You've surely heard this sentence before: "You only have one chance to make a first impression."
Well that's what happens on the internet too. In this article, we will help you avoid common site design mistakes that may turn off visitors.
We'll discuss how to make sure your pages load fast, your site is mobile-friendly, has good content, and is easy to access.
How to make sure that pages load fast
First, you need speed. Internet users are notoriously impatient, and if pages take too long to load, they will undoubtedly leave.
There are a lot of technical actions that you or whoever is creating your site can do to increase the speed of the site, such as choosing the right technologies and hosting solutions. But there are also some simple fixes.
1- Compress images
For example, if your page contains images, use the smallest images you need, and let the larger, high-quality images appear only as thumbnails. Many programs can resize or compress images to make them smaller, which makes downloading faster.
2- The simplicity of the website design
Also, keep the website design simple. The less visitors need to download and reuse, the faster the pages will be. Use the same background image on multiple pages, and ask the creators of your site to make it more interactive with codes and scripts.
If you want to test what you're doing, try opening the site on your mobile phone using mobile data and not Wi-Fi, and watch how long it loads to make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
This is an important step because many users use their smartphones as their primary surfing platform, and if it is difficult to navigate your site on their devices, you will likely lose interest.
How to make your site mobile friendly
Perhaps the easiest way to make your site mobile friendly is to build it from scratch using a certain approach such as:
1. Responsive design
Responsive design that shows the site according to the type of device used by changing some of its elements such as stacking text and images vertically for smartphones. If you want to know if your site is mobile friendly, you can try Google's Mobile-Friendly Test.
Don't forget other functions unique to touch screens, such as scrolling and tapping. Make sure your site components respond to this type of “input”.
See: How search engines see the web?
2. Use custom icons
Using widely recognized icons and making content clear and well-organized will help visitors who use smaller screens find what they want.
3. Facilitate access to your phone number and address
Moreover, make sure that your phone number and address are easily accessible. Many devices are equipped with GPS and mapping features that can help visitors while they are on the move. And of course, while browsing your mobile site, it should be easy for visitors to contact you.
4. Operating systems
And you have to remember that users will enter your site from different browsers, such as Chrome or Firefox, and different operating systems such as Windows or Mac.
Test the speed of your site as much as you can from different computers, smart devices, and browsers.
- Does your site appear correctly in all of them?
- Does it force you to download plugins?
This is another thing that may keep visitors away from your site. Imagine that you are a visitor, ask yourself:
- Why I am here?
- What am I trying to do?
- What problem am I trying to solve?
For example, if you have a bakery that makes cakes at the request of a customer, someone is more likely to visit your site because they want one.
In this case, you can add pages to your site explaining your decorating style and innovative ideas; But having comments and photos of an existing customer might be better proof.
So, these are some of the common mistakes that many websites make. To avoid them, make sure your website pages load fast and work properly, regardless of which device or browser the visitor is using.
Think about customers when you create your website content and try as much as possible to meet their needs and attract their interest in your business.