11 Sep How to Improve Your Website’s User Experience

It may be easier than ever these days to get a website online. However, optimizing that website to its full potential is a whole other story. Your website is the face of your brand on the internet, constantly available for inquiring users around the world. With the ever-increasing competition in the digital market, it’s essential to keep your users engaged on your website. That’s where the concept of user experience (UX) comes into play, and it is crucial for digital marketing success.

Let’s take a look at the importance of user experience on your website, followed by how you can improve your website’s user experience.

User Experience Statistics

According to the UK Web Host Review, 75% of online users judge your company’s credibility by how your website looks, feels, and responds as they interact with it. Additionally:

• 53% of mobile visitors will leave a website if it fails to load within three seconds.
• 59% of users prefer a highly visually appealing website.
• 94% of users do not trust an outdated-looking website.

It only takes a matter of seconds to “wow” and hook a visitor to your website. If you aren’t able to immediately capture their interest, you will likely lose out on them forever. This is why user experience has become key to online success.

The Difference Between User Experience and Usability

People often confuse user experience with usability. User experience refers to how your site visitors feel about your website when they interact with it. While usability focuses on basic functionality, user experience focuses on the overall feeling and impression your visitors receive. The more you improve your user experience, users will more actively and frequently want to engage with your brand, thus leading to increased conversion rates and ROI.

The Importance of User Experience

Consumers immediately want to know what they can expect to gain out of every experience, and brand websites are no different. Therefore, it’s essential as a business or organization to quickly provide useful content in a manner that is both appealing and easy to navigate—aka, a good user experience.

An attractive web design is only the surface of user experience. You must meet your audience’s expectations and provide for their needs on your website in order to see online success and connect with your customers. Slacking on delivering a positive user experience can mean a loss in revenue, customer engagement, and brand credibility.

How to Improve Your Website’s User Experience

If you feel that your website is not providing an optimal user experience for your visitors, there are thankfully many steps you can take to improve. Some options for improving your website’s user experience include:

Optimize White Space — You don’t want to overwhelm your visitors with too much text or too many images. White space is the empty space in between your images and text across your website, and it exists to help guide your site visitors to where you want them to engage by reading, clicking, etc. For the same reason paragraphs exist as a way to group text, you need to incorporate a way to visually break up information to make it easier to digest, while also not distracting from the main content. Tactful whitespace around your titles, text, and images can be extremely effective for both delivering content and keeping site users involved. 

Improve Page Speeds — Website visitors don’t have the time or patience to wait for a web page to load. Within a matter of seconds, many users are likely to abandon your website for taking too long. Fast page load speeds are now a basic requirement for all modern websites. Visitors to your website who leave for slow load times are likely to move on to your competitors’ websites without a second thought. Keep track of the load speed of your website with the help of Google’s free speed checking tools.

Maintain Consistency — When it comes to user experience, consistency helps establish your brand image, build credibility, and improve intuitive navigation across your website. Consistency applies to color choices, fonts, heading sizes, illustrations, spacing between elements, web buttons, and any other customizable features. Users want to feel comfortable navigating a website, even if they are visiting it for the first time. Sudden, unexpected changes in theming can confuse users, causing them to lose confidence in your brand and leave your site.

Implement Clear CTAs — A CTA, or call to action, encourages users to specifically engage with your website in some way. While CTAs are essential for helping your site visitors decide on what to do, they must be placed very carefully. Too many calls to action, especially close together, can be overwhelming and off-putting for users. However, an unclear or missing call to action can cause a huge loss in conversions and returning users. Be sure that the CTA uses clear, actionable language and visually stands out, while still adhering to your website’s established aesthetics.

Utilize Animation — Humans are visual by nature. We make stronger internal responses to effective visuals more often than text. Moving visuals, known as animation, can be very effective in directing your site visitors on what to do and staying engaged. Like all things, however, less is generally more. Keep animated elements simple and sparring, yet enough to stand out.

Segment Key Information — Segmented information, such as bullet points, makes it easier for your users to quickly find and digest the information they need on your website. It’s also a great way to highlight the specific information you want users to know and remember about your brand or products. Segments are additionally an opportunity to implement a consistent brand image through icons, spacing, text, and colors. Users should immediately and clearly know what you can provide for them and why your brand is the better choice over competitors.

Fix Any 404 Errors — 404 errors, also known as “page not found” errors, occur on occasion for all websites. While search engines like Google won’t drastically penalize your website in search results for having one or two soft 404 errors, you cannot afford to leave them ignored. Users who come across inaccessible pages will become annoyed and disappointed. If they aren’t able to access the information they are seeking from your website in another way, they will likely leave unsatisfied and with a bad impression of your brand. 

Develop for Responsive Design — Likely one of the most important aspects of creating a positive user experience is ensuring your website utilizes a responsive design and is mobile-friendly. As more and more users across the globe continue to access the internet with mobile devices, a successful website absolutely cannot afford to have a website that doesn’t naturally adapt to the screen of its visitors. A non-responsive design is one of the quickest ways to lose site visitors.

Improve Your Website with Digital Experts

It may seem overwhelming to tackle all of these elements on your own when it comes to improving your website. Thankfully, Virtual Stacks Systems UK specializes in expert digital marketing and web design services. Bring your website into the modern age with an engaging design that is built to last. Contact us today to learn more!