Every Australian business owner, or just about anyone seeking an online presence, wants a stunning website. More often than not, the go-to platform for building such a website is WordPress, and while alternatives like Wix, Shopify, and Hostinger exist, it’s hard to deny how powerful WordPress truly is.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that most people are searching for the best agencies that build WordPress websites in Melbourne. However, even top service providers can’t give you a great website if they’re making crucial mistakes when creating it. Here are five significant UI/UX errors to avoid when building a WordPress site:
1. Poor Website Navigation
A website that’s tough to navigate is a significant red flag for users and often the most significant UI/UX mistake when building it. It hampers the site’s effectiveness and frustrates the user, and it’s just a matter of seconds before they move on to another site, leading to higher bounce rates and lower engagement.
Poor navigation is typically signaled by inconsistent labeling, unclear menu structures, and overly complicated user navigation. WordPress users should focus on user-friendliness, ensuring things like keeping a parent page, child page, and so on, to maintain hierarchy and a clear user journey.
2. Prioritizing Aesthetics Over Website Speed
Sure, making your website look good is essential, but not to the point where it slows down the page load times. Slow-loading pages have a notorious reputation for causing users to leave websites, and rightfully so. Would you stay on a website where trying to check a product’s page has you waiting for several seconds?
This typically happens when a busy WordPress theme is chosen, with a cluttered layout that slows down the site as the server processes too many elements.
Adding large images and videos, videos with audio, and too many animations also slows down page times. Hence, it’s best to use such elements sparingly and choose a lighter theme with fewer visual elements.
3. Bad CTA Strategy
While focusing on all the visuals and back-end elements, it’s easy to forget your site’s CTAs, which are key to user navigation and conversion.
Incorrectly placed CTAs when building your site will translate to users struggling to take desired actions (like contacting your team or purchasing a product), missing out on vital prompts, and ultimately, your website facing lower conversions.
Instead, place CTAs on your site’s high-traffic areas (your WordPress agency or designer will already know how to do this), ensuring they are clearly visible and well-integrated.
In WordPress web design, optimized CTA placement is key to offering a better user experience, maximizing website effectiveness, and driving desired user actions.
4. Using Standard Themes
WordPress has no dearth of pre-built themes, and more often than not, websites are built using them. These standard themes are a great place to start, but they offer a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
Such generic themes lack specific aesthetics and features that align with your business’s identity and desired audience, so you must invest in customization.
Customizing means you can tailor your site to best suit your goals and audience preferences, meaning custom CTA buttons, background colors, fonts, and page elements. These help align the site with your brand’s vision, paving the way for high user engagement and better conversions.
5. Using Fonts That Aren’t Reader-Friendly
Fonts may not be the first thing on the agenda when building sites, but they are critical. Using a cool font just because it looks nice on WordPress might make your site illegible and discourage users from visiting.
Instead, you should use a Google font that works on all devices and browsers, which will also help you steer clear of mobile optimization issues.
Choosing the right font size and color is also imperative. Use a medium font size that isn’t too small or big, and consider making it adjustable for a better user experience.
Choose a color that contrasts well with your site’s background (black and white or dark blue on white are standard examples). These simple tips are sure to improve your blog and website usability
Wrapping Up
Having a robust website is of utmost importance today. Whether you’re a blogger who writes casually or a business owner wanting to move products, a solid website, built on WordPress, will help your brand flourish, capture audiences, and grow consistently over time.
So, even if you’re working with the best WordPress agency, make sure they steer clear of the mistakes we’ve listed here!
