5 Web Design Mistakes That Are Killing Your Marketing

If you own a small business in 2021, you know that web design mistakes can drastically hurt your marketing performance. In the digital age, subpar websites will damage your revenue just as much as an inferior product or poor customer service. With over 80% of adults frequently ordering products and services online, stellar web design is a must-have!

However, while you might know your web design needs improvement, you might not know where to start. To help you triage your web design and marketing, the web design team at JSL Marketing & Web Design compiled this list of common web design common mistakes. This is not an exhaustive list, but if your website isn’t producing the results you want, it might be worth determining if you need to correct any of the issues laid out below. 

Web Design Mistake 1: Unclear Calls To Action

The first web design mistake we see is relatively easy to fix. Too often, small businesses create pages without thinking through what they want the end-user to do. This is the infamous “call to action” of web design and it’s a pretty simple concept. Make sure to ask your website users to complete an action while on your website.

Common calls to action include…

  • Call Now!
  • Request Our Free eBook
  • Join Our Email List
  • Request A Quote
  • Shop Now!
  • Directions

If you don’t include a call to action like this on a page, there’s a very real chance your website users will read the page in question and leave without doing anything. Remember, the whole goal of web design isn’t just to create content. It’s to drive a business goal, be it appointments, sales, or subscriptions. Incorporate a clear and compelling ask on your web pages to make sure your website visitors know what to do. 

Web Design Mistake 2: Poor Mobile Performance

Our next web design mistake is a revenue-killer. It’s no longer 2008 and the majority of Google search traffic is now coming via smartphones. If your website looks distorted, clunky, or clumsy on mobile devices after a page load, you’re basically driving your website users to leave the site almost immediately. That’s a crippling web design flaw, especially if you’re selling products via an eCommerce store.

To rectify this, use the Google Mobile-Friendly Tool to determine if your site is optimized for mobile users. If Google itself thinks your site’s mobile needs work, then it’s time to consider rethinking your web design. Google has a list of Content Management System resources on fixing a site’s mobile web design if you’re technically savvy enough to implement, but the guidance and insight of a seasoned web designer is recommended to avoid any web design snafus. 

Web Design Mistake 3: Too Much Noise

This web design mistake is subjective, but it’s still imperative. A cluttered website can be confusing to users. If Web Design Mistake 1: Unclear calls to action, doesn’t ask anything of the user, a cluttered website asks too much. 

  • Should They Call You? 
  • Should They Browse Reviews? 
  • Should They Scroll Through Project Photos? 
  • Are There Too Many Ads On The Page? 

There’s not a hard and fast rule to determine if a page is too cluttered, but a good starting point is your website’s bounce rate. If your bounce rate, a measure of how many users leave your site without visiting another page, is higher than 40%, evaluate how your site looks to those users.

If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of clutter on your page, it’s probably time to simplify. To fix this, try…

  • Using bullet points to spread out your content
  • Limiting the number of graphics and videos to 1-5 per page, depending on the length of your content
  • Keeping your color scheme centered around white space 

Web Design Mistake 4: Not Adhering To Google’s Best Practices

This web design mistake covers a host of search engine marketing best practices. Everything from SEO categorization, pop-up ads, social media presence, and a poor user experience could ding you in the eyes of Google and prevent you from ranking in search results. This web design error requires the attention of an experienced web developer to correct since Google’s policies are constantly updating. However, the following are good starting points. 

  • Avoid Popup Ads, Interstitial Pop Up Ads, or Distracting Ads. 
  • Avoid Backlinking To Unreputable Sites. 
  • Use Schema Mark Ups To Help Google Understand The Categorization Of The Page Better. 
  • Use Alt Text To Categorize Images
  • Include A Sitemap

This is, admittedly, a very technical aspect of web design. Reach out to our team for more information!

Web Design Mistake 5: Unappealing Graphic Design

Again, this web design error is subjective, but that doesn’t make it less critical. Too often, a website can have the right call to action, be mobile-friendly, be well-spaced, and adhere to Google’s best practices and still struggle. If this is the case, it might be worth eyeballing the site and determining if the site is aesthetically appealing. Uninspiring graphic design won’t cripple your site performance as much as other design flaws listed here, but it may be an area for improvement. 

Try using customized images and videos to keep the user’s attention on the page longer. Again, look at the bounce rate of the page in question. If it’s over 40%, it’s time to evaluate the page from the user’s perspective. Odds are, appealing graphic design could help significantly. 

Fix Your Web Design With JSL Marketing & Web Design

Fixing your web design is a critical next step for your marketing, but it does require expertise. Our team is here for a free consultation to analyze your internet marketing. Maybe you only need a website refresh. Maybe it’s more cost-effective for you to invest in a whole new website. Our team can analyze your specific website to make a tailored recommendation for your specific.

All of our websites are…

  • Custom Built On WordPress
  • Properly Branded
  • Mobile-Friendly
  • Designed With SEO In-Mind
  • Securely Encrypted
  • Ecommerce & Plugin Compatible

Supercharge your marketing with a powerhouse team of web designers! We’ve helped small businesses all over Texas and the nation grow their website presence and are here to help you do the same!

We also offer the following services….

  • Email Marketing
  • Videography & Photography
  • Social Media
  • Paid Advertising
  • Search Engine Optimization 

 

Fill Out The Contact Form Below To Get In Contact With Us Today

3 Strategies To Supercharge Your Market Research

There are a lot of challenging aspects of marketing in the digital age, but few are as challenging as market research.

Did you shiver slightly at just the mention of market research? 

You’re not alone! Market research is a difficult area for most small businesses, but it’s a great opportunity as well. Understanding the concerns, context, and cares of your potential clients is a massive opportunity for any business and it’s one you’ve probably not fully tapped into.

Public domain data, of course, is a great broad-stroke method of analyzing macro trends in your market and industry. However, sometimes you need more tailored market research in your business strategy to properly understand your audience. 

Our market research experts here at JSL have compiled the following methods to help you navigate the challenges of market research. 

 Surveys For Market Research

Surveys are a great way to get direct feedback from your customers! We particularly like this option, as surveys let you get a wide swath of data from a variety of clients and potential clients and then aggregate the answers to get useful data.

Everything from consumer behavior, brand recall, customer attitudes, and buying propensity can be analyzed through the lens of survey data. There’s a number of different mediums you can pair with a survey, whether on your website, via email, via physical mail, or via on-site forms. 

There are, however, some best practices to consider when turning to surveying to inform your market research.

  • Don’t design long surveys. This will vary from industry to industry and business to business, but generally, we’d start with three to five questions.
  • Don’t use absolutes. Asking the respondent if they always buy coffee on their commute might skew results. After all, how many of us always or never do an action? 
  • Don’t ask leading questions. Your survey questions should be written in a way that does not encourage your respondents to respond a certain way. Remember, honesty is key!
  • Take your results with a grain of salt. If you follow political polling, you’re probably not a stranger to the issues that come with any sort of surveying. Anyone survey shouldn’t be taken as gospel truth. Remember, if you’re sending a survey out via email, your results could be skewed by those who actually open the email and opt-in. However, if you send out surveys via multiple mediums and receive similar results across all channels, your results are probably directionally useful for your market research. 

Focus Groups For Market Research 

Focus groups are another potentially fruitful option for market research. Getting a group of customers in one location to review a logo design or potential users to test a product is a great way to get feedback. However, it is probably the most hazardous market research option. Conducting a killer focus group is not easy and it’s why many firms specialize solely in designing and executing market research via focus groups. There’s a litany of methodological best practices to consider and the ever-present threat of certain biases. One particularly vocal participant could impact the results of your focus group or a careless moderator could unknowingly change the attitudes of the group. 

That doesn’t mean you should eschew focus groups altogether. We would recommend turning to focus groups for certain tasks, like reviewing a product or a logo. It’s hard to get useful feedback in these instances via survey, so a focus group is a great option to get the information you’re looking for! 

  • Make sure every participant weighs in. The opinions of the most extroverted participants could skew your results, so be sure that everyone present offers their feedback. 
  • Facilitate conversation. You should come with a setlist of ten questions, but the goal isn’t just to conduct a live survey. Your participants might offer suggestions or ask questions that aren’t on your docket but are still useful. Moderate the conversation, but don’t regiment it to the point of micromanagement. 
  • Use the focus group as an opportunity to learn. The point of this focus group isn’t to affirm your hunches. It’s to uncover new information. Imagine a focus group to review a pending branding change where the questions are designed to get positive feedback. In this hypothetical situation, the focus group moderator may not realize that several of the participants can’t discern what industry your business is in from the proposed logo at first glance. That’s a huge problem! Go in open-minded and let the conversation flow instead of trying to guide participants to the desired conclusion. 

Interviews For Market Research

Using interviews for market research has its risks, but it can be a great option! Interviews with specific customers might not give you great quantitative data, but it is a great chance to put yourself in the shoes of a potential client and understand their perspectives and concerns a bit better. At the end of the day, that’s one of the most important aspects of market research! Face-to-face time with clients and potential clients lets you screen out participants that might not accurately reflect your customer base and gauge the emotions and nonverbal communication of your interviewee, insight you would not get from surveys. This also comes without the risks of a focus group we discussed prior. 

Like any form of market research, interviews need to be conducted properly and pose some risks.

  • Take the time to vet your participants prior. Interviews can be time-intensive, so make sure you have screened out participants that don’t represent your customer base. 
  • Don’t depend on one single interview. When you opt for interviews for market research, you are knowingly going with quantity over quality. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this approach, but make sure that you aren’t taking one or two interviews as gospel. 
  • Don’t ask leading questions. Again, you want a complete stream of honesty from your participants. Don’t lead them to the answers you expect them to give. 

Supercharge Your Market Research With JSL

If you have any questions about how to refine your market research, the experts at JSL Marketing & Web Design are here to help! We also can offer…

  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Email Marketing
  • Graphic Design
  • & More!

Fill out the contact form below to get in contact with your market research experts today!