The 3 most common web design mistakes small business owners make

As entrepreneurs, many of us are selling services or products in a busy online space. Which means that having a clear and compelling website should be one of our top business priorities—it’s how our audience learns about us, contacts us, and buys from us, after all! 

Here are 3 common mistakes I see small business owners make when it comes to their website design—and how to fix them. 

1. Your calls to action aren’t clear. 

If you don’t have clear goals for each page of your website, chances are your call to action buttons aren’t going to be very strategic, and therefore they’re not going to nudge your audience in the direction you want them to go in. 

So instead of using calls to action that may feel a little random, set one big, overarching goal for each page of your site and then utilize the CTA buttons throughout to hit that goal!

For example, the goal of your Services page may be to get more inquiries. So make sure there are consistent CTAs encouraging your audience to book a free consultation with you. This will make it much easier for a potential client to get in touch with you when they see your service offerings and say, “I need this!” 

2. Your website doesn’t look great on mobile. 

Hard truth: if you have to tell people, “make sure you view on desktop to get the full experience!” then you probably have some optimizing to do. 

In this day and age, so many people are viewing websites from their phones. And depending on your business, it may actually be that the vast majority of your audience is viewing from their phones (this is particularly true for business-to-consumer businesses).

So make sure the experience is top knotch for them—starting with the legibiltiy and size of the text. This is one of the reasons why I recommend the website platform Showit for service-based businesses—they make it so easy to design the mobile version of your site exactly how you want it. 

3. Your website is more about you than about them. 

Your website should show why you’re qualified… but it should always be through the lens of how you’re helping your audience. 

For example, I’ll often see About pages that are merely paragraphs upon paragraphs about the business owner and their credentials. 

Instead, what if you reframed the page to be about how your background can help your audience achieve their goals? When you make it about them, it’s going to be much easier for them to see how you can actually help them—so keep this top of mind for all of your website pages. 

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Worried you’re making any of these mistakes? I’m offering a limited amount of free 30 minute brand and website audits—and I’d love to give you some tangible feedback and tips on how to optimize your online presence. You can book a call here—can’t wait to chat!