The Top Web Design Mistakes You Could Be Making

The Top Web Design Mistakes You Could Be Making

If web development and design is not your forte, you could be making common web design mistakes that is pushing your potential customers away. In our instant-gratification-fueled era, where literally millions of websites are at our fingertips, consumers do not waste time trying to find information a website that’s difficult to navigate. Additionally, if your website is cluttered, out-of-date, barely functional and incomplete, potential customers will not trust in the competency of your business. As a website design company in Houston, we see a lot of errors made in website design, and many of these mistakes are easily avoided. Here are the top web design mistakes you could be making, right now. If you have any questions on web design or developing an online marketing strategy, feel free to contact one of our Houston web development professionals using the contact information on the bottom of this page.

Most businesses in 2017 have a website, and web design mistakes are more common than you might think. Everyone knows the basic web design mistakes of hard to read text, low image-quality, and slow load times, but there are a number of common web design mistakes you could be making that you aren’t even aware of. Making the common web design mistakes below could be affecting your customer retention and bottom line without you even knowing it:

Using Basic Builders Basic website builders (your typical drag-and-drop websites) are not only bulky, but quickly become dated and are difficult or impossible to add much-needed features.. Using a basic website builder leaves you with a minimal amount of options and can damage your online presence, as these drag-and-drop builders are very limited in their functionality.

Using WordPress will open the door to numerous possibilities for your business and allows virtually any feature you could can think of. Our Houston web development team understands the power that WordPress sites contain and all of the below content are WordPress-related. Read on and you will see why using WordPress is one of the best decisions you can make for your business, and how using WordPress can help you avoid common web design mistakes.

Not Capturing Leads  Capturing leads is one of the most useful things you can do with your website. After all, your potential customers made it that far, and you want to do what you can to retain their attention and turn your website visits into conversions. There are a number of ways to capture leads through various WordPress plugins. Our Houston web development and design team implements these types of plugins for our clients constantly. Here are a couple of the plugins that we suggest:

LeadPages This WordPress plugin for lead captures is easy to install, easy to use, and comes with a variety of different features to optimize user experience. Some of the highlights include:

• Large selection of templates to choose from, allowing your Houston web designer to match your branding with the components of this plugin.4
• Chat, phone, and email support
• Easily integrates with email service providers
• Facebook compatible
• Ability to change your 404 Error pages into opt-in pages (we think this is a great idea!

Formstack A great plugin for embedded forms onto your WordPress site, Formstack is one of the most-loved plugins by WordPress developers in Houston. This lead-capturing plugin boasts many features including:

• Easy creation of lead generation forms
• Ability to create payment forms
• Simple to use contact forms
• Easy drag-and-drop form builders
• Integrates with other popular apps like Salesforce, PayPal, and MailChimp.

Broken Links Having broken links on your website damages not only your search engine optimization but your credibility. Potential customers will view broken links on your website as a sign that your company is careless or disorganized. Having your site checked for broken links will greatly improve the function and look of your website. Have your Houston WordPress development team install a plugin to check for broken links. We recommend:

Broken Link Checker As simple as the name, this plugin is easy to use and highly rated by Houston WordPress web developers and users alike. The features of this plugin include

• Monitoring links across your website including posts, comments, pages, and blogroll for broken links.
• Notification via dashboard of any link errors on your WordPress site
• Easily configured by your Houston WordPress web development team
• Quick detection of missing images, broken links, and site redirects
• Ability to prevent search engines from following broken links

WP Broken Link Status Checker This WordPress plugin performs a very quick scan of your website, checking for broken links throughout all of your published content. Features include:

• Immediate results – this checker prides itself on the speed of its scans.
• Performs without the need for massive data queries
• Allows basic filtering options

Not Being Mobile Optimized The number of consumers using mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets is increasing by large percentages every year. Our world is constantly on-the-go, and you want your web content to be mobile optimized. Beyond user experience, Google and other search engines are now prioritizing websites that are mobile responsive. Don’t damage your credibility or your SEO – ensure that your website is completely mobile responsive! Our Houston web design and development team specializes in creating mobile optimized websites, but there are a number of plugins you can utilize to ensure that your content is mobile-friendly. Our Houston WordPress web design team recommends:

WP Touch This plugin allows you to create a beautiful version of your WordPress site and contains many features that show why it’s got so many downloads (over five hundred thousand so far!)

• Tags your site as as “mobile friendly” letting Google and other search engines know that if a user accesses your website from a mobile device, your website is optimized for user experience on those devices.
• Mobile themes will be left unchanged and content remains the same.
• Easy install wizard
• On Google’s shortlist of top mobile solutions for WordPress
• Supports multi-site installation
• Support team available 5 days a week

WPSmush The size of your photos greatly impacts your site’s mobile optimization and speed. This WordPress plugin automatically re-sizes images on your website for better user experience. Features include:

• Scanning images as they are uploads
• Scanning images that you have already uploaded to your media library
• Ability for users to set a maximum height and width and your images will automatically resize to your limits before being added to your library.

Lack of Updating If your website content is aged, with almost no blog activity or new content, not only will Google and other search engines decide that your website may be coming irrelevant to web users, but your potential customers may view your business as lazy or even obsolete. Here are a couple of tips for keeping your website’s content fresh as suggested by our team of WordPress developers in Houston:

• Keep your blog updated Having an updated blog will show both that your business is active and has something pertinent to say, but will also give your audience something to share on social media sites, if the content is interesting enough. (Social shares can mean more conversions, so keep your content as interesting and exciting as possible!)
• Try Video Content Marketing A regular video update to share the happenings with your business is a good way for your company to not only stay active online, but show the level of interest you have in connecting with your customers.

(Did you know? Buer Interactive is a full-service marketing firm in Houston, don’t hesitate to reach out to us with suggestions on how to maintain your online presence!)

Unless you’re a professional Houston web designer, you may have overlooked these common website design mistakes. Designing your website can be a tedious process; don’t be afraid to ask for help! Our Houston web design team is ready to answer any questions you may have. If you’re ready to take your online marketing strategy to the next level, reach out and contact a member of our team today!

Happy designing!

Buer Interactive – Houston Website Design, Web Development, and Search Engine Optimization

5850 San Felipe Street

Suite 500

Houston, TX 77057

(832) 699-3631

https://buerinteractive.com/