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

Do I Need A Website Redesign? Six Quick Questions To Ask Yourself

If you’re a business owner, it can be tough to determine if you need a website redesign. You probably have a website and know you need to do your best to keep your website current with the industry’s best web design practices. However, that is much easier said than done. If you’re running a small business, it can be difficult to find the time to find talent, keep costs down, and improve your customer relationships, let alone worry about your web design. So what are you to do?

Luckily, our web redesign team came together and put together the following list of quick questions you need to ask yourself about your current web design. Use this list to quickly determine what is and isn’t working with your current website and then prepare some solutions!

Read On To Learn More About Website Redesign

6 Quick Website Redesign Questions

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

This is the “low hanging fruit” of web design. Website users expect sites to be mobile-friendly, so you’re likely taking a huge performance penalty if your site does not load properly on mobile devices. If you’re on the fence about if you need a website redesign and your site does not load on mobile, you have your answer. It’s time for a redesign! Do it for your site’s mobile users!

What Keywords Does Your Website Rank For?

What keywords do you want to rank for? Which phrases are most likely to turn search engine users into loyal customers? Once you have that list of keywords, you can then compare it to the keywords your site is currently ranking for. If the list you want to rank for is substantially different than the ones your site ranks for, you might need to rethink your content strategy.

This is also the perfect time to analyze how your site is tagged and if you need to update your site’s SEO. If you likely will need to update most meta-descriptions and tags, then a web redesign project or even a new website might be in order. 

How Old Is Your Site?

This rule of thumb isn’t foolproof. You might have a two-year-old site and still need a web design! However, if it’s been over three or four years, you almost certainly need to redesign your website. You’ve missed some extremely impactful Google updates in that time and your site just won’t perform well if it’s out of date.

Plus, your site will just look out of date to your site users if it’s been a while since you last redesigned it. This could really impact how your customers perceive you, especially if you’re in an industry where credibility and expertise are everything. (Think tax preparation, legal, or healthcare.) If it’s been three years or more since you last redesigned your website, then it’s time to redesign. 

Is Your Website Branding & Logo Current?

Sometimes, the simplest reasons can be the most compelling! If you updated your logo and/or branding in the past and your website doesn’t reflect that branding, then you absolutely need to redesign your website! Your users are likely confused if they know your branding or logo from another medium like social media or email marketing and then don’t see that logo on your website. Avoid that confusion and make sure that your logo and branding are consistent across all mediums, including your website. 

Is Your Website Generating Leads?

Sometimes, it’s easy to overanalyze the website in question and become lost in the granular details of the site. Don’t miss the forest for the trees and get sucked into every detail of your bounce rate, landing pages, user experience, and content strategy. Simply ask yourself if your website is producing leads!

This is a pretty easy way to determine if there’s room for improvement on the site. If your lead generation strategy needs help, then it might be time to redesign your website! Pay especially close attention to the quality of your leads. Your site might capture dozens of contact form submissions, but the majority could be from salespeople or bots. Take the time to evaluate if the site is generating qualified leads, not just a good quantity of leads, and then redesign your site accordingly if not! 

Do Your Users Like Your Site?

Your site could rank well, be mobile-friendly, and generate great leads, but it’s still worth getting customer feedback on how they like their experience on the site. Taking customer feedback periodically is a great way to uncover hidden weaknesses within the site, problems that you might not have been aware of.

Take that feedback to determine which aspects of the site are working for your customers and which need improvement. You might discover that it’s relatively difficult to checkout from your eCommerce store or that your chatbot is actually more annoying to your customers than helpful. Hear it from your customers directly and come up with a plan to solve those annoyances! 

Redesign Your Website With JSL Marketing & Web Design

Making the decision to redesign your website is a great first step. However, it’s by no means the last step. Redesigning your site will require expertise in SEO, digital marketing, and the current standards for web design. If you know you need to redesign your website, but don’t quite know how to go about it, reach out to JSL Marketing & Web Design!

Call Us At 855.458.2873 For Your FREE Website Consultation!

Our experts will sit down with you to really understand what makes your business tick. When we’re done with your consultation, we’ll leave with an understanding of…

  • Your Brand’s Marketing Goals
  • Your Optimum Conversion Rate 
  • Your Website’s Current Calls To Action
  • Possible Value Propositions For Your Unique Products & Services 
  • Your Site’s UI Experience 

If you’re ready to proceed with a full website redesign, know that you’re choosing the best. We’re here to support you and your brand. We won’t oversell, overpromise, or underdeliver. Our web redesign experts are here to help you find the solution that’s best for your unique situation! 

“When it comes to working with JSL, I’d say the customer service is world-class. You won’t go wrong at all when you choose them.” – Ryan R. 

“It has been easy to work with the JSL team. There has been true accountability and I’m very glad we chose them during our selection process. Thanks, JSL, for all of your hard work so far!” – Valerie L. 

Let’s talk shop. We’re here to build you a gorgeous, properly branded, and revenue-generating site, the kind that will wow you and delight your customers! We promise never to oversell, underdeliver, or give you anything less than our best! Let’s get your next website redesign project started today!

Fill Out The Contact Form Below To Begin!

When to Redesign Your Website With JSL Marketing & Web Design

Your website redesign project plan starts here! If you’re a small business owner, you know you need a website. Your customers are used to finding things online, and without a functional website, you’re potentially missing out on a lot of business. If you don’t have a business website, consider investing in one ASAP – your customers will thank you!

However, if you have an existing website, you’re not necessarily out of the woods yet. Having an older website is better than not having one at all, but websites aren’t static creations that you can “set and forget.” They’re living, breathing organisms that require upkeep and occasionally need to be redesigned. If your website was built a few years ago, it might be time to consider tweaking a few elements for better performance.

You may have some questions about this process. What is a website redesign? How do you know it’s time to redesign your website? How much does it cost to redesign a website? The JSL Marketing & Web Design team has answers to these common questions about website redesign!

Why Do I Need a Website Redesign?

Website redesigns are necessary because the Internet is a rapidly changing place. What worked a few years ago is likely not best practice for web design currently, due to changes in how Google ranks content, customer preference, and industry-specific trends. If your website is a car, think of a redesign as painting and buffing the body, adding new brakes and an engine filter, and changing out turn signals and headlights. The main body and systems of the car are still intact, but you’ve upgraded several components of the vehicle for better performance.

A web redesign is simply taking certain elements of your website and upgrading them accordingly to improve performance. This could involve changing elements of all the following.

  • Website Branding & Visual Elements
  • UX Design
  • Website Templates
  • Website Content
  • Content Management System
  • Linking Strategy
  • Page Images
  • SSL Certificates
  • Schema Mark-Up
  • Website Headers, Meta Descriptions, and Tag lines.
  • And More!

When is it Time to Redesign Your Website?

As a rule of thumb, you probably need to freshen up elements of your website every three years, at the very least. Some experts even recommend a website redesign every 1.5 years.

However, if you start to experience any of the following, it’s time to consider a more comprehensive website redesign.

  • Your Website Sales and Conversions are Declining. You’ve noticed this problem and are actively trying to remedy it by adjusting your website’s copy, promoting the site better on social media and through email marketing, and trying out new offers and sales on the site. However, none of this is really making much of a difference. This suggests that the problem is the website itself.
  • Your Site’s Bounce Rate is Climbing. Your bounce rate is the measure of what percentage of users leave your website within seconds of arriving after only visiting one page. The higher the bounce rate, the worse the performance. Let’s say you own a sports store and are seeing fewer and fewer ecommerce sales. You’ve experimented with different copy, product imagery, and offers, but to no avail. You decide to use Google Ad campaigns to drive higher sales. After a month, you return to evaluate performance and see that the number of new website visitors has spiked, but so has your bounce rate. Even worse, your sales are not climbing at all. If you see the number of users on your site rise, but the vast majority leave quickly, it’s likely your site is not user-friendly or aesthetically pleasing. A site with a poor user experience will result in users leaving quickly, which suggests you probably need a redesign.
  • Your Customers Do Not Like the Site. Listen to your front-line customer service employees. If customers are constantly telling your customer service reps that your site is a nightmare, it’s probably time for a redesign. Disgruntled website users are likely to leave a poorly designed website, which tells Google that your website is not user-friendly, thus damaging your website’s ranking. If you’re hearing from your reps that your customers don’t like the site, listen to them. If you don’t have a dedicated customer service or client success team, use customer surveys, either paper or through email, to gather feedback. If you find your customers hate your website, it’s probably time to redesign.
  • Your Site Just Feels Off. This isn’t the most scientific approach, but if you look at your website and feel it looks a bit dated, chances are your website’s users have thought the same thing. It’s hard to quantify, but we have all seen sites that just look clunky, ugly, and old. Use Google Analytics to gut-check your self, but if your website isn’t user-friendly, isn’t generating conversions, isn’t keeping users engaged, and isn’t being found by new users, your instincts are likely correct.

How Much Will It Cost to Redesign A Website?

This will vary a lot from website to website. No two sites are the same, and no two sites underperform in the same way. However, the cost of a website redesign project depends on how much needs to be redesigned on the site. Rewriting old copy and adding new images will cost less than redesigning templates, adjusting off-page SEO, and completely overhauling the color scheme and branding. Sometimes, the entire structure of the website is so outdated that it might make more sense to scrap the entire website and build a new one. Feel free to connect with our team to discuss your specific example. Once we’ve had time to audit and evaluate, we can offer you tailor-made solutions to help you get to where you need to be.

How to Redesign Your Website

To begin, you will need to have some understanding of the following.

  • Current performance benchmarks and long-term performance goals.
  • Optimal brand messaging and tone for your site’s content.
  • Your site’s competitors and their value propositions, offers, strengths, and weaknesses.
  • Your overall goal for your redesigned website.

These can be difficult for a small business owner to define, measure, track, and implement correctly. Luckily, the JSL Marketing & Web Design team has years of web design experience to help make your next redesign project a success. We’ll walk alongside you throughout the quoting, planning, and implementation processes of your redesign project to help you produce a beautiful, navigable, mobile-friendly, and search-engine-optimized website.

The redesign process is also the perfect time to evaluate other aspects of your digital marketing strategy. If you’re putting your branding, messaging, and value propositions under the knife while planning your redesign, it’s a great time to do the same to your other marketing tactics. Remember, your website is just one key component in your comprehensive marketing strategy. The world’s best website will underperform if not promoted aggressively and correctly through pay-per-click advertising, email marketing, and social media marketing.

We might suggest any of the following to help promote your website.

  • Content Marketing: Words aren’t just for SEO. They’re for piquing your customer’s interest! Use content marketing to create blogs about the questions your users are asking Google and BING. Compelling writing will not only boost your site’s traffic; it also helps drive sales.
  • Social Media Marketing: Your social media profiles are the perfect place to promote your website’s content! Share interesting blogs, good sales, and information about the business from your site directly to your followers.
  • Branding & Photography: Prettier sites perform better. This is a basic element of website design. Your site users are likely to leave your site unimpressed if you don’t have an appealing color scheme and impressive photos. They also might be confused as to who you are if you don’t have a logo or if the logo you do have is forgettable. Head off those problems at the pass by ensuring the logo and photos on your website are top tier.
  • Videography: Videos are a great way to not only answer complex questions and convey information but also to keep users’ attention. Branded and impactful videos have been shown time and time again to boost SEO. Our team has years of experience writing, planning, directing, and editing video shoots and would be happy to help your business tell your story through videography.
  • Pay-Per-Click Advertising: Is there a website page you need users to find? Pay-per-click advertising, through platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads, is a great way to drive traffic to the specific pages you need people to see! PPC Advertising is cost-effective and highly targeted, which means you can drive the right customers to your website without investing a Fortune 500-level budget.

Call JSL Marketing & Web Design at 877-514-0276 to start your next web design project today! We have years of experience designing and redesigning amazing websites for small businesses around the country. Follow the link to see some of our work!

New Year, New Website | Web Design Stats & Checklists

A business cannot be successful today without a website, and a website cannot be truly successful without UX/UI design, expert SEO, valuable content, adequate white space, thought-out color schemes, branding, positioning, and alignment, as well as mobile-friendly formatting.

Sound like a lot? It is – and that’s just the tip of the digital iceberg.

But what does all of that mean? How long does it take? What are the steps and how much does it cost? Does it really need to be custom to be good? And what does ‘UX/UX design’ even mean, anyway?

If you’ve often had questions like these or want to know more about a possible website design (or redesign) in the New Year – then read on.

Web Design Stats You Should Be Paying Attention To

  • 38% will leave your website if the layout or content isn’t attractive
  • 47% expect every webpage to load in under 2 seconds
  • 88% of online visitors will not return to a website they’ve had difficulties with before
  • A company’s trustworthiness is based 75% on web design
  • On average, users spend 6 seconds looking at your written content – the rest is spent on design
  • You could add 7% to your conversion rate if you increase the speed of your website
  • 48% say a website’s design is their #1 ranker in determining the company’s credibility
  • Over 60% of companies who designed a mobile-first design website saw a considerable increase in their sales
  • Almost half of online users will switch to a different site if the first isn’t mobile-friendly
  • 60% of internet access is done from mobile devices
  • 50% of e-commerce purchases come from mobile devices
  • Almost 70% of small businesses lack a Call to Action (CTA) on their website or home page
  • Over 45% of website visitors check your products or services page before going to any others

Still think web design isn’t that big of a deal? Or that a $150 template site will do?

Your Custom Web Design Checklist

SEO is #1

Search Engine Optimization isn’t just about blogs and social media, backlinks and domain authority, it’s also about site speed, internal linking, click-through rates, bounce rates, and time per page – all of which directly relate to your web design.

Looking at it from another angle, it doesn’t matter if you have the most beautiful website in the world if it doesn’t rank well. Because it doesn’t matter if you design a beautiful site if no one ever gets to it.

UI/UX is #2

UI Design is User Interface Design

Which means you think of the interface – or look – of the site. Though this area is quite complex, it can be explained in a slightly watered-down way like this:

UI Design focuses on using the design of the site in unison with the content & layout to be both attractive and guiding to the user.

UX Design is User Experience Design

Which means you think of the user experience or the ease of use & usability. Essentially, it means you are trying to make your site easy to navigate & intuitive to follow.

Color Choices & Branding

If anyone has ever asked you your favorite color, your least favorite color, or even your opinion on what hue or shade they should choose for an event, item or merch, then you have some experience in color and branding.

Your branding and your color make you recognizable and professional, not to mention adding to the visual appeal of your business – and remember, your visual appeal is what most will judge your trustworthiness on.

Use Lots of Whitespace

Whitespace is just as important as your branding and color scheme. Why? Because all of our time spent looking at screens strains our eyes, and huge blocks of text are not easy to follow, digest, or even look at.

Don’t hurt your readers’ eyes, give them adequate whitespace instead.

Actually, whitespace doesn’t need to be white, it should be named ‘blank space’ more accurately. It simply needs to be a section in between your text that allows your eyes the rest they need before moving onto a new section.

Think of blogs as a great example:

Most blog pages use narrower writing margins, or, they have extra whitespace on both sides (as much as 2” margins on both sides, instead of the usual 1”). Additionally, blogs always keep their paragraphs short, in digestible chunks that draw the reader down, keep them from feeling overwhelmed, and are easy on the eyes.

Have Clear Call to Actions (CTAs)

If your web design isn’t clear and accurate with its Call to Actions, then you are truly doing yourself a disservice, as CTAs are how you get your website visitors to do whatever it is you want them to do.

This can be to contact you via phone call, email, submission form, or other ways. Additionally, a CTA could be to take a survey, to buy a product, or even to simply share something on social media.

‘Call to action’ just means you are asking your website visitor to do something, or, you are calling them to do an action.

Live Life in the Fast Lane

Here are some of the most common ways you can help boost your site speed during a web design:

  • Optimize your photos, all of them
  • Compress filed that are large, so they will open quicker
  • Minimize HTTP requests in Google Chrome’s Developer
  • Do your research and choose a good hosting site, this greatly affects your speed

Are You Ready to Start Your Web Design Project?

If you still feel worried about taking on a web design project, talk with JSL Marketing and Web Design – after all, it’s in our name. Or, take a less direct route and check out our portfolio here, or peruse our own beautiful, functional website.

We can’t wait to match your beautiful New Year with a beautiful new website!