Designing a website is certainly no easy task, especially given the standards that consumers expect in the modern day. In the past, website designs were purely there to give information to someone.

They weren’t filled with different types of media and if it had plenty of text and working features, that was all anyone could ask for. These days, design plays a huge role in good website design and it’s become important to invest in a solid website foundation if you want to attract leads and grow your profits.

While making a website on your own is easy these days thanks to many simple editors and templates, it’s still very easy to make glaring mistakes that could harm the customer experience and make it harder to attract new audiences.

So in this post, we’re going to take a look at 10 glaring mistakes that many small businesses make with their website.

1. Lack of sharing options

If you have a product page, a blog or anything that’s worth sharing, you need to have sharing widgets so that your customers can put things on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms. This will greatly improve your exposure and make it easier to get new leads.

2. Relying too much on your own ability

While designing your own website can be a lot of fun and a great learning experience, there are times when you should just rely on a full service digital agency to take care of everything from your website design to search engine optimization and even marketing.

It saves you a lot of effort and time, especially if you’re just forming the foundation of your business. Once you’re more established, you can take control of the website and apply what you’ve learned.

3. Pointless content

Having content that serves little to no purpose is a waste of website space. Not only does it clog up your website, but it also makes things difficult for users that are trying to look for something specific on your website.

4. Lack of meaningful images

Product pages should have images of the product, service pages should have images that represent the service, and you should generally be breaking up long sections of text with images to help with the overall flow of your website.

5. Relying on the wrong marketing trends

Following marketing trends is a great way to ensure that your website is meeting modern standards and attracting the right audiences. However, it’s not a good idea to just blindly follow trends.

Instead, you need to start thinking about the type of customer that your business attracts and focus on what they want. A great way to do this is to look at trends that are forming in your industry, or looking at feedback from your customers to find effective ways to improve your website.

6. Lack of consistent updates

Websites absolutely need to be updated with regular content to keep visitors coming back. If you fail to keep it updated, then you’re going to end up with a website that has outdated content which serves no purpose.

7. Too much media

While having images, video and even audio can be a great way to enhance your website experience, there are times when you might have too much media loading on your website, causing it to be slow in performance and also frustrate users who just want to find something specific on your website.

8. Confusing text with information

A lot of people seem to think that having a lot of text on your website is a bad thing. With the minimalistic designs that a lot of websites use these days, it’s easy to see why many designers might think this.

However, having too much text on your website isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As long as it’s giving your audience plenty of information and actually provides value to their visit, it’s not exactly a bad thing. Your customers would rather be informed about your products and services than feel like they’ve not learned anything.

9. Spaghetti navigation

If it takes more than three clicks to reach something in your website then you’re doing something wrong with navigation. You absolutely need to focus on making your website clear and easy to use so your customers can quickly find what they’re looking for.

10. No personality

With so many businesses in the world these days, it’s often hard to differentiate one brand from another. As such, people don’t have much brand loyalty and will generally buy whatever is cost-effective and fits in their budget.

By establishing a brand personality and showing it through your website, you create a unique persona that resonates with your audience and draws them in.