What Are The Most Common Issues With A Bad Website?

• By Sarah
• General News
• 1028 Views
• 20th April 2023

There are many ways to build and design a great website, and there are all sorts of unique factors that make a successful website tick. However, bad websites tend to share a common set of problems with the design, build, and content. Here’s a look at what these are and what can be done to improve them.

 

 

Issues with the user experience

User experience (UX) is one of the cornerstones of a well made website. UX refers to the design, layout and navigation of a website. A site with good UX is designed with the user’s goals in mind, and helps them to accomplish these goals in as few steps as possible. This boils down to a simple structure with a clear navigation pathway.

Bad websites make the user work too hard to find what they are looking for, and prioritise the visuals and sales spiel over the navigation speed and customer journey. If your visitors have to take more than two or three steps to reach the most important pages of your website, then it’s time to rethink the layout and navigation.

Common reasons for poor UX include overly complicated menus with too many options, menus in non-standard places, or menus requiring the user to click onto a sub-menu or different page to access the most popular pages on the site. 

Another common reason that users will click away from the website is when their journey ends in a full stop, with no alternative suggestions or prompts to take the next step. Wherever possible, avoid making users click on the back button on the browser.

 

Issues with the content

Poor content can adversely affect the conversion rate on a website even if the UX is sound. The language of the website should be clear and direct, without any unnecessary jargon. The home page should clearly state what the purpose of the business is and what it has to offer the customer.

Visitors don’t want to read about grand promises or vague mission statements; they don’t have the time and will click away! Save these for one of the inner pages if you must include them. As a rule the copy should sound human and be informative and to the point, and also appropriate to the brand image and the products or services on offer. 

The visual elements of the website should be of high quality and enhance rather than hinder the written copy and navigation tools. Ideally stock images should be avoided and the graphics should be contemporary and in keeping with the nature of the business.

 

Issues with the design and development 

Finally but equally important, technical issues can ruin an otherwise good website. For example, it might have a slow loading speed, or a poor responsive design (the site’s ability to adapt to different sized devices). It may have issues with security, and if so browsers such as Chrome will warn the visitor when they click onto it.

These are just a few of the most common issues with bad websites, and there are multiple other problems that might be letting it down. If you would like some professional advice from a  white label development agency, please get in touch today.