Your small business needs a website, but if you are not educated on web design, it is all-too-easy to make mistakes. Here is a look at a few of the biggest mistakes small business owners make with website design.

1. Creating a site that is too cluttered with content. 

Cluttered content, which included text and graphics, is a surefire way to send a website visitor away. A website should be free of white space and unused opportunity to inject quality information. However, there is such a thing as going overboard and making a site so cluttered that it is too much to look at. 

2. Using imagery that does not match the brand. 

Imagery is a huge part of website design, and there is no way you should create a website without good images that match your brand. One of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is using images that do not match their brand at all. This can really give site visitors the wrong impression and leave them feeling put off by the fact that your brand does not align with what you are conveying on the site. 

3. Creating a website that loads too slowly. 

Google once ran an analysis to determine the bounce rate of website visitors compared to the speed at which the site loaded. Sites that took up to 10 seconds to load saw a 123% increase in bounce rates. This alone shows that visitors who come to a small business website do not want to sit and wait for a page to load; if they have to wait more than a few seconds, they will likely be on their way. Slow-loading can have a lot of root problems, such as a poor HTML layout, too many graphics on a page, or pages with too much content. A good website is relatively lea and easy to load so it pops right up after a visitor clicks on a link to get to you. 

4. Using a font that makes the content hard to read. 

Your written content is what tells a visitor who you are and what you have to offer. If you are using a type of font that is hard to see and hard to read, the visitor is going to be confused. For example, script content is a popular form because it has a certain personality, but there are some forms of script font that are not clear enough to deliver an immediate message. Most website visitors are not going to take the time to scrutinize the font to determine what is being said; they will just navigate to a new site. 

Learn more about avoiding these mistakes by contacting website design services.