Did you know, it only takes a user 50 milliseconds for people to form an opinion of a website. Right or wrong, your website influences what consumers may think about your business.
Ensuring that they have a great user experience on your website is critical to growing your business. After all, your website is your company’s front door to the world.
As a result, user experience is too crucial to overlook and just leave to chance. Users today want an intuitive interface and the ability to complete tasks in the shortest time possible. If your website lacks this and other features, you’ll lose customers and hurt your bottom line.
Thankfully, enhancing website user experience is relatively easy. But it will require some planning and time investment. In this article, we’ll cover what user experience is, why it matters, and 10 tips you can use to improve your website’s user experience.
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What is User Experience?
User Experience (UX) measures how users perceive usability, aesthetics, and the overall experience of a website or application. It is based on their thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and impressions about its functionality, design, and feel.
UX design focuses on creating products and services that are beneficial, accessible, and desirable to the user, while also fulfilling their requirements and expectations. UX designers understand a user’s goal, interests, and context of use when designing interfaces and interactions. This helps in creating websites that are easy to use, efficient, and enjoyable for users.
Keep in mind that UX is not limited to the internet. UX can be applied to physical products and even environments (like retail stores).
UX is an essential part of creating a successful business that meets the needs of users and provides a positive experience. The skills needed for a UX manager contain a wide range of expertise, including user research, UX design principles, project management, and great communication skills, all of which are necessary for creating an exceptional user experience.
Why User Experience Matters
UX is crucial for the success of any product or service because it defines how users interact with it. Since almost one-third of business happens online, website user experience can’t be overlooked. Here are six things a great UX produces.
- User satisfaction: When users have a positive experience with your product or service, they are more likely to be satisfied and become loyal customers. In the long run, customer satisfaction helps your bottom line.
- User retention: An incredible 70% of customers abandon items in their online cart because of bad user experience. A quality UX helps retain users and prevent churn.
- Brand reputation: If you want to enhance your brand’s reputation and create positive word-of-mouth advertisements, invest in UX. Conversely, a negative experience can harm your reputation and lead to negative feedback.
- Accessibility: UX design can ensure your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities or who speak different languages.
- Innovation: The entire UX process will lead to the discovery of new user needs and opportunities for improvement.
How do I improve my user experience?
Improving your website user experience may seem like a tall task. But it’s not as big of a challenge as you’d think.
To help you get started, here are 10 tips that will immediately improve your website’s user experience.
1. Optimize for Different Devices
It’s not just enough to have a website that looks great on a desktop browser. Almost 59% of internet traffic comes from mobile devices. That means your site needs to be “responsive” or optimized for smartphones and tablets.
When a website is mobile responsive, it doesn’t frustrate your visitors. Also, it’s important to know that one of the greatest benefits of a responsive site is that it helps your website load more quickly on a smartphone.
Optimizing for mobile will produce a clean, simplified layout since users will be on a smaller screen. Nike’s mobile site checks all the boxes.
2. Simplify Design and Navigation
It’s tempting to put everything you know about your company on your website. But that will overwhelm visitors. Instead, opt for a clear and simple design with minimal distractions.
Use a consistent color palette, typography, and layout to create a cohesive look and feel. On your menu navigation, limit the number of options.
Using white space is key to creating a welcoming feel. White space does not mean using the color “white” everywhere;. instead, white space is the space between design elements. In case you cannot find the best solution, you can also outsource your website creation to one of the best web design companies.
Flat Camp is a networking conference for web developers. They use “white space” incredibly well. It makes the design feel less cluttered and more visually appealing.
3. Use More Visuals and Fewer Words
Speaking of being visually appealing, this tip should go without saying but we’ll say it anyway. “A picture paints a thousand words” is even more true in a mobile-friendly world. E-commerce businesses can use those visual elements to promote their products by telling stories with photography, icons, graphics, and other design elements.
The idea behind limiting words is not because there’s nothing important to say about your company. It’s that the human brain processes visual information about 60,000 times faster than text. By using visuals, you can communicate information more efficiently.
4. Decrease Loading Times
It may surprise you to know that website loading speed is a significant aspect of the Google ranking factor. Plain and simple, if your site loads more slowly than others, it will receive a lower ranking compared to your competition.
To improve your website’s speed and SEO performance, optimize images with an appropriate resolution, reduce the number of HTTP requests, use a content delivery network (CDN), and minimize the use of plugins or scripts that bog down the site. Another effective way to enhance site loading times is platform migration. With Magento to Shopify migration, for instance, your data will be stored on the cloud, which will improve site loading times.
5. Strengthen Site Security
Customers are very concerned about their data. Making sure your site is secure will put them at ease.
To be as secure as possible, be sure you are running the latest version of your website’s software and any plugins or themes. This will ensure that any security vulnerabilities are patched. Additionally, install an SSL certificate. This will encrypt the data transmitted between your website and your visitors, making it more difficult for hackers to intercept sensitive information.
6. Use AI and Chatbots
Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming on strong right now and for good reason. AI can analyze user behavior and patterns to identify opportunities for better engagement, such as offering personalized recommendations or promotions for products and services.
Adding live chat to your website is one of the most effective ways to use AI. It offers 24/7 service to your customers. Who wouldn’t love that? Other AI can automate repetitive processes, such as payment processing, reducing friction for customers and improving their experience on your site.
7. Create Engaging Content
You’ve probably heard the phrase, “Content is king.” It’s true. And it means that content is the primary way you engage your customers. Content includes blogs, podcasts, white papers, case studies, and more. You can also harness different mediums by applying video tools and others to create compelling content.
When you create engaging content, it becomes a fundamental part of link building strategies. Depending on the nature of your business, you may need to use different strategies, from keyword research to SaaS link building strategies. These strategies not only help to build trust with customers but also increase engagement, generate traffic, and leads. Moreover, they greatly improve SEO on your site, amplifying your online presence.
Quality, engaging content takes time to develop. But when done well, it can be a powerful tool for growing your business.
8. Take Advantage of User-Friendly Tools
User-friendly tools provide an intuitive and efficient interface to help with completing tasks, sharing, or collaborating with a team. Kdan’s PDF reader can greatly enhance the website user experience by allowing users to view, download, and print documents easily. PDF readers also make content accessible to users with visual impairments or other disabilities.
Depending on the type of business you do, e-sign, interactive maps, sketch pads, QR code generators, whiteboards, and several other tools will improve user experience.
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Download9. Craft Clear Calls-to-Action
When crafting CTAs, it’s important to be clear, concise, and focused on the benefits that your company can offer. You may have CTAs like, “Subscribe,” “Get Started,” or “Try a Demo.” Whatever you choose, try to make them action-oriented. Bonus points if they’re in first person (e.g. “Tell Me More”).
There may be other times when you can subtly add in a CTA, especially within your content. In a blog article, you may mention your product or service as part of the solution and link to it.
Mural is both a platform and a service that helps teams think and collaborate visually to solve problems. Their simple design makes their CTAs obvious. Their “Sign up, free forever” CTA is particularly enticing.
10. Include Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful tool for enhancing website user experience because it can help build trust and credibility with potential customers. Putting customer testimonials on your site is perhaps the most common form of social proof.
Encouraging users to share their experiences with your product or service through social media or other channels can help build social proof. Ratings and reviews, trust badges, and displaying social media follower amounts are other ways to use social proof.
Wrapping it Up
Enhancing the user experience is crucial for the success of any business. By following the 10 tips we shared you can create a website that is easy to use, visually appealing, and valuable to your audience.
By consistently prioritizing the user experience, you can increase engagement, drive conversions, and establish a loyal audience. Remember, your website is often the first impression your audience has of your brand, so investing time and effort into improving user experience can pay dividends in the long run.
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Author: Freya Laskowski
Freya is an SEO consultant that helps brands scale their organic traffic with content creation and distribution. She is a quoted contributor in several online publications, including Business Insider, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance, and the Huffington Post. She also owns CollectingCents- a personal finance blog that she grew from the ground up.