No matter what type of business you run or whether your website is an ecommerce site or simply an informative platform, the importance of providing an excellent user experience cannot be overlooked. However, with technology changing rapidly all of the time, this is often easier said than done. Your website may have offered an amazing user experience six months ago, but it may be outdated today. Below, we take a look at some of the ways you can improve your website to make it more useful, enjoyable, and easier to use.
- Make sure your website is mobile-friendly – Grab your smartphone and access your business’ website. Does it look good? Is it easy to you? If not, you need to make changes immediately. More and more people are using mobile Internet, and it is fast replacing desktop as the preferred platform for online shopping. Having a responsive website is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity. Your website needs to adapt to the device it is being used on, otherwise, your bounce rate will be high and your SEO ranking will suffer.
- Catch your 404s – There is nothing more frustrating for a website user than hitting a link and being met with a 404 error page. There are a number of tools online that enable you to determine whether you have any 404s. Use them!
- Keep your site consistent – You need to make sure that everything on your website matches. This includes your photo choices, design elements, spacing, colouring, font choices, heading sizes, etc. If you do not have a coherent design, the user’s experience will be far from enjoyable.
- Change your hosting provider – Is your hosting provider reliable? If not, one of the best things you can do is switch. No business can afford to be offline in the current day and age. To find a good provider, make sure you take a look at the feedback provided by past customers, like A2 hosting reviews.
- Use bullet points – No one wants to read huge chunks of information. Make it easier for the user to digest the details on your website by using bullet points.
- Use hyperlink differentiation – If you are adding a link to your website, for example, your email address, use visual cues to ensure that the user can easily identify that the text is clickable. Different coloured text and underlined text will draw the reader’s attention, so they know to click on it.
- Improve page speed – One of the things that customers hate the most about accessing websites online is when the pages take forever to load. We love the Internet because it is convenient, so you can expect your bounce rate to be high if your website is slow. In fact, research has shown that even a two-second delay can cause abandonment rates up to 87 per cent.
- Use white space wisely – Last but not least, using white space can improve user experience considerably. This does not mean that your website should be overflowing with text, images, and different colours. However, get a few people to check out your website and find out whether they think there is too much white space. Getting the balance right is imperative to great user experience.
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