Web Design Mistakes – Conversion Rate Killers
Are you sure your design is working for your conversions? Is there anything you’re not sure about? Then, you’ll find this article helpful if that’s the case. We’ve gathered working tips and simple explanations that will give you a clear idea of how design affects conversion rate, what you’re doing wrong with your design strategy today, and how to fix it for your business. Catch fresh insights and get the most out of your websites.
What are the most common mistakes in web design?
While there are tons of tips and ways to improve design today, companies keep making the same mistakes. To change the situation, we share the most common design mistakes that are still relevant in 2024. Keep them in mind and avoid them.
Let’s start with navigation. When a user clearly understands how to get to any section or page of your website or app, it is a success. It’s easy to forget this point and navigation is so complicated that all metrics fall at the same time – attendance, time on site, scrolling percentage, and conversions, too. Don’t overcomplicate things where you should simplify.
The same situation with information overload. Sometimes it seems that the more text you add, the more informative it is for the user. Nope, this is a quite wrong idea. Obviously, you need text and graphics, but in a quantity that doesn’t overwhelm the users. They should do the targeted action and not get lost in the text columns. So don’t make your website look like a newspaper spread.
Also, today you can find inconsistencies between design elements. This means different colors, text sizes, fonts, and unrelated graphic elements. The website design should be made in the same style. It should be clear who you are and what you are about. This is how brands are remembered.
Another mistake is the use of unoptimized images that significantly slow down the page loading speed. This is especially important for mobile device users. No one will wait if the page doesn’t load in the first 2-3 seconds. One more thing about mobile devices. Some businesses forget that a website or app should be adapted for different devices, including smartphones. This is where most users look for information today. And so is your target audience.
All in all, we recommend you base the design strategy on your own experience with apps or websites. Are you comfortable using your product yourself? Is there anything you want to simplify or remove? Work on improving your products rather than repeating the same mistakes.
Conversion rate mistakes
Conversion rate killers are elements that affect the website conversion and performance all at once. Together, they shape a set of design mistakes that completely break your website. Anything that makes users stop exploring your website and do a targeted action (purchase, subscription, registration, etc.) is a conversion killer. Let’s call them “red flags” and explore all the categories.
Unclear forms to fill out
Keep the form simple so the user can fill it out all the way and click submit. Unfortunately, today you can find long, complicated, and incomprehensible forms that are not even read to the end. Personally, we watched out for a limited number of characters or a non-clickable “Send” button on different online platforms. It’s a red flag number one for your website conversion.
Poor user experience (UX)
Let’s be honest, people get annoyed by irrelevant pop-ups, intrusive ads, and anything that interferes with their content. It annoys you, and trust us, it annoys us too. Well, why do it to your customers?
Unclear calls to action (CTAs)
The call to action is the central link that is directly related to the conversion rate. If it’s not visible or unclear to the user, you’ll lose your potential customer. Actually, if a user comes to your site with the goal of doing a particular action, he or she will look for ways to do it. But if you don’t try to design it well, you will lose even a motivated customer.
Insufficient information about the product
Tell people in detail about your product or service. We’ve talked before about not overloading pages with text, but this mostly applies to the main page. If we’re talking about service or product pages, give as much information as possible, including photos or video reviews.
Lack of adaptability for different devices
This is a must-have for today’s hi-tech users. Everything you do to create a website should be immediately transferred to its mobile version. Adapt your product to different devices and get more users.
Reasons why businesses mess up web design
Often, these situations are just a result of not understanding the design rules and the target audience’s needs. That’s in short. However, in reality, there are many more reasons why businesses make mistakes in their digital product design. Let’s talk about it in detail.
As we’ve just said, the first step to bad website design is a lack of understanding of the target audience. Sometimes, businesses are in such a hurry to launch their product that they simply forget to research the audience’s desires, trends, or expectations. The result is wasted money and an ineffective product with no conversions.
Also, companies forget that the home page should be minimalistic, not a bulletin board with lots of text. Everyone wants to tell you what they do, what service they provide, and why you should choose them. This is an understandable desire, but not an effective one. You can do this on separate pages. Believe us, if you correctly convey the message in a few sentences on the home page, users will continue to study the information. That’s what they came for – in search of service and answers.
For some reason, a range of businesses still ignore mobile optimization. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the world is changing every day, and the audience’s needs are changing almost every minute. The new generation dictates new rules of user experience, so you should think about them to have an even wider audience.
We also want to say a little about the website structure. It’s extremely important, and, unfortunately, companies forget about it again. What is a website structure? This is the path your users take on your website. In this way, you introduce your brand step by step, offer to do a targeted action, and make it attractive with graphics. But what do we see today? Text blocks without a hint of a CTA, complex graphics that freeze, and unnecessary blocks that do not bring any benefit to the user. This is no longer a path, but a dense forest. You shouldn’t do this.
At last, the prime reason why businesses harm design is that they simply don’t test and collect users’ feedback. Thanks to this, you can identify issues at the initial stages of a website or app launch. While testing, you can understand where critical mistakes were made, where everything works perfectly, and what should be removed so as not to overload your product. So, keep this and other things we’ve discussed in this section in mind to have the best conversion rates among your competitors.
Top 5 web design mistakes that reduce conversion
In the previous sections, we’ve already mentioned the mistakes that are often made in design. Here we’re going to look at the top 5 website design mistakes that should be fixed first, as they have the greatest impact on its performance. So, let’s get started with examples of bad websites.
- Difficult navigation
When users find it difficult to navigate a website or don’t understand how to find the information they need, they leave. A clear and intuitive navigation structure is the key to keeping visitors on your website. Think in advance about the user’s path, how they will follow it starting from the home page, and whether it is convenient for you to follow this path. This is a complicated process that’s worth spending time on to boost your conversion rates.
- Weak call to action (CTA)
CTA buttons should be visible and clear so that users understand what they need to do to get the desired product or order a service. Make step-by-step guides if you want the user to be accurately guided. Invisible or unclear CTAs reduce the conversions number, because users may simply not notice them and not do the targeted action.
- Content overload
A lot of text or small images distract users’ attention. Moreover, you will simply make the website unattractive and incomprehensible. Minimalism and structure will help to create a pleasant impression and focus attention only on the prime thing.
- Lack of adaptability
Not having an adapted website version for mobile devices is the same as losing a significant number of users. They simply won’t be able to use it comfortably on the devices they have at hand. A responsive design will provide a convenient experience for every user, especially for today’s youth.
- Slow loading
Every user expects pages to load quickly, so a slow website often leads to an increase in bounce rate. Optimizing images, scripts, and other elements will help improve speed and keep visitors on the site longer.
Analyze again whether your website has these mistakes. If so, think of a plan to solve them right away. In the following sections, we’ll show you exactly how to do this.
How to find the design elements that drag down conversions?
To identify weaknesses in your design and the elements that affect it, you’ll need additional tools. Of course, you can collect some data manually, and for some cases, such as A/B testing, you will need SEO and analytics tools.
We recommend starting with analyzing user behavior. To do this, you will need heat maps, which are very helpful in this case. How do they work? They will show you all the places on the website where users hold their attention, where they click, how they scroll the home page, and how they fill out forms, if any. This way, you’ll see the whole picture: which elements attract attention and make people click on them, and which ones are ignored.
Also, conduct A/B testing, which we mentioned at the beginning. They will help you understand whether it’s worth adding a new element to your website or changing other elements (color, size, location, etc.). It works like this: you create several variants of your website pages, make certain changes, and launch them on the Internet. Only a certain percentage of users will see the new page version you want to test. And based on the data obtained (clicks, views, reactions), you’ll understand whether your audience likes these changes. Remember that any changes should be based on data, not on the guess.
Another valuable point is tracking analytics. The Google Analytics tool is really useful here. With it, you can track the customer journey, see at what stage the user leaves the website, and plan further work to improve this. Another useful tool is Google PageSpeed Insights, which will help you check the speed of loading pages on the website. Slow speed may be the reason for low conversion.
And the last thing to do to identify mistakes is to collect user feedback. Conduct surveys or use feedback tools to get opinions on users’ experiences on the website. The collected data can indicate what exactly seems confusing or unattractive to customers.
That’s a lot of work, we agree. But if you take the time to test each of the methods we’ve described, you’ll learn a lot about how your site is used and what your audience likes best. This will become the basis for further changes and improvements.
Why is tracking website and app design’s impact on conversions a must?
Since design directly shapes user experience and interactions with your product, tracking its analytics is essential. That is, how users behave when they leave, where they click, which website sections they skip, and which ones no one visits at all. All of this is important for analyzing the current situation and planning further actions and strategies to improve your website design.
A well-thought-out design will significantly improve conversion rates and help users navigate easily, find the information they need, and do targeted actions. But for this to happen, you need to track user behavior from time to time and understand the current situation with your website design.
Without regular monitoring, you run the risk of leaving problematic elements unnoticed, which can lead to lower conversions and potential customer loss. Another key point here is that you should analyze not when conversions drop, but before that moment to anticipate any downturns. So plan ahead for checks or do it systematically.
Improve conversion rate tips from TRIARE experts
Since our team has many years of experience in creating effective and attractive designs, we have a lot to advise you. The key design mission is to lay out a clear and interactive user path through the website sections and pages. It should be graphic storytelling that tells a story about you, your mission, and the services you provide. After the user clicks on the “Submit”, “Send”, “Contact” or “Order” buttons, consider that your design has fulfilled its mission perfectly.
If you have some issues with conversion and audience engagement, follow our tips which will definitely give you the expected results.
Focus on users: Design should meet the expectations and needs of your audience. Analyze changes in the behavior of modern people and collect feedback to be on the same page with your potential customers.
Provide quick access to important information: Place key details (such as contact information or product features) in prominent places so that users can quickly find what they are looking for.
Maintain a visual hierarchy: The most important elements (headlines, CTAs, main content) should be located in the first blocks of the home page. To ensure their visibility, use different fonts, sizes, and colors.
Limit the number of distracting elements: Avoid unnecessary animations and pop-ups to make it easier for users to focus on the main task.
Optimize pages for fast loading: Check the website pages and image loading speed. To avoid freezes, use compression for heavy files and take care to minimize unnecessary code.
Offer personalized recommendations: Dynamic content and personalized offers increase user engagement and make them feel like the product is custom-made for them.
Test and implement changes: Use A/B testing to test new designs. Keep only those changes that truly increase conversions and resonate with your audience.
Integrate our tips into your website design and you will get a working and effective product with a high conversion rate. The TRIARE team will be happy to become your partner on the way to creating a digital product and advise you on how to create a bespoke and conversion-boosting design.
Conclusion
Despite the fact that design mistakes happen, there is always a set of recommendations on how to do better. Focus on your business mission, analyze your target audience needs, keep abreast of today’s trends, and this will help you create an effective design that will work for your conversions.
We, as a TRIARE design team, will help you at every work stage and tell you which designs work better and what elements should be added today to increase conversions and other important indicators.
