Top 10 Mistakes in Web Design That Can Cost You Conversions
Take a look at some of the common web design mistakes you can dodge and drive higher success rates

Whether you are developing a website from scratch or revamping an existing one, your design directly impacts your success. Estimates suggest that around 75% of your website’s credibility is influenced by its design. The elements you choose dictate how your customers interact with your platform, affecting overall engagement and conversion rates.
A well-designed website UI/UX can lead to a 10X improvement in website engagement. However, a poorly designed UI/UX can frustrate visitors, making your company appear less trustworthy and reliable.
We’ve curated a listicle, elaborating on some of the biggest mistakes in web design that you can sidestep and ensure your website contributes to your business conversions. Let’s dive right in.
10 Common Web Design Mistakes to Avoid
If you’re in the process of hiring a web design company and eager to understand the process yourself to improve outcomes, here’s your cue to apprise yourself of the common web design mistakes that can seriously affect your market credibility.
Poorly Configured Navigation
Unclear or improperly configured navigation can increase friction and lead to poor visitor experience. As the number of websites increases, the content becomes more complicated and crowded, and configuring clear navigation ensures a smooth user journey.
Insufficient Color Contrast
When you work with an experienced website design company, you will be introduced to the importance of color contrast for your website. Featuring the right brand color palette not only adds to your company’s identity but also increases its accessibility.
Insufficient color contrast between the foreground and background color makes perceiving the rightly colored texts and icons difficult, especially for those with visual impairments.
Not Prioritizing Accessibility
Considering accessibility as an afterthought is the biggest mistake one can ever make. People with visual impairments such as color blindness, cataracts, or others can often find it difficult to access your website if there is -
- Missing or inadequate visual focus indicators
- Inappropriate Alt Text
- Missing names or labels
Other mistakes, like wrong color contrast and missing alternative text for images or graphics, are worth mentioning. Discussing your requirements in advance and being active during the web design process to avoid such mistakes is essential.
Avoiding Website Security-first Approach
Website security is paramount when establishing an online presence and forms a primary element of professional web design services. Not prioritizing website security right from the designing stage can make your website prone to breaches and cyber attacks.
Some of the common website security mistakes are not utilizing HTTPS, lack of user authentication, weak password integrations, inadequate backup and recovery planning, and more.
Not Using Trending Web Design Templates
Trends change, and so are user demands. Not keeping up with the trends will make your website and brand outdated and irrelevant to your customers.
Some of the outdated practices include flashy colors, overuse of effects and animations, lack of template customization, more-than-required images and videos, etc. Avoiding them can help you make your mark in the digital world and drive traffic as well as conversions.
Not Choosing Customization
Staying limited to off-the-shelf templates and design layouts can make your website look like a clone of many. This will add to reduced customer trust and satisfaction, costing your conversions. Thus, investing in custom web design services will allow you to craft unique and goal-driven web design that aligns with your business niche and targets.
Choosing Non-Responsive Designs
The design you finalize should be consistent and responsive across devices and platforms. An unresponsive web design contributes to an unattractive website in this technologically-led world.
Designing different roadmaps and user journeys for different browsers or devices is the biggest web design mistake you can ever make. Unresponsive websites also increase your maintenance costs, leading to reduced traffic and poor user experience.
Search Engine Unoptimized Site
SEO is the real impetus to success in the digital world, so brushing its importance under the carpet is like throwing your chances of success down the drain.
When you invest in professional web designing services, you get to avoid common SEO mistakes related to web design, like improper URL structure, lack of heading tags, duplicate or plagiarised content, AI-generated content, lack of proper meta, and more.
Additionally, your website images and graphics are critical elements of web design that support your SEO success. Partnering with an experienced web design and development company can help you steer clear of low-quality images that can muck up your website.
Not Having A Clear CTA
Your CTA plays a pivotal role in driving traffic to your website. An unclear CTA will just make it complicated for your visitors, and your hot prospects may turn cold in no time.
Overdoing or undergoing your CTA can lead to lower conversion rates. Thus, introduce a proper “call to action” to navigate your visitors well.
Not Prioritizing Custom 404 Pages
Perhaps one of the failure-ensuring web design mistakes is not having a dedicated custom 404 page. Dedicating a custom 404 page for your domain lends users something relevant and user-friendly. You can also choose 301 or 302 to redirect your users to other relevant web pages. With 301 or 302 pages, you can easily handle broken links and ensure customer trust.
You can contact the leading web design and development companies to identify broken links and find practical solutions to your unique problems. Along with the broken links, there are other issues that your website may execute, such as non-scannable texts, page titles with reduced search engine visibility, fixed and misaligned font size, and many more.
Parting Thoughts
Not identifying these mistakes before launching your website can increase your bounce rate and cost you conversions. Since your web design is the first element that your customers see, it is best that you invest the required time, resources, and cost to drive the results you desire.
You can utilize the expertise and experience of the leading custom web design companies to craft the best web design solutions for your website and avoid the common and critical mistakes that can jeopardize your reputation.
About the Creator
Jessica Bennett
Jessica is an individual contributor for various leading publications. Writing about technology, design and the latest innovations is her primary knack. She also works for Unified Infotech, a technology service provider serving startups.



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