Most Common Website Fails - Ventura Web Design

With over 700 million websites created in 2017*, how is your site going to stand out in the crowd? Website owners that invest in a smooth user experience will be rewarded by users and search engines. After twenty years of designing websites, we have compiled a list of 5 common web design mistakes and the solution to each of them.
Take a look at the list below and see how your e-commerce website stacks up against our list of common website fails.

Ventura Web Design uses responsive design practices on all of our websites.

Non-Responsive or no Mobile Version

Mobile web traffic is increasing every day, not having a responsive or mobile version of your site is not only inconvenient for mobile visitors, but can actually hurt you, especially if competitors have embraced it.

Solution: Convert your site to a responsive design and make sure your site is accessible by and works smoothly on as many devices as possible. Test your website on multiple types of devices such as Apple and Android. When redesigning, there are a few ways to make sure that your site is accessible on mobile devices. Learn about the pros and cons of Adaptive. vs. Responsive design in this comprehensive article that we wrote, or if you have an eCommerce store, check out this deep dive into the topic from BigCommerce.
Slow Website Loading

Access your site from a mobile device with a decent connection such as on your Wifi network. Then, turn off your Wifi connection on your mobile device and test how long it takes to load. If it took more than 3 seconds to load, you are likely to be losing up to 40% of traffic. Customers simply aren’t willing to wait for your site to load before they move on to the next site. Customers are usually trying to accomplish a goal, like replace a broken part on a kitchen appliance, and they simply want to get that job done as quickly as possible. If they have to guess whether or not your site will eventually load, and whether or not your site may actually have the product that they need, what is to keep them from clicking to your competition?

Solution: There are a few components that go into website load time. Website programming, hosting, and images are the key things that store owners can usually improve. Programming is improved by updating coding to meet current standards. Redesigning your site, or perhaps removing extra coding that is no longer necessary, are great ways to improve site speed. Your site should be hosted with a host that is using a content delivery network and provides guaranteed uptime. And finally, you can optimize your site by reducing file sizes, such as large images or even normal product images.

One great example of a well optimized call-to-action button is at Netflix.com
Non-Optimized Call to Actions

Call to Action buttons are used on your site to guide users towards your offer and towards a conversion into a customer. Common CTA button missteps include: boring button text, low-contrast button colors, long button text, wrong placement, and too many buttons.

Solution: Examine your call to actions and make sure they are clear, easy to find, easy to read, and their location makes sense.
Inconsistent or Confusing Navigation

Making navigation intuitive and consistent makes website visitor’s lives so much easier. If your navigation is different from page to page, is not organized in a logical way or hard to find in any way, this can hurt the user experience of your site.

Solution: Streamline your navigation by organizing your content into categories, make sure it is consistent on every page and easy to find.

Relevant and valuable content is key to retaining and gaining visitors and customers.
Irrelevant or Misleading Content

No one wants to go to a site that offers one thing but delivers another. Naturally, people will just look for a different site if they are not finding what they’re looking for.

Solution: Have a plan for the content of your site, it should relevant and interesting to your audience. Look for ways to provide valuable information to your visitors, and they will reciprocate by engaging with you, sharing the site or purchasing your offering.