Webmasters who hope to increase website traffic usually think about details like keyword research and content creation, but only a handful will rethink their graphic design strategies. It’s a terrible mistake because graphic design can make or break your website traffic and overall website performance. Graphic design can even ruin your business hopes in the long run.
What makes this concept so critical and what can you do to make it better? There is no short answer to this riddle, so keep reading to see 10 graphic design mistakes that will chase visitors away from your website.
Graphic Design Blunders You Have To Avoid
What is the purpose of graphic design? To answer the question, we need to check out the definition of this concept: Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography, iconography, and illustration.
This essentially means that graphic design makes an incredible impact on website visitors with the sheer power of visual appearance. In order to make it work properly, you need to eliminate the following mistakes:
1. Cluttered Design With Too Many Details
If you check out some of the top-performing websites in your niche, you will quickly realize that each one looks fresh, neat, and clean. People love simple and user-friendly websites, so you better avoid cluttered design with too many details.
A much better solution is to keep things minimal. Simplify your website and don’t make visitors overwhelmed with unnecessary elements. Highlight what matters the most to your business and leave out all the other items.
2. Overuse Of Colors
The second tip is closely related to the previous one. Namely, it is never a good idea to use a lot of colors on the same webpage because it creates a confusing mixture that annoys a typical visitor. You should select two or three colors max based on your branding strategy. Stick to that color scheme consistently and it will improve the visibility of your business.
3. Unreadable Copies
Although human beings interpret images much faster than plain text, don’t think website copies are obsolete. Users want to see your offer, but only if you craft a highly readable and well-structured copy.
There is no room for long bulks of text on a webpage. On the contrary, it needs to be short, straightforward, and clear. Write in small paragraphs, use enough whitespaces, and take advantage of lists and bulletins to help visitors skim and scan the content in record time.
4. Using An Irritable Font
Speaking of textual posts, another common mistake among graphic designers is to use an irritable font that looks boring or awkward. For example, most people consider Times New Roman and Helvetica to be some of the worst options in the world of typography. You should not settle for the average font, but rather select an alternative solution or even design a brand new font of your own.
5. Stock Images
Stock images are yet another graphic design blunder that could seriously undermine your content creation efforts. The Internet is packed with stock archives containing millions of images, but the problem is that most of these visuals look boring and artificial.
Even worse, users could bump into the same images on other websites and figure out that your website is not unique and professional. For this reason, you should always create your own images and forget about stock photos.
6. Small Icons And CTA Buttons
The ultimate goal of every website is to inspire visitors to take action. The only way they can do is through icons and call-to-action (CTA) buttons, so it’s never a good idea to make them small and unnoticeable. Each CTA element must be large enough and clearly distinguished, especially on a mobile version of your website.
7. Intrusive Social Media Icons
Multichannel marketing is a must these days, but it’s not an excuse to design intrusive social media icons. Instead of adding social media sharing elements, such as to your Instagram page, to the top of the page, you need to bring them down and put an emphasis on the primary elements of a given webpage.
8. Not Designing A Search Box
Navigation is one of the main issues in web design because you want to help visitors find what they are looking for within a click or two. Sometimes it’s not possible to achieve this goal, but graphic designers can solve it by adding a search box to the website.
What matters the most here is to craft a search box that is large and easy to spot. That way, website visitors can type in a keyword or two and find the content they need very quickly.
9. Adding Too Many Banners
Are you building an educational and informative website or creating an ad board? If you are thinking about the first option, then you cannot allow adding too many banners to your site.
10. Auto-Play Elements
The last graphic design mistake is also one of the worst. Auto-play elements such as video ads or music are extremely disturbing because they make the audience feel cheated. Instead of forcing visitors to watch auto-play videos, you should allow them to choose how to interact with your website. Of course, the only way to do it is by eliminating auto-play elements.
The Bottom Line
Graphic design is one of the key elements of website performance because it helps users form the first impression and decide whether to stay or abandon your pages. In this post, we discussed 10 common mistakes that you must avoid to maximize website traffic. Remember our suggestions and use them as soon as possible – it will help you earn more visitors almost instantly. Graphic design can make or break your website traffic and overall performance and we hope that is more clear now.
Guest Post Author Bio
Isabell Gaylord is a member of the college paper writing service called SameDayEssay. As a member of dissertation writing services, Isabell is interested in a variety of topics such as digital marketing, design, and social media. She is a passionate traveler and a dedicated yoga practitioner.
