8 Website Design Trends You Should Avoid | BizcaBOOM

Websites have come a long way in the past decade. What was once black text on a white background has become more complex, with many different styles and designs popping up over time.

While all of these styles are beautiful, they can also be overwhelming to your customers. In this blog post we will discuss 8 website design trends that you should avoid if you want to see an increase in conversion rates!

1) Not Having a Mobile-Friendly Website Design

Mobile-first design is the way of the future. Be sure your website isn’t just optimized for desktop (which it should be), but that mobile devices are taken into account as well – otherwise you’re not doing yourself any favors!

The need for mobile-first design becomes more vital as the world switches to browsing the web on different devices.

If your website isn’t designed with a good, user friendly experience that adjusts automatically depending on what device you are using it from, then you’re not doing yourself any favors. If you’re looking to hire a professional website designer in your local area, one thing to avoid at all costs is if they say they can’t provide you a website with a responsive design.

A website that isn’t responsive to almost all devices is not only an old website design trend you should avoid, but it’s just plain dumb in this ever changing world.

When it comes to the internet, you need a mobile-first design. In the US alone, more than 61% of all online traffic was accessed through mobile devices, up 57% from 2019 and this number is not going to stop. If your site isn’t designed with that in mind, then you are potentially losing out on potential customers and revenue.

2) Infinite Scrolling (not a good idea for a website):

Infinite scrolling is becoming more popular on many websites due to the benefits of smoother loading and not having to click through other page numbers, but there are some drawbacks that you may want to think about before deciding whether or not infinite scroll will work for your website.

One disadvantage of infinite scrolling is being unable to reach footer content which is one crucial ranking factor in SEO.

More and more websites are adopting this design nowadays, but it’s not necessarily the best thing to do. This is another type of website design trend that you have to avoid because it can be confusing for visitors if they want to find specific content on your site because lists with no pagination means they have to keep scrolling.

3) Silly Stock Photos:

The concept of using stock photos has been around for years and some people might think that they are still a viable option, but don’t underestimate the power of having professional quality photography on your site.

Stock images can have bad lighting or composition which means it’s not always an effective choice when you need high-quality imagery to place in articles.

Also, having stock photos with random people on your website can harm the reputation of your business.

This is an example of a bad stock photo that you might see on the internet. The image quality is not good and it’s distracting to the viewer because they can’t focus on anything else because there are so many different things going on in this image.

4) Don't Let Content Autoplay:

Don’t force users to see content or watch a video upon landing on your webpage. Let the website visitor navigate through your website by themselves and don’t distract them with autoplay content such as audios or videos that will make them leave. While having people engage on your website is critical, there are other ways to improve engagement besides automatically playing multimedia files.

5) Slow-Loading Landing Pages on Your Website:

A slow-loading landing page on your website could result in a potential client leaving the webpage without completing their goal.

Slow loading pages can be caused by many different factors such as poor coding, too much data being loaded at one time, no caching systems, and more.

6) Random Popups

Popups are a necessary evil. And they work well. But people hate them. So, why do people bother to enter their email in a popup?

It’s because they offer value. A free E-book, a discount coupon, great information that they will get when they sign up for a newsletter, and similar things, however try to avoid pop-ups as much as you can, but if you must have them, at least offer something in return for people’s attention. Here are rules to never break when creating a popup.

7) Having an Endless Amount of Fonts

Having an endless amount of fonts is a mistake we see often, but is so easy to fix (most of the time). Fonts designated for specific uses can lead to clutter. There are many font families out there for websites, so just pick one that is easy to read and doesn’t break your website design.

8) A Confusing Navigation

Whenever a visitor lands on your website, they should not be overwhelmed by the number of options or links. Your website navigation should be easy to use and understand which is a major ranking factor in Google as well.

Most of the time this can work, however if the main navigation is nowhere to be found, then you have an even bigger problem. The main navigation should be somewhat simple and easy to navigate through. Try to have a balance in what you’re trying to project to your website visitors.

In order to make navigation easier, you can create drop-down menus. This will help keep the website clean and allow visitors to find what they are looking for quickly without having an expansive layout.

Google has found that a lot of websites have too many links on one page which makes it difficult for users to navigate through your site smoothly.

If you want choose a really interesting way to design your navigation bar then try using pictures or icons instead of text! Sometimes choosing just images is enough because people know how to click them when they’re familiar with them anyways.

According to a study by Clutch.co, around 94% of website visitors say that an easy navigation is the most important feature!

The key here is staying consistent in looks throughout all pages so if someone lands on another section of your website after clicking from the main navigation menu, they won’t be intimidated by the complexity of your navigation.

Why It's Important to Update Your Website Design

The World Wide Web is ever-evolving. As time passes, new technology emerges and changes the landscape of how business works forever. The design of your website can make or break your brand’s presence in today’s digital economy.

This is another reason why mobile-responsiveness has become a big web design trend for the 2020s and beyond.

If your site isn’t user friendly then it’ll be difficult for people to find what they’re looking for on there, which can equal less traffic and fewer leads which ultimately equals lower revenue than if you had just updated the design of your website!

If you can avoid these outdated web design trends then chances are you’re on your way to creating a sleek, clean website with an awesome interface for your users.

If you ever need help in deciding what design elements you want to include for your site, contact us to work with a professional web designer in The Woodlands! We’d be happy to guide you in designing a website any user would love to see.

Now that you have learned the 8 website design trends you should avoid at all costs, why not share this post with your friends?

Spread the word out so we can continue to give you content on how to BOOM your business and establish dominance on the internet with digital marketing!

References:

Black Bear Design