You built or hired someone to build a snazzy new website months ago—but you’ve barely noticed an uptick in business. What’s going on? Chances are, if your website isn’t converting, it’s likely that the design or functionality is driving potential customers away.

Are you guilty of these top mistakes?

1. Lacking responsive web design (RWD)

RWD ensures that your web pages render well regardless the device a customer is using. With a large percentage of your customer base using their smartphones or tablets to check out your business, you need your website to display properly. Otherwise, they will grow frustrated and jump to another site quickly.

2. Having poor navigation

It’s critical that your core information—such as contact information, FAQs, return policies, hours and so on—is easy to find. Beyond that, website visitors must be able to easily find other information they want, without having to click back several pages or deal with “orphan” pages.

On every page, you should have a visible navigation bar that directs visitors to other areas of the website, including the home page. Additionally, create a detailed site map where visitors can see and navigate to everything on the website.

Finally, broken links are unacceptable. That’s why website maintenance is so important. Regularly review your website and fix any problems.

3. Overdoing the design—or not doing enough

Too many elements or customization can slow down load times or make a website look too busy or confusing to navigate. Too many font styles and colors make pages look garish. On the contrary, too few design features make a website look boring and unfinished.

Go with no more than two-three fonts and colors per page to keep the website looking professional. And while you should include photos, videos and banners, don’t want the crowd the page. Most important, everything you include should be designed to lead visitors’ eyes to your Call to Action.

Instead of winging it yourself or relying on a free website builder, work with a professional web site designer, who can help you make those design decisions, saving you time and frustration. Learn more about our web design services.

4. Filling the space with ads

If people are bombarded with ad after ad, especially pop ups and sliding ads, they won’t stick around very long. You can include an ad that highlights a special promotion or product, but don’t go crazy.

Instead, use the header, footer and sidebars to improve navigation or provide helpful information.

5. Failing to provide high-quality content

If you aren’t providing informative, well-written content in the form of blogs, articles, videos and free downloads, you aren’t giving visitors a reason to engage with your website—or come back again.

When you provide valuable content, you build your credibility, and potential customers grow to trust you, which increases the chances they buy from you. Plus, high-value content increases your Google ranking, which means more people will actually be able to find you.

6. Overwhelming visitors with too much text

Your website pages must be scannable. That means using concise, clear language and including plenty of bullet points, headers, subheaders and icons. Your average customer doesn’t want to pore over paragraphs of complex, wordy text to understand your business and learn the benefits of working with you. Keep text short, sweet and to the point.