We all want our website to stand out from the pack and wow potential consumers. Some web design trends, while meant to make a site stand out, ultimately hurts the customer experience. Let’s face it: it doesn’t matter how attractive your website is if it doesn’t convert visitors into paying clients. Simply because something is new does not guarantee it is appropriate for your website.
Here are 5 web design trends to avoid, along with reasons why.
Text is being replaced by images.
Are you familiar with the phrase “Less is More”? In this case, however, that is not the case. That clean website with very little text and enormous, gorgeous images may appear fantastic, but it will not rank well in search engines. Using a picture to replace text on your website will harm your SEO. Text is what Google and other search engines are looking for when they crawl your website. Their bots need words to know what it is that you website is about. This can become a problem for those that have images instead of text, so be careful with this.
Don’t get me wrong, they look at your graphics as well, but the written language on the page is what actually tells Google what your site is about. Nobody cares how attractive your website is if they can’t discover it.
This applies to any papers you intend to post on your website. Instead of supplying a PDF file with a whitepaper that contains important details about your industry knowledge, develop a blog or service page to supplement the whitepaper. Google will then crawl the article, which will enhance your ranking.
Landing Pages That Aren’t Well-Designed
Congratulations, you’ve made it to the top of the search results, right in front of your target consumer. Regrettably, this is only a partial solution. This important and interested party must now be converted into a customer. The most efficient method to do this is to provide them with immediate access to the information they require.
Although it appears to be a straightforward task, many firms fail to do it effectively. If a website visitor comes to your site looking for heating services, the first page they see should be all about heating services. If they get on a page discussing heating, air conditioning, ductwork, and a list of other services, you may be wasting your valuable traffic by burning your most crucial information. Make it easy for users to get the information they need, and they’ll be more likely to become customers.
Having excellent landing pages may necessitate the creation of other pages on your website. They should be tailored to the service you’re discussing. There’s no need to include heating and air conditioning maintenance on the same page; separate them. As an added bonus, your SEO and search engine rating will benefit greatly from this expanded material.
Contact the experts at The SEO Chick today for more information on how to create high-quality traffic-converting landing pages.
Fonts that are no longer in use
It’s incredible how a small adjustment in the font can totally transform the feel and look of your website. You can read the same text in a variety of fonts and experience a variety of feelings. Make sure to keep this in mind when developing your website.
Your logo is an excellent place to start when deciding which font to employ. It’s already a representation of your brand, and if it was created with the core of your company in mind, it should align with the attitude and content on your website. Choose something that is both unique and simple to read. The last thing you want is for your users to have to read something more than once in order to get what you’re trying to express.
Most websites use two or three distinct typefaces. There’s something for the headlines and something else for the body copy. Here, consistency is crucial. The more fonts and, by extension, text sizes you utilize, the more disorganized and difficult your message gets to read. Remember, we’re not trying to show off how exotic we can be; instead, we’re attempting to convey the story of your company and why someone visiting the site should do business with you.
Using Stock Photography
Isn’t a picture worth a thousand words? If you use stock photography on your website, those 1,000 words say lame, dull, unimaginative, uninspired, clichéd, and worn. Stock photos have many purposes, the most effective of which is as a temporary replacement for your original imagery. The visuals may appear to be attractive. They are staged, feature gorgeous people, and are far quicker to obtain than arranging a photo session at your place of business, but candid real photographs will outperform them in the long term.
We’ve all visited websites with a plethora of stock pictures, some of which you’ve definitely seen on multiple sites. Visitors to websites frequently ignore colorful, generic pictures, according to studies. Replace them with genuine, original photographs that reflect the content and personality of your company. You have no excuse because the device you’re reading this on can snap high-resolution photographs of your workplace, workers, and products/services that will look excellent on your website.
Make sure those new photos are correctly optimized for SEO, which you can learn more about on our blog. Also, make sure you’re holding your device horizontally before taking the photo. Portraits function better on websites than landscape photos.
Icons that aren’t standard
Use an icon that users will recognize if your site’s navigation is represented by icons. The Hamburger (a three-line stack) is widely used to navigate the menu on a smartphone. While it may be interesting to come up with a unique appearance for your mobile navigation, deviating too far from the rules can degrade the user experience.
Use the uniform design for social network icons as well if you’re displaying them on your site. You can use the branding guidelines provided by the social networking networks to ensure that you use the correct one in your design. The Facebook icon, for example, is a lowercase f on a blue backdrop. Making your own with a pink uppercase F may make it difficult for your users to distinguish the logo. Because both Twitter and Tumblr use a lowercase t, having the right color and a period after the t for Tumblr is crucial for brand recognition.
Final Thoughts
If you only remember one thing from his piece, it should be that your website is a reflection of your brand. In many circumstances, it’s your first chance to make a good impression. The look and content on the page should provide a new visitor to your website with a sense of how you do business. Call today and let us help you come up with an appropriate website design that will enhance your users’ experience and ultimately lead to more leads and sales.