5 Common Homepage Design Mistakes to Avoid for Small Businesses

Are you looking for ways to make your website more appealing? Do you wonder what it will take to generate more leads for your site? The layout of your homepage plays a huge factor in your website’s success.

In fact, many companies inhibit their own success by making a few critical errors on their homepage. If you can avoid these homepage design mistakes, then you’ll entice your site visitors and get them intrigued enough to learn more.

Be sure to read below for several key mistakes to avoid when you’re constructing your homepage. If your homepage currently has them, then make sure to correct them ASAP.

1. Not Making It Mobile-Friendly

Did you know that, for the first time in the history of the internet, more people are using the internet via their smartphones more than on any other device? That includes desktops and tablets.

Needless to say, you want to make sure your website is optimized to fit their smartphone’s screen. Otherwise, they will probably click the “back” button on their browser and never return to your site (or brand) again. Harsh, but true.

Put yourself in their shoes. You find a company that you’re intrigued by, so you visit their website with your smartphone to learn more about how they can help you solve your biggest pain points.

But then, when you get to their site, you see a website that’s hard to navigate because it doesn’t format to your phone’s screen. After a few painful minutes of zooming in and out, trying to find the answer you’re looking for, you back out due to frustration.

If your website isn’t currently mobile-friendly, hire a website design expert to do so. It can help you see better returns.

2. Playing Videos With Automatic Sound

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re searching a few websites, then you suddenly hear the blaring noise of an advertisement? Odds are, your immediate reaction was to exit from the site, not listen to what the video had to say.

Putting videos on your homepage is a tremendous idea. It’s engaging content that creates an innovative and exciting tone for your brand.

Photos and videos are always a great thing to include. However, you should let the site visitor turn on the video’s volume on their own time.

Often times, site visitors might be browsing your website while killing time at work, waiting in the line at the DMV, and so on. Your homepage’s video with automatic sound isn’t doing anything but providing embarrassing moments for your clients.

3. Not Having Call to Actions

Who said you had to wait for your blog articles to input a call to action in your website’s content? Most site visitors won’t get that far.

Believe it or not, your site visitors want you to tell them what to do. The way they see it, they’re coming to your website with a pain point that only your brand can solve. The next steps you provide them will make it easier to navigate your website.

Make no mistake about it, not every customer that comes across your homepage is ready to purchase your product/service on the spot. However, that call to action can be what generates interest.

One of the biggest web design secrets that designers don’t want you to know is that your site’s beauty isn’t the most important aspect. Content drives results, not pretty graphics and color schemes (although, those do help!).

The success of your website starts with the call to actions on your homepage. Direct them to your blog, news articles, product pages, email subscription form, or anywhere else to push them further along the marketing lifecycle for your brand.

4. Slow Homepage

Odds are that you’ve had several occurrences where you went to visit a company’s website and had to wait 10 seconds or longer for the homepage to download.

Slow homepages are sales conversion killers. Many site visitors will back out of your website before it downloads. Even worse, they’ll opt for your competitor’s site instead.

There are many reasons why a website is slow. You could be using unoptimized images on your site, have too many ads, or use too much flash content.

Be sure to visit your site every once and a while to make sure the homepage downloads quickly. If you notice any complications, be sure to troubleshoot the problem until it’s resolved.

5. Not Using High-Quality Images

Possibly the most overlooked aspect of a website is the use of images. Too many companies overlook the pictures they use, opting for images of poor quality.

However, images play a huge role in your website’s success. Google considers them highly, only pointing their site users to sites with high-quality photos. If you use images with a low resolution, you’ve already rid yourself of the benefits of SEO.

Second, the images play a part in the speed of your website. If their unoptimized (require too much download data) then they will dramatically slow down your site and deter a lot of your customers in the process.

Be sure to start using high-quality, optimized photos from this day forward. If you need access to a bigger library of photos, try using free stock photo sites like Unsplash or Pixabay.

Avoid These Homepage Design Mistakes at All Costs

Now that you have seen several homepage design mistakes to avoid, it’s time that you prioritize them with your website’s home page.

Be sure to take the time and audit your entire website, starting with the homepage. Use call to actions everywhere, include photos and videos wherever relevant, and give your site users a site that’s easy to navigate.

Make sure to browse our website for more articles on web design tricks, as well as many other important topics.