Web design is largely overlooked by most website owners. Of course, they want to make their site pretty, but they don’t always understand what “pretty” actually means or how it can lead to stupid mistakes. Here are five web design mistakes that are killing your eCommerce sales.
#1 Too Many Choices
First of all, there’s the notion that customers want as many choices as possible. To some extent, this is true: When there are different things to choose from, your customers are likelier to be satisfied with their purchase because they will compare it to the other options available before concluding that this was the best one.
However, like many things, it’s not entirely true. In reality, having an abundance of choices can overwhelm your customers, leaving them unsure about what they should buy. In other words, they may avoid making a purchase altogether, simply because they can’t decide which one of the products they want more, nor do they want to spend more time comparing items.
To avoid this mistake, maintain variety in the things you sell but, at the same time, limit the options. For example, if you’re selling bedside lamps, choose two or three models, each with several color variations. The goal is to offer just enough choices for your customers to be able to find what they like the most.
#2 Too Much Information
Another mistake many web designers and website owners make is having too much information—or, rather, misguiding their customers with it. As with too many choices, too much information just confuses your customers because they can’t process everything at once.
If you want to include a lot of information on your website, try to break it up and put it on different pages. This chunking of information ensures that it is“sorted” by category, which will, in turn, help your customers understand it more readily. Why? Because they will automatically sort it in their heads in a similar way. It’s a subconscious thing.
If you want to write a long product description, structure and format it in some way. For example, list key facts about the product in a bullet-point list. If you can, use bold, italics and possibly underlining to highlight what is important. Make sure that your paragraphs are also grouped according to the main idea of each paragraph.
#3 The Absence of a Call to Action
Bad web design can significantly impact your image, reducing your credibility. In other words, if your website looks bad, your site visitors are less likely to trust you. Even if you’re using professional writers from Online Writers Rating to create the best content in the world, if your web design looks bad, this content will not help you much.
Likewise, well-written content created by top writers will not be effective if it lacks a call to action. A CTA should be present on every page at least several times within your text. Moreover, it should also appear in the visual elements on your page (which is often overlooked for some reason).
For example, if you have a header that contains your contact information, your CTA there could be something along the lines of, “Give us a call!” This CTA will have to be repeated in the text on the page as well as other images you use or perhaps at the end of the video you include.
#4 Aligning Vertically
When it comes to ordering content on a webpage, you have two options: vertical or horizontal. Both of these have their advantages and disadvantages, but there is almost unanimous agreement in the web design community that vertical alignment is not as effective or good-looking as horizontal.
Visitors to your site will be able to consume and process information more easily when it is arranged horizontally. Horizontal alignment also creates the illusion of there being more products.
If you still wish to use vertical alignment in some way, use it to visually separate your content into the main column and side columns where you can place various page links, author profiles, featured post links and so on.
#5 Imbalanced Content
Last but not least, it is crucial that you balance your content. There should be an appropriate amount of text as opposed to the visuals on your page. You don’t want either of the two to prevail over the other and either confuse or discomfort your readers.
That being said, you need to keep in mind that this will depend on the kind of content you are using. If this is an element of your website design such as a slider or a banner, add just enough text to attract attention. But if it is an infographic you published, adding more text with details will be ideal.
Some examples of how to balance your content can be seen in the article by Codrops. They talk about the different types of balance that you should maintain visually as well as the balance between text and visuals. Here is an example of radial balance in an image with text:
Final Thoughts
To sum up, web design is a fundamental part of your website and you should definitely remember about making it as good as it can be. Remember about these mistakes and try to avoid them at all costs.
