Could your website be aging badly?

In the world of digital marketing, where a website’s appearance is almost directly linked to a consumer’s impression of your brand, this is one of the questions you must ask yourself. In fact, Inspired Magazine reports that a user will make up his or her mind about your website within just 10 seconds! Smaller businesses in particular can’t afford to lose customers due to outdated web design.

Because web design is a constantly-evolving art, your business can’t afford to use the same website layout and design it’s been using for years. To give your site a much-needed upgrade, take a look at this list of the three most outdated web design ideas you should be avoiding in 2015:

Not adopting mobile web design
This might be the most important item on this list. Last year, mobile web usage surpassed desktop browsing for the first time in history. These days, four out of five consumers will shop on their smartphones, meaning you might be missing out on huge amounts of business by avoiding a mobile-friendly web design. Mobile web design improves user experience on smartphones and tablets drastically; as a result, 62% of companies that adopt mobile web design will see an increase in business.

Over-designing your website
We’ve all seen websites that are just too designed. They might be crammed with unnecessary graphics and pictures or contain more text than the Bible. Whatever the case, more is less with web design. Today’s web users look for streamlined, succinct design that gives an instant indication of what your brand is all about.

Using awkward stock photography
This should go without saying, but we still see too many websites that use unrealistic, low-quality stock photography in an attempt to increase the amount of visuals on their sites. Web users can spot a bad stock photo from a mile away, and these pictures instantly ruin a website’s credibility. While visuals are highly important in web design, it’s better to have no photos than stock photos.

What are your thoughts on these tips for professional web designers? Have any other questions for us about how a digital marketing strategy can help your business? Let us know by leaving a comment below.