What Happens If You Have Bad Web Design?

As a business owner, saving the money you would spend to hire a web design company may be tempting by handling its design and maintenance on your own. However, this is usually a grave mistake.

Your business’ website is a major communication channel between your audience and your brand, and its design can have a massive impact on your company’s public perception. Without the help of website designers in Toronto, your website will likely fall short of your leads’ expectations and leave them with a negative impression of your brand. Here are a few of the most common web design mistakes that business owners make and how you can address the problem.

Steer Clear of These Common Web Design Mistakes

Content Overdose

Many websites attempt to improve their SEO by cramming as much keyword-rich content as they can onto every page. While keyword density does help with SEO, using too many keywords too many times will cause your content to be flagged for keyword stuffing. This can result in ranking penalties that seriously damage your website’s visibility.

Obsolete Content

Users who visit your website want to find the latest information on their topic of choice. Websites that are not updated frequently may feature outdated, obsolete content that cannot provide users with any meaningful answers. This impacts your website’s search ranking and may also turn off users who notice that you have been neglecting to update your content.

Over-Reliance on Stock Photos

There is nothing wrong with using a few stock photos to fill out your website’s visuals, but adding too many will quickly sour their appeal. The more stock images you use, the more likely it is that a user will recognize one or more of them from other websites. This makes your website look generic and may affect users’ impressions of your company.

Cluttered Layout

Websites can use flashy elements like videos, animations, and graphics to great effect in small doses. Adding too many of these things, however, will overwhelm the user’s senses and make it difficult for them to absorb any of the information being presented.

Non-Responsive Webpages

Your users are just as likely to access your website using their mobile phone or tablet as they are to do so using a desktop computer or laptop. A website that does not use a responsive design to accommodate all types of browsing will offer a poor user experience to those who visit it on mobile devices.

Broken Links

Backlinks from reputable external sources can be a hugely valuable boon for your company’s reputation and your website’s SEO. However, broken links from these sources do not carry SEO benefits and may damage your users’ impressions of your business.

How Does Bad Web Design Affect Your Business?

Your Credibility Is at Stake

Companies in high-stakes industries such as law, finance, and healthcare must maintain a trustworthy and professional image to continue receiving new business. If your website is cluttered, visually busy, difficult to canaltaronja.cat navigate, or full of unhelpful content, you risk losing your audience’s trust.

It Makes Your Business Look Outdated

Failing to keep your web design and content in line with current best practices makes your company look out of touch. Your SEO will be negatively affected, and your audience is sure to take notice as well. Knowing that they cannot rely on your business for up-to-the-minute information, they may instead turn to your competitors.

The Cost of Losing Customers

Bad web design is not just a threat to your reputation. It has a tangible effect on your bottom line. Every time a lead visits your website and finds it lacking, you lose that lead as a potential customer forever. The more times this happens, the more you will struggle to grow your business and capture greater market share within your industry.

Keep These Practices in Mind When Designing Your Business Website

Include SEO-Optimized, Fresh and Relevant Content

Populating your website with original, professionally optimized content that offers value to your users will boost your website’s search ranks and attract a larger audience. Refresh your content frequently as new information becomes available and include plenty of low-competition industry-relevant keywords to ensure that your audience can easily find your output.

Make Effective Use of White Space

Too much text and too many graphics can make your webpages look overwhelming to users, causing them to leave your site in favor of your competitors. To keep them around, Toronto web designers recommend breaking up your content into smaller, more digestible chunks with simple white space between them.

End Content with Direct CTAs

Attracting new users is just one of your website’s goals. Adding clear calls to action (CTAs) to your content guides those users toward conversion and an eventual purchase. There should be a CTA at the bottom of every piece of content you publish, and your company’s contact details should always be easy to reach with a few clicks.

Implement Smooth and Swift Navigation

Smooth navigation is a critical component of a good user experience. Every page on your website should be accessible in two clicks at most. Avoid bogging down your website with too many high-definition photos or videos to keep your load times and bounce rates low. This shows your audience that their needs are always on the top of your list of priorities.

Contact WSI Comandix for Expert Website Design in Toronto

Your business’ website is the cornerstone of its success. Investing in professional web design services from a web design agency in Toronto will give you the foundation you need to grow your audience, build your customer base, and ultimately multiply your bottom line.

WSI Comandix’s industry-leading web design and website redesign services have helped countless small and medium businesses like yours reach their full potential. Contact us today to learn more about our Toronto web design services and discover all the benefits that our web design packages will bring to your business.