There are a lot of elements that can be hurting your website and perhaps it is the sheer excitement, not thinking thoroughly, no concrete planning, or simply because your ideas are not cohesive enough to make your website work for your business.

Sometimes, you think so much about what you should do to generate traffic, engagement, and sales to your website. However, it is also sometimes a good idea to know what not to do because sometimes you might actively be trying to increase traffic to your website but you might also be unconsciously keeping your visitors away and hurting your website too.

Let me discuss to you the top 5 things that hurt your website:

1. Having an unprofessional design and color scheme

Have you seen websites that scream every color from the Crayola box? Make sure that you do not do this on your website. You can choose only 3 to 5 complementary colors for all your elements such as the headings, texts, backgrounds, links, etc. Always keep in mind that it is your job to inspire confidence on your website and your visitors, and professional website design will help you achieve this. In addition, also ensure to verify that your website looks the same in all modern web browsers.

2. Your website takes ages to load

People’s shortening attention spans are not just making them check on their mobile devices several hundred times on a daily basis. In fact, this also makes people impatient when it comes to waiting for your website to load. According to a report from KISSmetrics, there are about 47% of consumers that expect a website page to load in two seconds or less and 40% of them leave abruptly when a website takes more than three seconds to load. A slow-loading website causes frustration to your website visitors and affects its conversion rate. Therefore, it is essential to optimize your website speed.

3. When your website has poor navigation

When your website visitor lands on your website, the first thing you should think is if they know what to do, where they should go, and what their next steps should be. Most of the time, about 80% of small businesses lack call-to-action (CTA) because their websites don’t provide any direction on their site. What you can do is to include a clear headline copy and create a jargonless page copy that explains the essence of what your brand does and a clear primary CTA that shows your website visitors how to take their next steps — whether it’s getting a free trial, to subscribe to your blog, watch a video, etc.

4. Does your website contain multimedia content that autoplay?

Have you ever experienced getting into a website and suddenly a multimedia content suddenly autoplay? This is a major no because your visitor might want to experience a silent browsing session, especially when they are in public places. They may have to fumble with their mute button because they may want to extend courtesy to the people they are around with and you can also show courtesy to your visitors by not forcing your multimedia content on them.

5. When your website has incomplete Contact Us information

It can be really frustrating if your website doesn’t contain enough or complete information on your Contact Us page. You can think that providing a contact form for your visitors is an excellent way to generate an opt-in email list but it really is one of the least valuable elements on your website. Not only is it generic, but it also does not indicate whether or not your visitor wants to receive ongoing communications coming from you. When someone wants to connect with you, it is usually because they have an immediate request that needs to be addressed or they have a one-time problem that needs your attention. On your Contact Us page, you should include your email address, phone number, and social media page where your visitors can reach out to you promptly — this makes you more reliable and trustworthy.

Conclusion

Now that you know the things that may hurt your website, you are one step closer to creating a user-friendly website that would work well for your business and for your visitors.

If you’d like to learn more about the things that may hurt your website, you can download our Web Development ebook.

Are you looking for help in making sure that your website is working well for your business and visitors? Talk to one of our web development specialists now!