A well-designed website will give your potential customers a favorable impression of you, your business, and your horses. On the other hand, there are many issues that are likely to result in a negative perception or an unsatisfactory user experience, and still more that may cause the site to rank poorly in search engine results. Here are five of the most common design errors on horse marketing websites.
Cluttered User Interface
In a recent survey of over two hundred web design agencies, 84.6% of web designers named having a cluttered website design the most common mistake made by small businesses.
Some pointers:
- choose a clean, uncomplicated design.
- avoid decorative fonts.
- opt for a pared-back, coherent color scheme.
- use white space to create context and guide the viewer through the material.
- break up large blocks of text with graphics, space, bullets, or headings.
- use only very high-quality, relevant images.
Additionally, be sure to place a highly visible call-to-action button on the landing page and use a prominent navigation menu with five or fewer tabs. If your business needs more complex navigation, consider drop-down menus tabs.
Design Does not Work on Mobile
In the US, 63% of Google searches occur on mobile devices; three of every five users will be viewing your horses, projects, pedigrees, inventory, services and contact information on a mobile phone. However, 80% of viewers will stop engaging with content that does not display well on their device.
Opt for responsive website design. Responsive websites adjust their layout and content to adapt to the dimensions and resolution of different screen sizes. Users on mobile devices will not have to zoom, pan, and scroll excessively to see all the elements on the web page; they will be much more likely to stay on your site.
Inadequate Accessibility
Accessibility is a set of best practices that makes it easier for people with visual, hearing, motor, or cognitive limitations to understand and interact with a website. Not providing adequate accessibility features can be bad for business, bad for your image, and it is inconsiderate.
Do:
- include adequate alt text.
- provide keyboard input functionality.
- provide closed captioning with videos.
- avoid low-contrast colored typography and
- provide consistent navigation elements.
Be a good human. Provide sufficient accessibility.
Little or No SEO
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of enriching web page content to make it more visible to search engines such as Google and Bing. SEO will help your website to perform better in search results, capturing a higher ranking and attracting more organic traffic. Organic traffic is visitors who find your site by searching for your horses as opposed to clicking on a paid advertisement. Compared to paid advertising, organic traffic is cost-effective, sustainable, and has a significantly higher click-through rate. You want as much of it as you can get.
To boost ranking, attract more traffic and to comply with Google’s guidelines:
- Provide adequate meta descriptions, alt tags, and a sitemap.
- Include a lot of keywords but use them rationally.
- Create high-quality, original content.
- Check to be sure that your navigation and links function correctly.
No Social Proof
Social proof on your website gives prospective clients confidence in your credibility. It helps you gain their trust. Social proof improves search engine ranking by confirming your expertise and authority and providing references for your reliability. Additionally, search engine crawlers see new social proof as updated content, which improves your SEO.
In conclusion, a well-designed website is critical for horse breeders to create a positive impression and attract potential customers. Avoiding common mistakes such as a cluttered user interface, poor mobile compatibility, inadequate accessibility, lack of SEO details, and absence of social proof can significantly enhance the user experience and improve search engine rankings. By implementing best practices in web design, horse breeders can ensure their websites are both functional and competitive in digital marketplace.