St George Web Design is more than just aesthetics. It’s a critical business function that impacts user experience, conversions and search engine optimization.
A poorly designed website creates an immediate negative impression and drives users away. It also costs you in lost revenue. Learn about the most common website design mistakes to avoid for a website that delights visitors and supports your business goals.
1. Unnecessary Clutter
While adding a variety of design elements can be tempting, it is important to ensure your website has a streamlined user experience. Too many different fonts, colors and media elements can distract users from your content and confuse them.
Using a lot of white space, which makes text easy to read, is one of the best ways to avoid unnecessary clutter. Similarly, using appropriate font styles and sizes helps to improve site readability.
Misusing or neglecting heading tags also hinders web design. This mistake prevents the creation of a clear content hierarchy that both helps readers navigate your website and positively affects SEO. This error is easy to correct by ensuring that all headings are properly structured and aligned.
2. Unnecessary Complexity
Every website needs specific components to work together for it to function optimally. These include visual content, calls to action and navigation structures. It’s important to regularly review these elements to keep them current and improve overall functionality.
Designing with the principle of movement in mind can help guide visitors through your site and encourage them to interact with your content. Using spacing, size and position to highlight elements can create hierarchy and balance your page composition.
Search engine optimization is often treated as an afterthought in web design, but it’s essential to incorporate SEO practices throughout the development process to maximize your online visibility. For example, use descriptive URLs and provide text alternatives for images. These are simple ways to make your site more searchable and accessible.
3. Poor Loading Speed
Poor website load speed can hurt both user experience and search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. According to the experts at BigCommerce, even a one-second delay in page loading can result in 7% less conversions.
Loading times can be improved by optimizing files and media, using a content delivery network, and minimizing HTTP requests. For example, reducing image resolution by compressing with tools like TinyPNG and PNG-Optimizer and choosing smaller formats such as JPEG for photographs and SVG and WebP for graphics that require transparency will help reduce loading times.
Integrating SEO considerations into the design process rather than treating them as an afterthought will also help to improve site performance. This includes creating logical content hierarchies, creating descriptive URLs and making sure that Core Web Vitals are consistently optimized.
4. Lack of Call-to-Actions
Many websites look amazing, but are missing that final ingredient to bring in customers. Whether it’s poor loading speeds, confusing navigation structures or lack of calls-to-action, web design mistakes can irritate visitors and reduce conversions.
Users are highly goal-driven on the web and visit sites because they want to accomplish something. If a site doesn’t give them what they need, they’ll quickly click the back button and head to a competitor.
This is especially true when it comes to sites that rely on awareness marketing campaigns, where the Get Started call-to-action can lead users down a signup path they don’t need. These ambiguous call-to-actions are misleading and degrade the user experience. A better approach would be to include prominent, clear About content that gives users the information they expect.
5. Poor Usability
Creating a website or digital product users love to interact with takes intense design, iteration, and user testing. Most people don’t realize what goes into a usable interface, so they assume that all products are designed well by accident.
Cluttered layouts interfere with users’ navigation, readability, and interaction and slow down page loading times. These mistakes often result from a desire for uniqueness or fear of white space.
Another common error is failing to provide feedback on users’ actions, resulting in frustration and confusion. Implementing simple feedback mechanisms like immediate notifications and visual cues reassure users that their actions have been acknowledged, thereby improving usability. Continuously testing and updating based on user feedback also allows for strategic adjustments to improve interface functionality. This ensures that users are satisfied with their experience and drives engagement.
6. Irrelevant Images
Imagery adds visual appeal to websites, breaks up blocks of text and makes sites more engaging. However, images need to be relevant to the content of the site for them to have any impact.
Irrelevant images are a common web design mistake that can confuse visitors and harm search engine rankings. Using irrelevant images can signal to users that the website is unfocused and amateurish, which turns them off of the brand.
Irrelevant images are also a problem for accessibility because they can cause screen readers to announce the image’s file name, which can add audible clutter and confuse users. Ensure your images are relevant to the page they’re on by using the alt text attribute. This way, screen readers can distinguish between supplementary and main content. This is important for ensuring your site is accessible to all users.
7. Unnecessary Text
There is a limit to how much text can be effectively read on a screen, especially when scrolling. If you’re not careful, too many words can cause your website to appear overcrowded and difficult to navigate. It can also deter visitors from engaging with your content.
For example, a welcome paragraph above the fold may deter users from scrolling down and reading your content, even if it’s useful to them. A good rule of thumb is to keep this paragraph short, underline-free, and centered.
Avoid using decorative fonts for body text, and choose a legible typeface for your main font that’s at least 16px in size. Proper line height (1.5 to 2 times your font size) and paragraph breaks can help improve readability as well.
Website colors can be used to establish a design’s overall aesthetic and reinforce a brand’s visual identity. However, it’s important to ensure that your color palette is limited, consistent, and features a high contrast for accessibility.
8. Unnecessary Graphics
Unnecessary graphic elements can clutter up web pages and detract from the user experience. They consume network bandwidth and clog up devices, making them slower to operate. They also confuse visitors and dilute brand recognition.
The use of icons, horizontal rules, or other visual elements can make a website more visually appealing but should be used sparingly to create balance. Too many visual elements can be distracting and lead to cognitive overload.
Over-reliance on plug-ins, widgets and special features is another common web design mistake that can sabotage performance. These elements can slow down page loading time and affect SEO. They also waste data by downloading images that are larger than needed. Avoid using legacy features like Flash or Java, which may not be supported by some browsers. They can also cause eye strain by requiring users to scroll left and right.
9. Unnecessary Texture
Unnecessary textures, patterns and gradients can be distracting to visitors and create a visual overload. Instead, choose simple backgrounds that let your web solution’s content and imagery shine.
Web design is more than just aesthetics, it’s a critical factor that can have a significant impact on your website’s performance and conversion rates. Even small mistakes like cluttered navigation, poor usability and inconsistent branding can be costly to your business. By understanding the most common web design mistakes and how to avoid them, you can ensure your website delivers a seamless, user-friendly experience that builds trust and increases sales. Using this knowledge, you can make informed decisions and create a website that effectively supports your business goals. This will help you win new customers in 2025 and beyond!
10. Unnecessary Colors
Whether you’re creating your first website or refreshing an existing one, mistakes in web design can cost you traffic and sales. From cluttered layouts to broken forms, these errors frustrate users and drive them away. But avoiding them can help you build a site that delights visitors and supports your business goals.
A common mistake made by DIY designers is using too many colors in graphics and the overall website. This results in difficult-to-read text and a muddy visual look.
Another design mistake that often goes overlooked is ignoring accessibility needs. People who use screen readers rely on image alt text to convey the meaning of your website content, so it’s important to make sure that alt text accurately describes your images and graphic elements. Also, don’t use cryptic URLs, which can be hard for users to remember and type.