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9 Beginner Mistakes to Avoid While Building Your Website

By Snap Agency July 17, 2018

A website plays an essential role as a touchpoint for consumers. For many consumers, a company’s website is their first interaction with a brand, and a great website can be the difference in whether you’re collecting new business or not. There is a lot that goes into a website, which can be quite overwhelming.

At Snap, we have plenty of experience in website building and design. Working with a wide-range of clients, we’ve helped plenty of businesses establish a strong presence online and produce a positive digital ROI. We know all about the dos and don’ts of web building and today we’re going to talk about some of the don’ts.

Not Establishing a Business Goal

Every business-minded action needs to be directed by a goal. So, before you even start creating your site, you need to define what exactly it is you hope your website will accomplish. Are you hoping to increase awareness and gather new inbound contacts? Or are you expanding your sales opportunities by complimenting your current brick and mortar store? The answer will help when you get into the design phase of your site. Remember, you can have multiple goals, but too many can lead to a jumbled and confusing experience for your site users.

Not Planning Your Layout

A website that has not been properly fleshed out before its creation will not look unified and professional, but rather sloppy and messy. Sketching sitemaps (a list of all the pages you’re planning on implementing) and wireframes (detailed illustrations of each individual page layout) can go a long way in making the process of the actual web design much smoother. Our UX/UI designers can tell you that a bad sitemap means a bad site. Plus, a poorly constructed sitemap can also do a lot of harm to your SEO performance.

Not Identifying Your Target Audience

First impressions are everything. For many consumers, your website is the first interaction they will have with your brand, and a website that is well-tailored to the needs and interests of your clientele base is one that will succeed. This is no easy task, especially for you first site. This is why we offer comprehensive branding and discovery workshops to our clients to better help them understand who they are and where they fit in their field.

Not Using Clear Call-to-Actions

A call-to-action (click here, learn more, buy now, etc) is what guides your website users towards your business goals. By making these clear to your consumers, you can make the path to conversions more straight-forward which will in-turn increase your return on investment.  

Not Making Your Site User-Friendly

When creating your website, it’s easy to overlook how a consumer will react when they first reach the site. While you may know where the dropdown menu is located because you placed it there yourself, others may have more difficulty in navigating your website. While it may be tedious, it is important to run through your website through the lens of your consumers. Going through and running your own quality assurance testing can be beneficial, but having another fresh pair of eyes view the site is another way to make sure everything is user-friendly and functional.

Not Making Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Nothing drives a consumer away faster than a slow mobile website. Visitors will not wait long for a site to load, in fact, 32.3% of visitors will bounce away from your site if your site load speed is 7 seconds or more. If your website isn’t compatible on mobile, you could be missing out on a lot of potential customers. This is why we create all of our designs to be completely responsive.  

Not Keeping up with the Latest Web Design Trends

Along with being functional, your site needs to look good. The 2018 web design trends put an emphasis on clean, sleek and modern designs that engage and draw users in. What is hot one year for web design may be cold the next, so make sure you’re keeping up with the latest trends.

Not Implementing Digital Marketing Strategies on Your Site

You may have a nice-looking site, but without any traffic on it, your website is like a dog driving a car down the interstate: not good. Might be fun to look at; but it’s not helping anyone. Utilizing search engine optimization best practices can help the chances of your new site being clicked on. Incorporating social media platforms and posts linking to your website can also generate more traffic. Using pay-per-click ads and other paid media and email marketing can also be effective means of driving users to your site.

Not Updating the Site

You know when you walk into your grandparents’ house and its full of antique gnomes, wicker chairs, and plastic over the furniture? At one point in time this may have been fashionable, but not anymore! Well, the same goes for websites. The job isn’t done once you create your site. You’ll have some routine up-keeping to commit to. Make sure you content is always fresh and up-to-date by changing your images, addressing new products and services, and keeping your visitors informed on the latest industry news. After all, one can only sit on plastic covered furniture for so long.

Are You Ready to Build Your New Site?

There’s a time and place for DIYing, and building your website is not one of those times. But you don’t have to take on this endeavor on your own. Our team of web design strategists and designers will work collaboratively with you to make sure your first website is in-line with your business goals and strategies. Are you ready to get started building your new site?