December 2018

Your Website Should NOT Have These in 2019

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A well-designed website is essential to your success online, it will increase traffic, create brand awareness and build trust. Potential customers must have a positive user experience for you to be able to build loyalty and sell more products or services. A well-designed digital presence that embraces contemporary ideas and modern functionality will allow you to achieve your website goals and gain a return on your investment.

Just like clothing and hair styles there are many trends of website design which were once acceptable or even desirable that are now redundant. With constantly changing technology websites and their functionality are evolving at a rapid rate, to remain professional and relevant to your clients your website needs to stay current.

To help you evaluate your website currency we have listed some of the outdated and potentially harmful trends that need to be addressed in the new year.

Having no call-to-action

There are many reasons we have a website for our business, but the most important is to guide visitors to some type of action; click on a phone number, send an enquiry, make a booking or order a product or service. It is essential that you provide visitors with the opportunity to connect, subscribe, buy or download when they visit your website.
 
A website that doesn’t include a relevant call-to-action will not serve its purpose. Any call-to-action should be highly visible, well-placed on the page and demonstrate to the customer what they need to do. You are not trying to make your customer buy before they are ready but to keep them engaged and make sure they don’t feel lost, causing them to bounce.

No Security Padlock

It shouldn’t be a shock to anyone that Google has been moving towards a more secure web. They even have their own guide,'Securing Your Website With HTTPS,' which I encourage everyone to read. Yet with all of this push towards a more secure web, most businesses are ignoring the warnings.

While there are benefits from a search engine ranking standpoint, there are other advantages to converting your website to HTTPS. When a visitor sees a HTTPS website with a security padlock on the address bar it gives them a sense of assurance that the website they are visiting is secure and their information will be kept safe. Creating outside trust in your brand is something Google searches for as their goal is to provide users with the best information possible. Google understands that you have to go through some hassles to receive that secure certification, and it rewards you.

No responsive mobile design

Responsive website design is the way a website is built so that it automatically scales its content and elements to match the screen size on which it is viewed. Responsive design keeps images from being larger than the screen width and prevents visitors on mobile devices from needing to do extra work to read and view your content.

Responsive web design is mobile-friendly, it helps increase visibility on search engines which means more visitors to your website. Having more visitors to your website means more lead generation, additional brand awareness and increased sales, three big reasons why a responsive website is essential in 2019!

Poor navigation and hidden links

When it comes to designing a website, how it is navigated is of the highest importance. Navigation is the method used to explore and move through your website, it is a website design ‘trend’ that has changed dramatically in recent years. There is no point having a well branded, creative website if your visitors are unable to find all the valuable information you have developed.

Well thought out navigation and link placement will assist the user in finding all the hidden treasures they are looking for. Keeping website navigation menus simple, logical and highly visible will ensure your visitors have a positive user experience and keep them coming back for more.

Lack of white space

As our businesses evolve and grow, additional content is added to the website including new pages, social feeds, photo galleries, case studies and online signups. As the years roll on websites become crowded and cluttered diminishing the white space originally place around elements.

To ensure a good user experience it is important to critically review your website and make sure is has enough white space. Visitors should be able to quickly find the content they require. Buttons, icons and links should have space around them so that the right selection can be made. A lack of white space can cause overwhelm and potential customers will move on.

In conclusion your website should be goal orientated, well maintained and thoroughly reviewed annually if it is to remain your number one online marketing tool. These web design upgrades and mistakes to avoid should help ensure that your site doesn’t alienate your visitors but inspires them to return often.

Visit the new Belmont at Beechworth website developed after an Annual Website Health Check. Or enquire about booking a Digital Brand Health Check of your online and offline branding assets.