In the technological world today, internet and mobile penetration rates are skyrocketing in every potential market. Thus, your business website may very well be the first touchpoint between your business and consumers. For many businesses, a website can help to drive and generate sales and leads passively and efficiently. Hence, given proper attention and resources, a well-designed website can help to sustain your business’ longevity.
Having said that, technological advancements are occurring and unfolding at unprecedented rates – what was trendy several days ago could be rendered obsolete with certain breakthroughs. While it is ideal to always be at the forefront of technology, it might not be feasible or make business sense to spend money to get your site running on the latest cutting edge technology and software. However, designing your website based on user experience goes a long way. Regardless of technological advancements, a website providing great user experience can still be as persuasive and effective as a website built with the latest software. Here are ten pro-tips to help you improve your website’s user experience.
The top list to enhance your website’s user experience
1: Make use of white space.
White space is absolutely necessary for creating a good design as it prevents excessive visual clutter on your site. It also makes your content more readable as there are fewer elements vying for the visitor’s attention.
Content with sufficient white space boosts the attentiveness of visitors by at least 20%. Sites that are going for a visually minimalistic aesthetic will have little problem trying to incorporate white space into their site. Fortunately, the minimalist trend shows no signs of fading and sites may consider utilizing such styles.
However, white space does take up space which could have been used for copy or visuals to help get a point across. White space also increases the amount of scrolling the user has to do in order to consume the content on the site, which could be a pet peeve for some. The only relevant advice here would be to find the balance between content and white space or utilize it for important copy only. Otherwise, work with a professional copywriter to help summarize your copy for punchier and succinct sentences instead.
2: Optimizing your site’s loading time to enhance your website’s user experience
People’s attention span is getting shorter and shorter considering how there is plenty of instantaneous content being made available to us. Sure, you might think that patience is a virtue, but it is apparently not the case when it comes to the loading time for sites. According to Section.io, every additional five seconds of loading time makes your visitors more likely to leave your site completely by a whopping 20%. No one will tolerate slow loading pages nowadays, and it is imperative that your site is able to launch at top speed to retain your potential customers and visitors.
Google offers PageSpeed tools for website developers to obtain insights about their site speeds, which can aid in reducing loading time. Generally, elements that contribute to lengthy loading times are multimedia. Consider compressing your image sizes before using them on your site to prevent a long loading time.
3: Use compelling call to actions to enhance your website’s user experience
Clear and eye-catching call to actions (CTAs) are important signposts to get your visitors to ascend to the next step of the consumption process; be it signing up for the newsletter, subscribing to a trial service or purchasing an item or service. It is important to place CTAs at prominent and unmissable spots, preferably on a frozen header or sidebar so that users can immediately mouse over to click on it whenever they feel like it; instead of spending time to search for them.
It is important to use the right combination of colour and copy for the CTAs. Consult a professional copywriter and visual marketer for advice that is targeted at your brand and site’s colour palette and aesthetic.
4: Use hyperlinks
These underlined and differently colored text help to draw the attention of your readers and get them to immediately understand that there is more content available to read. Another hack is to hyperlink a whole sentence instead of a single word or phrase, which could be drowned out depending on the volume of the copy on a particular page.
5: Use bullet points
Bullet points allow you to convey key points across in a quick and uncomplicated way. As opposed to chunks of text, bullet points help to highlight the key ideas and place them in order for easier reference.
Also, think beyond conventional bullet points. Consider using icons or small graphics as bullet points. The proper use of icons and graphics can be a form of visual storytelling and signposting as users would already guess the topic of the point before reading the copy.
6: Use images wisely
Although images are a great way to retain the attention of users, one should be discerning of the images they use. Poorly produced or shot stock photos will be easily detected by users, which in turn makes your website and brand lose credibility in their minds.
Consider using pictures of your actual employees which are much more convincing and relatable. Plus, you’ll get to save on modeling fees.
7: Pay attention to your headings
Your site’s headings are likely to be the first thing that catches the eyes of your visitors. Hence, it is important that the utmost effort and attention are put into crafting them. Use relevant keywords and tone helpful to your business and brand to attract the right kind of clientele.
Headings are also given priority over content by search engines and selecting the right lexicon can boost your site’s organic search rankings.
8: Consistency is key
Firstly, ensure that the tone and key messages are well-aligned with each other. Make sure that your website has a consistent look throughout different pages. This means having the same font choices and sizes for the body copy and the headings. This applies to line spacing, design elements, and image choices. A consistent site conveys reliability, reputability, and prevents your audience from being confused due to different and conflicting messaging.
9: Debug your website to enhance your website’s user experience
Before your site goes live, it is imperative that you get a team of beta testers to help you flag and resolve the possible bugs that could have popped up in the development and site-building process. Encountering a 404 page can be as frustrating as a long loading time for many users, so it is advisable to invest in some resources to do this step.
10: Mobile-friendly version, please!
More and more people are opting to consume content on their mobile phones rather than a desktop due to the convenience of mobile phones. If your website is not optimized for mobile browsing, you are at a high risk of alienating a whole lot of potential customers and sales leads for your site. After debugging, this should be your next priority. Alternatively, consider building your website for mobile-first consumers and subsequently adapting it to a desktop version.
At the end of the day, customers always come first for businesses. As such, we cannot stress enough, the importance of having a fully optimized website that caters to users’ needs and demands. If you need more tips from the professionals out there, Onpage Rock has plenty of useful advice that will help you. Nonetheless, we hope that these suggestions will help you with your website building or revamping process so that you don’t have to spend a fortune just to get more site visitors.
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