When looking for a digital marketing company, it would be great to partner with one that can
give not only a unique spin to your website, but also a robust browsing experience for visitors. To gauge the quality of experience you provide, there are certain page UX metrics that you mainly need to look at such as visitor count; page views; average time spent on page; and bounce rates.
Your website serves as your storefront in the online world, and just as you would in a physical store, you must be able to provide customers and visitors with the most memorable experience possible. And we mean memorable in a positive way — not because of a page that takes too long to load, text that’s too tiring to read, or a lost sale because of missing contact details and CTAs.
In boosting website UX, the smallest details matter.
Seamless UX design has the capability to raise conversion rates for up to 400%, according to a study conducted by Forrester. Understandably, 90% of users stop using an app due to its poor performance. And in the dense, unforgiving jungle that is e-commerce, standing out by engineering a remarkable UX design is key.
These eye-opening stats must be enough to convince any marketer that user experience really accounts for a big chunk of conversions. In this article, we listed down some strategies and best practices in improving UX in your website so that more than the conversion itself, you could also strengthen that valuable, long-term relationship with your customers and visitors.
- Get your speed up.
You only have a few precious seconds to keep a visitor’s attention. If your website’s speed isn’t built for that kind of task, chances are these people would bounce without engaging further with your brand. Worse, they may not be convinced to come back at all.
Optimising your site’s speed, as well as optimising them for mobile, will deliver to visitors the results and information they need faster. Speedily giving solutions to their queries enhances the overall user experience and in return, reduces your bounce rates.
- Create an intuitive UI design and include relevant content.
An effective UI/UX design is one that’s able to capture audiences’ attention and encourage them to take action at the same time. While the UI may significantly depend on a business’s brand guide and conventions, a rule of thumb is to use a strategic layout; create symmetry among your elements; and designate actions for different content types to improve readability and retention.
However, top-quality user experience doesn’t just stop at aesthetics. Your website — no matter how good it looks at face value — if you don’t have quality content to back it up, it’s just simply pointless. Devise a content strategy (or review if you already have one) and make sure everything you display on your website will be helpful in building your brand. It’s one of the most important things to consider when partnering with digital marketing companies or seeking out SEO services.
In creating website content, always keep your audience in mind. What they’ll see on your website must be able to concisely answer any question they might have about your product or service, or include supplementary content that could boost your brand.
- Work on your 404s.
We’ve all been there — clicking on the link of a seemingly interesting blog post, only for it to be a dead end.
If you have a lot of these all over your website, that’s not good news. A massive percentage of users will bounce from your website and won’t return after reaching a 404 page.
If the issue stems from your end (i.e. user did not mistype the URL), start by tracking any renamed pages or outdated web directories. Another way to address this costly issue is to leverage machine learning tools or crawl error checkers like Google Webmaster, to give users options on which page/s to go to instead.
- Check your CTAs.
You most likely know by now that your website’s calls to actions (CTAs) are powerful enough to convert visitors into paying customers, while engaging them in the process.
Apart from encouraging action, CTAs also offer direction to users so that they can find what they’re looking for more quickly. This is critical for providing a superb user experience — efficient action messaging often makes for an easily navigable website.
Not to mention your CTAs should pop and effortlessly catch visitors’ attention, but don’t just choose any random color that comes to mind. Color psychology plays an important role in marketing and can elicit emotional responses from audiences. It’s best to match the color to the action words or phrases on your CTA buttons to immediately trigger a response, and for that instant emotional connection to a visitor.
Final Thoughts
While there are a lot of tips and pointers out there on how to foster an exceptional website user experience, establishing customer engagement online simply doesn’t happen overnight. You might even need the help of a digital marketing company to achieve your long-term vision for your website.
With this, you need a website that’s optimized and running smoothly. Using metrics, reassess your current online marketing strategy, including your page’s strengths and challenges. At the end of the day, visitors are in it for the experience — and you’d surely want your website to deliver!
