Importance of Avoiding Web Development Mistakes
In this era of technology, websites play a significant role in reaching out to more customers and boosting growth, which has a positive impact on the bottom line of business growth. Avoiding web development mistakes are extremely critical in this regard.
Website designed by a web development company is a lucrative long-term investment. It attracts new customers and brings relevant visitors, providing them with useful information about products & services that they might be interested in knowing.
Either you are hiring a web development company or doing it yourself, make sure you know how to avoid these most common web development mistakes. These mistakes can have a negative impact not only on your website but also on your business revenue and credibility.
Below we have discussed some of the most common web development mistakes.
1. Unclear Navigation
The most common web development mistake is probably unclear navigation. While visiting your website, if visitors don’t have a clue about what your business deals in within 5 seconds, chances are that you are going to lose those potential customers.
As far as clear navigation goes, search engines follow a particular pattern when scanning websites and blogs. So, it’s better to follow the traditional navigation, and design guidelines for your site as these styles are proven to work. Also, make sure your website has:
– Distinctive categories, such as all services are categorized separately from all products
– Clear structures for menus
– A distinctive value proposition
If you are a web developer yourself, you should design your site in a way that the visitors should easily be able to look for required products and services. They should be able to sign up for newsletters, place orders or check out your complete catalogue without getting frustrated.
2. Excessive Content
It is necessary to publish content on your site that explains your vision, services and the products offered, that set you apart from other service providers. But buyers today don’t have time to read pages after pages of content to find what they are looking for.
Ideally, your website pages should have only relevant and most important information to help potential buyers make informed decisions in a timely fashion. Make sure the content is clear, concise and engaging.
Don’t make the mistake of publishing lengthy videos and posting huge no of pictures. Not only they will make your website slow but will leave a negative impression on your visitors leaving your site in the dust with this web development mistake.
3. Irregular or No Updates
Once your site is up and running with fresh content, you need to make sure that your website content or blog is updated regularly with news and other product or service related information or updates.
As soon as you launch a new product or service, make sure your website is updated immediately with the information related to the new services, products or offers. It will help you get better rankings on search engines in addition to establish solid credibility.
On the other hand, if you leave your website without any updates for visitors, you may not be able to engage visitors. You may even lose ranking, customers and credibility all at the same time. So, don’t make this particular web development mistake and provide updated information only.
4. Wrong Design Template
If you are using a premade template for your web development, then the price of your liking should not be the deciding factor when it comes to choosing a website template. The factors you need to consider are structure, functionality and performance of the web design template. All website development companies consider these factors when developing websites.
Some people go for free templates, which could be a mistake if not chosen correctly. Most of the free templates do not meet the efficiency required to make a good impression on visitors. Besides, make sure that the design template you choose suits your image and brand of your business. Paid or premium templates are an ideal choice for professional or commercial websites.
5. Not SEO Optimized
Nowadays, the amount of traffic a website gets is based mostly on its search engine ranking. A non-optimized website may not achieve a top position on Google and other search engines, which means losing a lot of potential customers. After all, if your website doesn’t appear on the first few slots of a search results page for a search term, visitors won’t be able to know you exist.
Another common mistake in web development is that developers don’t optimize their websites to target the right audience. Having a lot of traffic or visitors is of no use if those visitors are not interested in your products or services and will eventually not turn into customers. In other words, your conversion rate will tank if you keep getting irrelevant traffic.
You can either hire an SEO agency or do it yourself. If you want yourself to optimize your site for SEO, make sure that you understand the search pattern of customers. You should know how to target them based on their demands by doing keyword research properly. Keyword research will help you identify proper keywords which you need to focus on. For instance, if you offer a product for a specific demographic, make sure to use relevant keywords for local SEO.
6. Design not Responsive
In today’s world of digital devices, people use a variety of smart devices to look for information they need on the Internet. According to the latest statistics, a lot more online traffic generated now is by smartphones than it was ever before. No matter which device customers use to access the web, they want consistent usability and quality.
If your website is not mobile-friendly, you are already losing a lot of potential customers. So, make sure your web development and design company develop a responsive design for your site that is compatible with the mobile devices as well.
7. Missing Call to Action (CTA)
Ultimately, the goal of having a website developed is to add a Call to Action for prospective customers. With CTAs, you encourage buyers to subscribe to your newsletters, ask for a demo version or buy a product or service you offer for the trial period. A business website with no CTA can affect your conversions negatively leading to lower revenues.
Conclusion
If you are hiring a web development company or plan to develop your website yourself, make sure to avoid these most common web development mistakes. Every type of website serves a different purpose and is built to focus on different objectives, but by avoiding these web development mistakes, you can stay out of trouble for any web development project.
