While I’d like to say there are no rules when it comes to your website, the fact is, there are some things you should and shouldn’t be doing. I wouldn’t necessarily call them rules though. They’re more like suggestions. And these suggestions ultimately can improve your site’s usability. If you’re looking to create a positive user experience, you’ll want to avoid making these website mistakes.
Mistake #1 – Text is Hard to Read
What good is your content if people can’t read it? There are three things that can affect the readability of text: size, color, and font. Text that is too small, too light, low contrast, or a ridiculous font are all no-nos when it comes to readability.
How to fix it
Choose a font size that is 16-18px. Any smaller and you’re getting into hard to read territory. Of course, the size of your text ultimately depends on the font itself. Speaking of fonts, for body text, choose a simple serif or sans-serif font. While scripts and other decorative fonts may look nice, they’re hard to read at a smaller size when used for paragraphs. As far as colors go, if your background is light, choose a dark color, and if your background is dark, choose a light color. The key here is contrast.
Mistake #2 – Site is Not Mobile Friendly
More and more web browsing is done on phones and other devices nowadays. A site that can’t adapt to different screen sizes isn’t user-friendly.
How to fix it
Unless you’re proficient in CSS and can update your site yourself or are willing to hire someone to do it, you’re probably going to have to make some concessions on your site. Your first option is to find a new, mobile responsive theme. If you’d rather not change your theme, then you can install a plugin that generates a mobile theme for you (such as WPtouch). Honestly, this isn’t ideal as the mobile theme will be vastly different from your desktop site, but at least it’ll make your site easier to navigate on mobile devices. My preferred method if you want to quickly make your site responsive is to look for a new theme. But look on the bright side, once it’s responsive, you’ll be good for a while.
Mistake #3 – Navigation Doesn’t Make Sense
Your navigation is the roadmap to your site. Haphazardly adding links to your menu in no particular order is an easy way to overwhelm and confuse your visitors.
How to fix it
Limit the links in your menu to the most important ones and put them in an order that makes sense to guide your visitors through your site. People will typically start on the left and move their way across, so start with links for pages like about, services, etc, and end with contact. People won’t want to contact you the moment they land on your site, they’d rather learn more about you and/or your services first.
Mistake #4 – Using Too Many Fonts and/or Colors
While rainbows might be fun and colorful, unless they’re part of your branding, it’s best to limit yourself. Same goes for fonts.
How to fix it
Pick a limited and cohesive color palette and stick with it. Use those colors and those colors only. It’ll make your site look put together and well branded. In addition to colors, limit your fonts as well. I’d suggest 2-3 fonts tops: one for your paragraph text and another one (maybe two) for accents. Don’t go overboard! And remember to use fonts that are in line with your brand. You don’t see banks using playful fonts because they want to project security and seriousness. Think about your brand and choose your fonts accordingly.
Mistake #5 – Site is Too Cluttered
A site with too much going on not only looks messy, but is confusing to your visitors.
How to fix it
Think about your site’s goals, then make sure that every item on your site is helping you achieve them. If they’re not, dump them. Don’t feel like you need to fill every space with content either. Eyes need a place to rest. Give everything some breathing room. It’ll not only be more user-friendly, but it’ll look a lot nicer too!
Mistake #6 – Links Don’t Stand Out
The point of including links throughout your site is to get people to click on them, right? So if they don’t know something is a link, they won’t click.
How to fix it
To make your links stand out, choose a color that’s different from your site’s body text and use that color for links throughout your site. Using consistency will allow others to quickly determine what is a link and what isn’t. Besides color, you can also make text bold to make links stand out even further.
Mistake #7 – Using Grainy, Blurry, or Generally Poor Images
People like visually appealing things. Using poor quality images isn’t doing your site any favors.
How to fix it
You don’t have to be a photographer to include high-quality images on your site. Nowadays there are tons of stock photo resources out there so there is no excuse for poor photography. Even if you’re on a budget, free options exist, such as Unsplash, Death to the Stock Photo, or Picjumbo.
Want more tips to make your website look and act it’s best? Check out my ebook, Web Appeal: 25 Ways to Beautify Your Site and Get Noticed.
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