How effective is your website? Is it a sales channel that successfully attracts leads or just a costly interface with no conversions? While you may have put in all the hours and hard work into redesigning your website, are your efforts paying off, or do your design and product visuals fall short, and visitors leave your website because of inconvenience or a poor user experience?
While website redesign mistakes might seem trivial, repeated occurrences deplete the profit of a significant number of businesses. Misplaced and too many links, cluttered user interfaces, poor checkout design, and ineffective calls to action (CTAS) are some of the challenges that can drive customers away from a business website and stunt its growth online.
Here, you’ll learn how to navigate the treacherous waters of website redesigning, as well as how to steer clear of making the top website redesign mistakes. You will also look at strategies that can make your website deliver desired results.
Table Of Contents
1. A Lack of Design Consistency
The issues that plague web design tend to make their way into website redesigning as well, and they can contribute to a very bad user experience (UX). These include poor and cross-branded designs, low-quality images, and unwarranted click-throughs, making it near-impossible for users to navigate a website, and hence, prevent them from carrying out the desired actions. This might cause annoyance and confusion, which, in turn, leads to lost opportunities.
Ideally, you should document what your brand is about. Then, you must maintain consistency throughout your website, which is easy to do by using the same brand voice, colors, fonts, and imagery.
Remember that your website should unfold as a cohesive story, where each element contributes to a seamless and positive brand experience.
2. Not Mobile-Friendly
As the world becomes more mobile-centric, ignoring the need for mobile optimization is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when you redesign your website. Statistics show that a significant number of consumers who shop online use their mobile phones or tablets, making responsive web design crucial for eCommerce websites. However, it’s not just eCommerce platforms that benefit from responsive designs.
Websites with responsive web designs can make it easier for users using any device to interact with the content. With non-responsive websites, mobile phone users might face difficulty in navigation, the content might seem awkward to comprehend, or product images may be challenging to view. This can be extremely annoying and may cause them to leave, and your website would suffer from high bounce rates.
The solution is that you adhere to website redesign best practices and ensure that your revamped website works equally well on all types of devices and screen sizes.
3. Small or Poor-Quality Product Images
If you redesign a website that sells products, know that it needs clear and attractive images of the items on offer. After all, they help potential customers see products closely, check their specifications, and make purchasing decisions. However, several eCommerce retailers use images that are too small or of poor quality, leaving consumers asking for more.
Think about a website that sells shoes. When you find a pair you seemingly like, all you see are a couple of long-shot pictures. There are no close-up images of the stitching, material, or heel. Would you move forward with your purchase in this scenario?
When it comes to eCommerce, you must use large and clear pictures that give viewers the ability to see all the details of the product in question. In addition, use images from varied perspectives so that a potential buyer can get a 360-degree view of the product.
This website redesign mistake applies to all other types of websites, too, because images contribute significantly to visual appeal, user engagement, and brand identity.
4. Generic Calls to Action
A call to action (CTA) refers to a phrase or button that prompts a web user to carry out a particular action, be it adding a product to a cart, proceeding to checkout, or filling in an opt-in form for newsletters. However, one common website design and redesign mistake is the use of generic CTAs, like “Click Here” or “Learn More,” which can be discouraging.
To maximize the chances of a user doing what a CTA requires, it must be clear and actionable, and it should succinctly explain how a user stands to benefit.
Instead of something like, “Learn More,” you can use “Shop Now – Get a 20% Discount” or “Check Our Latest Collection.” By using short and impactful wording along with bold and bright colors, you can get people to take action.
Keep in mind that good CTAs are always actionable and can turn what would have been a lost opportunity into a conversion.
5. A Long or Confusing Checkout Process
This website redesign mistake affects eCommerce websites in particular. If customers experience a prolonged checkout process or if it is confusing, they might simply abandon their shopping carts.
What you need to do when redesigning your website is to make the transaction process less tedious by eliminating unnecessary steps. For example, you can give shoppers the ability to check out without registering for an account.
Remember to offer multiple payment methods and reassuring security seals to increase customer confidence. When you implement a buyer-first approach into the check-out process, you may look forward to maximum conversions with minimum sales opportunities lost.
6. The Use of Unnecessary Pop-ups
While pop-ups can be good for generating leads and highlighting offers, excessive use can be a real headache. This is because unnecessary pop-ups can interrupt the context or flow of content. In addition, overusing them can leave your visitors disgruntled and have a negative impact on your brand. Sure, pop-ups have benefits, but you must use them cautiously and on special occasions.
It’s best to show pop-up ads after a visitor has spent a certain amount of time on your website or is just about to leave a page. If you look at effective pop-up examples, you will see that they align with a website’s content and benefit users in some way.
What’s equally important is to not create pop-ups that leave your users feeling frustrated and cornered when they’re trying to get rid of them. Pop-ups should be easy to close.
7. Hiding Contact Information
One of the biggest pitfalls to avoid when building an online presence by redesigning a website is making your contact information hard to find. After all, when it comes to succeeding in the digital landscape, nothing is more crucial than building trust.
Know that web users appreciate that they can reach out without any hassle if they have any questions or procedural problems surrounding your brand. If you are considering hiding contact details that your target audience might need, know that it is a terrible strategy.
Make sure you display your phone number, email address, and physical address on all pages. You can also offer live chat to your users, which is ideal for quick responses. People appreciate easy-to-find contact information because it gives them a chance to establish trust and certainty, and the ability to keep in touch adds to the sense of security.
8. No Security Certificates
Website security remains a significant concern for people, especially when dealing with sensitive information such as credit card or bank account details. One reason why you should never ignore website revamping with proper security measures is that it may raise red flags and drive away users who are otherwise willing to engage.
When it comes to websites that require users to part with any kind of information, the best way to overcome this issue is to have a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. This protects customers’ data by encrypting all information exchanged between your website and their browsers.
Having an SSL certificate visible to users is a tangible indicator of trust, which often helps convince users that their information is secure.
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9. Requiring an Account to Order
While this is among the top website design mistakes in the eCommerce world, it rears its head in website resigning as well. Sure, creating new customer accounts can benefit repeat purchases and help you deliver personalized experiences, but forcing people to create accounts before purchasing can add unnecessary friction to the checkout process.
This can lead to increased cart abandonment rates, as customers may hesitate to provide personal information or create another online account.
Ideally, you should offer a guest checkout option to enable customers to pay for goods/services without creating an account. This eliminates interruptions and provides an enhanced checkout experience because it is less complicated.
You can always encourage customers to open an account after they make purchases by highlighting benefits like reward points, order history, speed of payment, and recommendations.
10. Poor Customer Service Options
Excellent customer care paves the way for timely and effective addressing of concerns, and enhances customer retention. Unfortunately, several business websites falter on this front, leaving visitors angry and abandoned. When redesigning websites, web designers and developers must ensure that it is easy for users to find solutions to their queries and request assistance when needed.
Not surprisingly, one of the top website redesign tips is to include all the information people can use to contact your business, a dedicated FAQs section, a ticket system, or even a live chat option. This is beneficial because it enables positive brand experiences whenever customers feel the need to seek assistance and it keeps them coming back for more.
Conclusion
It is common knowledge that professional website redesign plays a significant role in how brands perform online. No matter how great your products are and how intricate your marketing strategy is, if your revamped website is not in line with what your audience expects or desires, you will be in for disappointment.
Fortunately, now that you know the top website redesign mistakes and how to avoid them, you can create a stunning website that will turn visitors into customers and help build brand loyalty.
If you think you might not be up to the task, you may hire a professional website redesign company. It can perform a thorough inspection of your website, identify areas of improvement, and then work on improving its overall performance.
