This term is used to describe a company’s attempt to make the experiences consumers have with their website meaningful and valuable. Failing to focus on website user experience can result in lots of potential sales leads being lost. The first step to improving the user experience offered by your website is conducting an in-depth audit.
The results of this website audit can help you pinpoint areas that need to be improved to provide a top-notch user experience. If you are trying to improve website user experience, then consider the tips in this article.
1. Realize the Importance of Bullet Points
A recent study found that a bad user experience can keep nearly 88 percent of online consumers from returning to a website. The last thing you want is for UX mistakes to send potential customers running to a competitor’s website. When trying to pinpoint your UX issues, the first thing you need to look at is the condition of your content.
Does the content on your web pages look like a huge block of text? If you answered yes, you have to fix this common problem immediately. One of the best ways to boost content readability is by using bullet points.
Using bullet points can help you accomplish things like:
- Getting your point across quickly
- Make content more readable
- Help the reader save time
- A great way to encourage clicks
- Improve your Google rank
If you are unsure about how to incorporate bullet points into your content, reaching out for some professional help is a great way. With the help of marketing professionals, you can improve content readability and conversion rates.
2. Find Ways To Speed Up Your Website
If a potential customer lands on your website after conducting a Google search, they will be looking for a few basic things. One of the first things a modern consumer insists on when visiting a website is fast page load speeds. The average consumer expects website load times of around three seconds or less. If your website doesn’t provide these lightning-fast loading speeds, you have to figure out why quickly.
Not only can a slow website affect user experience, it can also affect your ability to get your domain on the first page of Google search results. Most people won’t venture past the first page of Google results when looking for information on a particular subject. This means any website that falls to the second page and beyond on Google will have a hard time generating sales leads.
As soon as you start to notice your website is loading slowly, you need to check for issues involving image file sizes, server response times and coding errors. If you are unable to pinpoint the root cause of your loading issues, then you need to reach out to a knowledgeable web developer for assistance.
3. Information-Packed Calls To Action
When developing content for your website, you need to find ways to make visitors enthusiastic about navigating to different pages. Accomplishing this goal will require the use of catchy calls to action. The main job of a call to action is to let website visitors know the next step in taking advantage of an offer. In this part of the text, you will use a salesy tone to appeal to website visitors.
If you want to make your calls to action more impactful, consider doing things like:
- Write in first-person
- Incorporate clickable buttons
- Use personalized action words
- Emotional language is crucial
- Embed internal links
Figuring out what type of calls to action your audience responds to will require some A/B testing. During this testing, you will use a few different call-to-action types and monitor how much engagement each one gets. This information allows you to optimize your calls to action for maximum impact.
4. Find and Fix 404 Errors
Over time, your website will experience many changes. Altering your website is the best way to keep up with the changing sensibilities of your audience. Keeping up with all of these changes can be difficult for a busy business owner. If a website visitor tries to click a link on your website and are met with an “Error 404” message, it can negatively impact your ability to turn them into a customer.
A 404 error is an HTTP status code presented to a website user when the page they want to view is no longer available. These errors are extremely common on websites undergoing a redesign. If you are currently redesigning your website, you must create custom 404 error messages.
These customized messages should provide website visitors with information about why the page they want to view isn’t available. Routinely checking the page links on your website is a great way to find these errors and fix them. Removing a page link that no longer exists from your sitemap is imperative if you want to provide a great user experience.
5. Learn How To Use Images Wisely
Websites that are solely text-based don’t perform well with modern consumers. For the most part, humans are visual beings. This is why learning how to use images wisely on your website is something you should view as a priority. Ideally, you want to use images to enhance your written content and improve your brand image.
Relying solely on stock photography is a mistake that can come back to haunt you. Working with an experienced photographer is imperative when trying to get customized and branded images for your website. Before uploading new images to your website, you need to consider file sizes. Using one of the many programs designed to compress image file sizes is a wise move. Compressing these files will make the pages they are embedded on load much faster.
6. Focus on Website Consistency
When building a website, you need to make a list of priorities. One of the main priorities you should have when designing a website for your business is brand consistency. Building webpages that are consistent will require the use of:
- The same font
- Consistent color schemes
- Recognizable writing tone
- Matching button styles
- Similar headings
Website consistency can help you provide consumers with a great user experience. A high level of consistency on your website can also make your business appear more trustworthy.
7. You Need Attractive Headlines
Driving organic traffic to your website is not easy. There are more websites than ever before online vying for the same traffic. If you want your website to stand out in a Google search, you need to realize the importance of attractive headlines. As you create headlines for the content on your website, you need to think about creating a sense of enthusiasm.
You want your content titles to be both eye-catching and descriptive. If you are successful in your attempts to create attractive headlines, you can garner the attention of online consumers. Working with marketing professionals is a great way to improve your titles and make your content more engaging.
8. Don’t Forget To Add Trust Pages To Your Website
Gaining the trust of online consumers can be difficult. Using things like social proof in the form of positive reviews on your website homepage is a great way to start winning over potential customers. You also need to add trust pages to your website to engage with consumers and provide a better UX.
These pages should include:
- Terms of service page
- Contact us page
- Privacy policy page
- About us page
While these pages won’t receive much traffic, they make website visitors feel like your business is transparent. When creating these pages, you need to fight off the urge to use confusing industry jargon. Writing the content on these pages in a way that the average person can easily understand is vital to the success of your website.
9. Update Your Content Regularly
Great content is one of the key things you need to provide a great website user experience. If you allow the content on your website to become outdated, it can actually thwart your attempts to generate new sales leads. Content that is filled with outdated information or links can be very frustrating for consumers to read.
This is why you need to regularly review and update your website’s content. By doing this, you can keep your content engaging and informative.
10. Make Mobile Compatibility a Priority
The number of consumers accessing the Internet from mobile devices grows with each passing year. If you want to provide these mobile users with a better experience, then your website needs to be responsive. A responsive website is viewable on any size screen. If a mobile user can consume the content on your website without having to zoom in or out, they will stay on your domain for a longer period of time.
By implementing the tips in this article, you can improve your website’s user experience.