Bad Website Design & How to Avoid It

Because your website is the heart of your digital marketing presence, you want to make sure that it is properly designed. 

Due to the fact that there's a lot of competition on the internet, visitors have very high standards for the websites they visit. Currently, there are 1.13 million websites on the internet, and the number is ever-growing.

To ensure your business's success in today's competitive online environment, it's critical to understand the most recent web design trends and technologies and keep up with the competition.

To learn more about common web design mistakes to avoid and how to fix them, keep reading. 

Visitors come to your website to buy something, learn about your product, read your blog, subscribe to a newsletter, or apply for a job. If they are having difficulty completing any of these tasks, it is most likely due to poor website design. 

Websites with poor usability can cause significant frustration and even cause visitors to leave quickly.

All poorly designed websites share a number of characteristics, including unconventional navigation, slow loading times, non-responsive design, poor layout and organization, inconsistent branding and poor color choices, and a lack of SEO.

Website engagement metrics, such as average time on page and bounce rate, can give you insights into user centricity by letting you know where your visitors tend to go on your site, for how long, how often, and from what sources they usually come. You can use this data to gain a better understanding of the user experience on your website.

There are many tools for user testing that can be helpful. You can evaluate your website based on several factors, such as mobile, design, performance, SEO, and security, and then provide tailored recommendations for improvement.

In this section, we'll look at some of the most common mistakes in bad website design so you can avoid them and create a website that engages users and meets your goals.

Users expect to be able to find information with little effort. Visitors to your site will leave if they can't find information quickly.

If your navigation lacks organization, it will discourage users from browsing your site.

And, because they can't find information, you'll drive more users away from your page.

People are discouraged from engaging with your site if the navigation is confusing. Pages may appear in unexpected places in your menu or be missing from your navigation structure.

Well-designed navigation will make your site appear more organized, make it easier to navigate and find things, and keep leads on your site.

Users expect a website page to load in two seconds or less, and 40% abandon websites that take longer than three seconds to load. 

So, if your site takes more than two seconds to load, you should optimize it to improve performance. 

People will leave your website if it takes too long to load. They want answers quickly, and if your page takes too long to load, they will leave for another site. Besides, slow loading times in search engines are penalized with lower rankings and quality scores. 

The main reason for visitors leaving a website, according to 73% of web designers, is a non-responsive design. A website with an unresponsive design does not resize or adjust to different screen sizes or devices. 

Mobile responsive web design is a key element of a good Internet experience. Despite the fact that mobile accounts for over 60% of internet traffic, many businesses fail to optimize their websites for mobile users.

If your website lacks a responsive design, visitors using tablets and mobile devices will have a negative experience. They will use mobile to access the desktop version of your site, making it difficult to read information and navigate your site.

A website needs to appear clean and professional. Visitors will not stay if it appears outdated, amateurish, or simply not visually appealing.

A good design is not only pleasing to the eye but also functional.

Overcrowding your website with text or images, and not leaving enough whitespace are both bad website design practices. You need to find a balance between the two. A cluttered website is difficult to navigate and, let's face it, not pleasant to the eyes. 

Platforms for building websites are jam-packed with features and add-ons, as they should be. However, this does not imply that you must include everything.  

The illusion of space is both visually appealing and easier to navigate.

Users may find it difficult to read the content on your website if it has poor readability. It could be that the text is too small or too large, in a difficult-to-read color, in long paragraphs with no breaks or with uneven line breaks, and so on.

The color palette of a company's website is one of the worst website design mistakes they can make. Your website visitors will notice your colors first. Some businesses make the mistake of using too many colors, which confuses their visitors.

Too many colors confuse users and make it difficult for them to know where to look on your site. Because colors have such a large impact on brand identity, you want to make sure you choose the right colors for your page.

Choosing a font for your website is as important as selecting a color scheme. Your audience will be unable to read your information if you do not use the right font. 

You'd be surprised at how many bad examples there are out there. Fonts that are too small, too big, or overly decorative, for example, are difficult to read. Of course, there is also the problem of combining different fonts.

With rising concerns about personal information security, your website must be secure. If your website is not secure, visitors will feel uncertain while browsing your pages and will return to the search results.

E-commerce sites, in particular, need secure websites. People are less likely to buy things from an insecure website because they do not feel safe entering their credit card information.

However, if you're asking for any information from visitors—even just their name and email address—your website needs to be secure to make sure that they will give you their information.

CTAs are used to compel people to take action. You need compelling CTAs, whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, or call you.   

When it comes to CTAs, there are several common mistakes that people make. One of these mistakes is not including them on your website at all. Use clear CTAs that provide the user with clear instructions. 

A different mistake is failing to make the CTAs appealing, which can result in lower click-through rates. 

It is also important to use a color that makes the CTA buttons stand out. To avoid user confusion, it's essential to clearly indicate that the CTA is clickable.

If your website is not SEO-optimized, it will not rank well in search engine results, resulting in fewer visitors. The majority of people will find you via search engines. If they search for you or your company and you are not on the first page, they will have a negative impression of you and will likely move on.

There are a few things to keep an eye out for here, such as meta titles, meta descriptions, and meta tags. This is where you include your keyword in the title, description, and tags.

In this section, we will go over some of the best practices for creating and maintaining a good website design. 

Because colors have such a large impact on brand identity, you want to make sure you choose the right colors for your page. The ideal color scheme for a website is three to four colors. The primary color, one to two accent colors, and your text color should be the color breakdown. 

The colors you choose should help build brand recognition. People will connect your color choices with your brand, so choose colors that best represent your business's image.

When selecting colors for your brand, keep in mind the psychology of color. Colors provoke specific emotions or feelings in people, so it's necessary to understand how colors affect your audience.

Fonts are another important aspect of a consistent brand identity. Choosing a font for your website is as important as selecting a color scheme. Your audience will be unable to read the content on your website if the font size is too small or too large.

Choose fonts that are clear and easy to read for your audience.

Use no more than three fonts. If you use too many fonts, your site will appear disorganized, and the design will be inconsistent. Using only a few fonts will keep your site clean and organized.

The color of your font is also important. Some colors are difficult to read in general, especially when they are extremely saturated and paired with a small font. Check your colors to ensure they are easy to read against your background. In most cases, black is ideal.

Keep your body text fonts above 16 pts at a minimum. It will be too small to read on-screen if it is any smaller. Your headings can be a few points bigger. Your title should be large enough to be noticed. Your body text font should also be web-compatible, as this guarantees the best conversion across devices and sizes.

The design of your website's pages should be consistent. Without cohesiveness, your pages won’t look like they belong. A consistent design will also make your pages appear more complete.

Large file sizes from elements such as images, GIFs, and videos are one of the primary causes of slow load times. Compression tools can help you speed up your site by compressing and resizing those elements.

Begin by testing your load speed using tools such as Google PageSpeed. Many tools will recommend ways to speed up your page. To improve the speed of your site, you can also invest in page speed optimization services.

If you believe your website has difficult navigation, there are a few steps you can take to resolve the issue:

Plan out how your visitors will interact with your website. Create a navigation hierarchy. Your site's core pages should be accessible via your navigation menu in some way.

Visitors should be able to return to your home page, whether via your navigation menu or the company logo. Make sure to include those features for a more convenient browsing experience.

Check your website's links to make sure they all work and lead to the correct location. People lose engagement if they click on broken links.

Google's Mobile-Friendly Test will tell you whether your site is mobile-friendly or needs improvement. You can use this as a starting point to see if your website is already mobile-friendly.

Choose a responsive template and test your website on your phone and/or tablet to ensure it looks good on all devices. Most website builders take this into account, but it is still a good idea to double-check the spacing and padding. If you're using WordPress, most Elementor and Gutenberg themes are responsive. You can always preview the theme and template to see how they will appear on different types of devices.  

Elements on your site, such as photos and banners, must be mobile-friendly. Buttons and links should be scaled so mobile users can easily access them. 

A website is the focus of a company's digital marketing strategy. Visitors have high expectations in today's highly competitive online market, and poor website design can lead to significant frustration and a quick exit. Bad navigation, slow loading times, non-responsive design, and poor color choices are all common mistakes in bad website design. 

Businesses can improve the user experience and keep visitors engaged by optimizing their website design. 

By avoiding these common mistakes, your business can create a visually appealing, clean, and professional website that meets your goals and engages users. This will eventually help your company generate leads, sales, and revenue.