosing the right ones is a must-do.

Colors can either help your website or kill it along with your conversions, because if you use too many colors without a concrete reason, then this will distract your visitors and in many cases make them sense a lack of trust.

What can you do? Begin by understand that each color represents different things. Here you have a few examples:

• Black: elegant, serious, death, enigmatic
• White: clean, honest, pure, transparent
• Gray: neutral, mature, sophisticated, conservative
• Red: Hot, joy, passion, danger, love
• Dark blue: Stable, expertise, mature, depth, power
• Light blue: Health, peace, understanding, cool, masculine
• Green: Nature, prosperity, harmony, growth, organic
• Yellow: Happiness, energy, intellect, positive, caution
• Gold: Elegant, mature, stable, wealth, illumination, wisdom

For example, using blue in a restaurant website would be a no-no, because it suppresses appetite. But on the other hand, it is perfect for corporations.

Red is a powerful color, and it can be used to improve your CTAs. Using it in colors with phrases like “Book Now” and “Buy This Now” would be excellent, because it triggers people to take fast actions.

Color psychology plays a huge role in converting your visitors into clients and sales. That’s why here at SEO Heroes Bangkok we pay close attention to this aspect, because it can either make your website successful or a failure.

#7 – Big Chunks of Text:

Want an easy way to scare your visitors and make them leave your website very fast? Then place big chunks of text in your landing page.

People are easily distracted and also annoyed by big chunks of text. This, along with a poor formatting, will make it hard for your website to generate any conversion.

People who are new to this field often think that by putting big chunks of texts in the page they are trying to rank they will get better results, but that’s not necessarily the case.

What can you do about it? It’s simple: you can a long text in your pages, but make sure you format it well. Use shorter paragraphs and make your content visually attractive. People really hate those big chunks of text, because they are boring and hard to read.

You need to engage in order to convert, therefore make sure you present your text in a visually-attractive format. This alone should be enough to see an improvement in your conversions.

#8 – Lack of Trust:

Even though people are more confident buying online these days, your website still needs to signal trust in order to improve your conversions.

Testimonials from past clients are an excellent way to boost the trust your website emits, but just like any other design element in your website, it needs to be presented in an attractive format and within a context.

That’s why everything in your website needs to be designed by following a concrete plan. And you can only achieve that by working with a serious and experienced web design studio.

What can you do? If your website does not present testimonials and social proof in a visually attractive way, then that’s the problem you have got to solve.

#9 – Outdated and Poor Design:

Just like too much beauty without proper planning can create distraction, an ugly and poor design is another way to decrease your conversions.

We are told that we should not judge things by their appearances, but your web visitors won’t give you a second chance if your web design is ugly and outdated.

An elegant, professional and attractive website makes your visitors trust in what you are selling, especially in competitive industries.

What can you do? If you recognize that your web design is poor and ugly, then you need to a makeover. If there is no clear hierarchy, no purpose and no planning, then your best bet is to hire a professional studio to design something new and better for your business.

#10 – No Hierarchy:

Following the previous point, if your design doesn’t have a clear hierarchy, then this will affect your conversion rate negatively.

If your headings and sub-headings do not transmit a clear message nor have a proper order, then this will confuse your visitors and make them think more than needed, and have no doubt that this will have a negative impact in your conversions.

What can you do? Your heading needs to catch your visitors’ attention right off the bat, so you can use the sub-headings to explain your product or service in more detail.

And of course, this hierarchy needs to be clear and visually attractive. Therefore, if you recognize that your website lacks of it, then here you have the problem to solve.

#11 – Unecessary Design Elements:

Some people think that the key to achieving more conversions is by adding as many elements as possible, but that’s a recipe for disaster.

When a web page doesn’t have substance, it’s easy to put the style over it, but that’s not right. Style is subject to substance, because your design should solely use the design elements that are necessary to deliver your message to your audience.

What can you do? You should audit your whole website and see if you are committing this serious mistake. In case you do, then you need to define the substance of your website and make changes according to it.

Conclusion and Final Words:

As you can see there are several mistakes that can kill your conversions, and therefore, generate a smaller ROI. Driving high-quality traffic to your website is an important part, but is not the only one, because if the web design is not top of the line, then it will be hard to convert your traffic.

That’s why it’s important to work with a highly-experience and professional web design studio like SEO Heroes Bangkok, because we can design a highly-converting website for you. We know that your website is an important asset for your business, therefore, we do our best to deliver you results!