10 Common Website Mistakes in 2023 and How to Avoid Them

Did you know that a staggering 90% of consumers make online purchasing decisions based on a website’s design? Your website is so powerful that it can attract, engage, and convert a visitor into a loyal brand advocate.

But it isn’t easy to get there. Of the 200 million active websites, how many are actually visible in the search engine results or attract the right amount of traffic? Why do many websites fail? There are plenty of reasons.

In this blog, we’ll talk about the 10 most common website mistakes in 2023 and how to avoid them. Hopefully, this will serve as a guide to rectifying the mistakes and improving the visibility of your website, resulting in increased traffic and conversions.

1. Inconsistent branding and design

You walk into a physical store where every section has a completely different color scheme and overall aesthetic. More than serving as a clear differentiation between sections, this strategy may, in fact, confuse and disorient you. Similarly, websites make the mistake of having a different design for each section or page, experimenting with colors, fonts, and imagery.

This inconsistency leads to confusion and makes it difficult for users to understand your website’s hierarchy and content flow. They are most likely to disengage and bounce from your site, negatively impacting your brand’s credibility.

How do you maintain visual consistency on your website?

Color palette

Define your brand's color palette, including primary and secondary colors. Provide hex codes or RGB values for each color to ensure accurate reproduction.

Typography

Choose a set of fonts for headings, subheadings, and body text . Set the font sizes, line heights, and letter spacing for each type.

Images

Select images and graphics that align with your brand. Use filters, effects, and editing techniques to maintain consistency across the website.

Layout and grid

Establish clear guidelines for content layout, including spacing, alignment, and grids. Ensure a harmonious arrangement of elements across different pages.

Interactive elements

Define the design of buttons, links, forms, and other interactive elements . Ensure consistent hover effects, button styles, and animations.

Logo usage

Specify clear guidelines for logo placement, size, spacing, and variations.

Maintaining consistency gives a professional look to your website. Visitors can easily remember your brand and associate it with what you offer when they come across a uniform style throughout the website.

2. Complex navigation and information architecture

Imagine your school library without any labels for different sections or genres. You'd likely spend more time wandering around in confusion than actually finding the books you're interested in. Similarly, a website with a poorly structured navigation system can leave visitors frustrated, resulting in high bounce rates and missed opportunities.

So, what is required is an intuitive and user-friendly navigation system. Here are some tips for it.

Simplify menu structure

Your navigation menu should be concise and organized. Limit the number of main menu items to a manageable amount, ideally between 5 and 7.

Logical categorization

Group related content under the appropriate categories. Users should be able to infer what each section contains based on the menu labels.

Search functionality

Incorporate a robust search bar prominently on your website. It can act as a safety net for users who prefer to search for specific content.

Breadcrumbs

Implement breadcrumbs to show users their current location within the website's hierarchy. Breadcrumbs help users understand where they are and how to navigate back to previous pages.

Dropdown menus

Utilize dropdown menus for subcategories or additional pages within each main menu item. However, avoid overwhelming users with too many nested levels.

Design your navigation structure in such a way that users can effortlessly find the information they need. Clear navigation encourages visitors to stay on your site, explore more, and engage with the content.

3. Lack of clear Call-to-Actions (CTAs)

A website may look great, but what if there isn’t a clear and compelling CTA that can guide visitors to take their next step? A website without a clearly defined CTA is similar to a map without directions. Users may spend time on your website, but if the CTA isn’t clear, it leaves them disoriented and unsure about what next step they have to take.

Also, with the fleeting attention span of Gen Z, you cannot afford to have a CTA that lacks action. Here are a few tips to create a compelling CTA that encourages website visitors to take your desired action.

Strategic placement

Have you placed your CTAs in strategic positions where there is a high likelihood of them getting noticed and clicked? Place your CTAs above the fold, within high-traffic areas, and at the end of relevant content.

Contrasting colors

Make the CTAs stand out by using contrasting colors that draw the eye and encourage action. But don’t go against the naturally perceived colors. For example, don’t use red instead of green to denote positive actions.

Persuasive language

Craft clear and action-oriented text that communicates the value users will gain by clicking. For example, use “Yes, I Want To Enroll In A Free Course” on the CTA instead of the bland “Click Here” text.

Relevance to content

Your CTA’s text should be relevant to the accompanying content. Don’t use a CTA if there isn’t any necessity.

Size and design

Make your CTAs visually prominent. How? Use a larger font size and bold text. Utilize white space around it to avoid clutter and enhance readability.

Directional clues

Use design elements such as arrows and images to guide the user’s attention toward the CTA and make them discoverable.

Limited choices

Using too many CTAs on a page leads to decision fatigue for your users. So, use them wherever relevant and where there are higher chances of a user taking action.

Feedback and confirmation

Make sure that you provide immediate feedback when users interact with your CTA. This may be in the form of a thank-you popup or animation.

Test the placement of your CTAs continuously. This will ensure a more engaging and conversion-driven CTA on each page of your website.

4. Neglecting regular content updates

Creating and publishing your website is half the task. If it has to attract new visitors, engage them, and retain them, you have to constantly update its content. Outdated or irrelevant content is one of the most common website mistakes, and this may lead to reduced traffic and higher bounce rates. Outdated content can lead users to believe that your website is neglected or abandoned, damaging your brand’s reputation.

Here are our top strategies for regular content updates.

Establish a content calendar

A content calendar helps you plan and schedule your updates in advance, ensuring a steady flow of fresh content.

Diverse content formats

Blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, customer reviews, testimonials, guest blog posts - experiment with a variety of content formats. This keeps your audience engaged.

Leverage trends and news

Try creating content that addresses the current topics. It will attract visitors and help improve visibility.

Repurpose existing content

Turn a blog post into a video or transform a webinar into a series of blogs. Repurposing content extends its lifespan while getting you more traffic.

Other than updating content, conduct regular audits to identify underperforming or irrelevant content that can be modified or removed to ensure quality. Don’t view regular content updates as a task. Instead, it is an investment in the long-term growth and relevance of your website’s content.

5. Slow loading speed

Why will anyone wait to view a website that takes forever to load? Blame it on the reduced attention spans of users, but have you done your bit to reduce the loading speed? A virtual waiting room can quickly alienate and frustrate visitors. Why will they be interested in a website that doesn’t load quickly when they have better options?

There are several factors contributing to slow loading speeds.

Identify the cause and take corrective measures. How do you go about it? Well, here are some tips to optimize your website’s loading speed.

Image optimization

Compress and resize images before uploading. But ensure there’s no compromise on the image quality. Use modern image formats like WEBP and employ lazy loading to load images as users scroll down the page. This format works well for e-commerce websites.

Minify code

Minimize front-end HTML, CSS, and JS files to reduce their size. Write clean codes and remove unnecessary characters, whitespace, and comments.

Content delivery network (CDN)

Use a CDN to spread the content of your website over numerous servers around the world. This reduces latency and ensures faster loading times for users in different geographical locations.

Server performance

In addition to reliable and high-performance hosting, consider dedicated or cloud-hosting options to ensure fast server response times.

Browser caching

Implement browser caching to store static assets on users' devices, reducing the need for repeated server requests.

Gzip compression

Enabling Gzip compression on your server compresses website files before transferring them to users' browsers.

Reduce HTTP requests

Combine and consolidate CSS and JS files. Use CSS sprites for multiple small images. Doing this will minimize the number of HTTP requests required to load the page.

Prioritize above-the-fold content

Ensure that your page’s above-the-fold content loads quickly. This will ensure your users start interacting with this content immediately, giving time for the other content to load.

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights (PSI) and GTmetrix to identify speed-related issues and track improvements. Fast-loading pages on your website encourage users to engage with your content, lowering bounce rates and improving conversions.

6. Ignoring SEO best practices

You have designed a visually appealing website, but how are you making sure that people know it exists? Does the search engine recommend your website to users when they search for relevant queries? Ignoring search engine optimization (SEO) best practices is like burying your website underneath thousands of others that lie obscurely waiting to be discovered. Don’t allow your website to be one of them.

So, here are some of our best strategies for effective SEO implementation .

Keyword research

Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, or Ahrefs to find high-impact, relevant search terms that your target audience uses.

Content creation

Develop high-quality, informative, keyword-rich, and engaging content that addresses your audience's needs and aligns with their search intent.

On-page SEO

Optimize on-page elements such as titles, meta descriptions, headings, and image alt text with target keywords to ensure they are easily indexed by the search engines as well as easily understood by visitors.

Technical SEO

Address technical aspects of your SEO, like secure connections (HTTPS), XML sitemaps, mobile responsiveness, and page loading speed, to ensure that search engine bots can crawl and index your site successfully.

Backlink building

Build high-quality, relevant backlinks from reputable websites. This ensures authority and drastically improves your website’s visibility.

Local SEO

List your business on Google My Business. Obtain local citations and encourage customer reviews. This will improve the visibility of your website in local searches.

Similar to content updates, SEO optimization is an ongoing strategy. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your website’s performance and track keyword rankings. When you recognize the significance of SEO and work on it, you’ll see a gradual and consistent increase in your website’s visibility. This will attract highly targeted organic traffic to your website , giving you a competitive edge.

7. Neglecting mobile optimization

It’s a world where almost every online transaction or purchase takes place through a mobile device. If your website looks perfect on a desktop and looks distorted and misaligned on a mobile screen, you are simply driving visitors away from the website. Neglecting mobile optimization is one of the most common website mistakes and this may cost you dearly.

How do you design a website that adapts itself to various screen sizes and resolutions? We have some brilliant tips for effective mobile optimization. There are two ways to achieve it- mobile-friendly and mobile-responsive.

Mobile-responsive

A mobile-responsive website design uses flexible grids and elements, fluid images, and CSS media queries to rearrange and resize content dynamically. This means the website “responds” to the device characteristics and automatically adjusts and adapts its layout and content based on the screen size and orientation.

Here is what happens in a mobile-responsive website design.

Fluid layout

The layout adapts and reorganizes itself based on the available screen space, ensuring that content remains readable and usable.

Optimized images

Images automatically scale down or adjust their resolution to load quickly and fit the device's screen.

Easy navigation

Navigation menus and buttons may change in design or position to accommodate touch-based interactions on mobile devices.

Mobile-friendly

A mobile-friendly website may not dynamically adjust its layout like responsive sites, but they are designed keeping in mind different screen types.

Here are the key characteristics of a mobile-friendly website design.

Readable text

The text is appropriately sized and formatted for easy reading on smaller screens without requiring zooming.

Touch-friendly elements

Buttons, links, and interactive elements are spaced out and large enough to be tapped accurately with a finger.

Minimal horizontal scrolling

Users can navigate the site without needing to scroll horizontally, which can be cumbersome on mobile devices.

Fast loading times

Images and content are optimized for mobile data connections and loading speeds.

Clear navigation

The navigation is simplified by using clear menus, easily accessible buttons, and intuitive icons.

Use both mobile-friendly and mobile-responsive techniques, and consider designing and structuring your website with a mobile-first approach. Effective mobile optimization encourages users to explore your content, resulting in longer sessions and increased engagement.

8. Overlooking accessibility

Is your website designed to be accessible to specific individuals with visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor disabilities? If you have overlooked this, it may result in legal consequences and negative public perception.

Here are a few tips to ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including people with disabilities.

Follow WCAG guidelines

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provided by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) offer a comprehensive framework for creating accessible web content.

Alt text for images

Provide descriptive alt text for images to convey their content and purpose to users with visual impairments or who use screen readers. It also helps with SEO.

Text alternatives

Offer text alternatives for multimedia content such as videos, audio files, and interactive elements.

Proper color contrast

Ensure that text and background colors have sufficient contrast for readability to benefit users with low vision or color blindness.

Keyboard navigation

Ensure that all interactive elements, such as buttons and links, can be navigated and activated using a keyboard. This is crucial for visitors who cannot use a mouse.

Semantic HTML

Use semantic HTML elements like tags to provide proper structure and context to your content. For example, using tags like <header>, <nav>, <section>, or <main> makes it easy for screen readers to convey information to people with disabilities.

When you make your website accessible to all, it fosters a sense of inclusivity and builds a positive brand image.

9. Inadequate security measures

How secure is your website from potential cyber threats and security risks? Are you providing adequate security for sensitive data so as not to compromise the trust of your users? If you are neglecting cyber security and are non-compliant with data protection regulations, we fear it can have a negative impact on your business’s reputation and result in legal action and financial liabilities.

If your website is lacking in security, it’s time to take action and implement robust security measures. Here are some strategies to boost your website’s security.

SSL certificates

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificates encrypt data transmitted between users and your website, preventing unauthorized access. Get it done if yours is an e-commerce website or handles sensitive information.

Strong authentication

Implement MFA (multi-factor authentication) for user accounts to add an extra security layer before users can access their accounts.

Firewalls

Utilize web application firewalls (WAFs) to protect your website against SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

Data encryption

Encrypt data both at rest and in transit. This will prevent unauthorized access.

Backup and recovery plans

Take regular backups of your website’s data and create a comprehensive recovery plan in case of data breach incidents.

Access control

Implement role-based access controls to limit access to sensitive areas of your website.

Vulnerability scanning and penetration testing

Scan your website for vulnerabilities and conduct penetration tests to identify potential weak points that attackers could exploit. And do this regularly, even if you feel that your website is secure.

Regular software updates

Update your website’s software, including plugins and third-party integrations. Address known vulnerabilities through security patches.

Addressing your website’s security reduces the likelihood of data breaches and ensures legal compliance. Moreover, it enhances your brand’s credibility when users know your website is safe to use.

10. Ignoring analytics and data

If you were running your business blindfolded, would you know which products are selling well or who your customers are? Similarly, if you ignore data and analytics, you are missing out on conversion opportunities. You are wasting resources without attempting to understand customer pain points or their preferences.

When you have data at your disposal, why not use it effectively to identify bottlenecks, optimize the sales funnel, create the best user experience, and boost conversion rates?

Here are strategies you need to implement to harness the full potential of analytics for your website.

Integrate analytics tools

A single powerful tool like Google Analytics gives you ample data about user behavior, traffic sources, page views, bounce rates, and more. Have you integrated it into your website?

Set goals and KPIs

Define clear business goals and track progress with key performance indicators (KPIs) that align with your objectives.

Track conversions

Measure specific user actions, such as submissions, purchases, or sign-ups.

Segment user data

Segment the available data based on your goals. This will give you deeper insight into different user groups and their preferences.

Heatmaps and session recordings

These tools help you visualize user interactions and identify areas for improvement.

A/B testing

Conduct A/B tests to compare different versions of web pages, content, or design elements to better understand what resonates with your audience.

Data-driven insights help you refine your marketing strategies, and evolve, and adapt your website to changing user needs.

Wrapping Up

As we conclude this topic on 10 common website mistakes in 2023 and how to avoid them, it’s clear that much work is needed to create an engaging, user-friendly, and responsive website. No-code website builders offer a streamlined and intuitive approach to website building, helping you avoid these mistakes.

The no-code website builder Dotcom comes equipped with templates and design blocks, ensuring a mobile-optimized, user-friendly, SEO-optimized, and visually appealing website design. This no-code drag-and-drop builder optimizes the technical aspects of your website, such as image compression and caching, resulting in improved loading speeds.

It also integrates seamlessly with analytics tools, giving you insights into your website’s performance and user behavior.

Build your website on the no-code web builder Dotcom to not only avoid these common website mistakes but also attract the right traffic and boost conversions.