Increase the Loading Speed of Pages
In our notoriously fast-paced digital world, customers have little patience and lots of choices. By the time it takes your clunky website to load, it is very possible that they could have already defected and landed on a competitor’s site.
Therefore, make every effort to get all pages on your website to load in two seconds or less. Some ways to improve loading speed include:
- Choose a modern, performance-based hosting solution
- Compress image size
- Enable browser caching
While these are just a few of the many steps you can take to speed up your website, the effort will be well worth it, as some statistics suggest that every two-second improvement in loading speed can reduce your bounce rate by over 100%.
Use Original Photography As Much As Possible
With a growing proportion of modern consumers have grown up in the social media era, the power of pictures is steadily rising. With this learned ability to scroll through and digest dozens of pictures–or more–every minute, a healthy selection of robust images on your website will make your visitors feel right at home.
However, it is decidedly harder to populate a website with original images than it is original text. This results in many businesses having to fill their websites with royalty-free images found on open-source platforms. While this certainly beats receiving a copyright infringement for using unauthorized images, it usually results in photographs that don’t quite capture the essence of your website. Furthermore, visitors have likely seen some of the more high-quality open-source images used by similar websites, which will raise some question marks in their heads.
Therefore, it is advisable to use original photography on your website as much as possible. While it can be challenging to keep up with consumer demand for new images, one trick is to invest in a marketing asset management tool and train your team members on its use. This type of program allows your business to collaborate, upload, and access all marketing materials in real-time. Therefore, when you want to update your website with the photographs taken at a recent community event, your web design team doesn’t have to do a lot of detective work to figure out who has them. They are all on the asset management software for everyone on the team to access.
Eliminate Bulky Chunks of Text
As mentioned, modern customers have extremely short attention spans. Therefore, getting visitors to sift through a text-rich HTML website is like trying to sell a horse and buggy at a Tesla store.
With that said, you can’t simply eliminate text altogether. It still remains a crucial aspect of creating a complete user experience. The trick is to be intentional in how you use it. Spend a lot of time researching which types of fonts and colors you need to use for page headers that best encapsulate your business’ brand. Adroitly deploy white space and margins to focus visitors’ attention on key messages.
And for your blog and content marketing pages–those areas of the site where visitors actually want to read–be sure to break up long posts tactfully. Try to keep paragraphs to no more than a few lines, as this is more eye-friendly for people browsing on mobile. Replace paragraphs heavy on information with bulleted lists so readers can quickly identify key points.
Perform a Technical Audit
There are many types of website-building software on the market that make it possible for users with little technological know-how to build a site. The problem with this approach is that while it is relatively easy to make a site go live, it can be a bit more difficult for the untrained user to troubleshoot issues as they arrive. Furthermore, many website owners just “let it be” once their website is up and running, investing no time in ongoing maintenance.
Small issues, such as images that fail to load or unresponsive links, can cause frustration in visitors which leads to their defection. As a result, it is worthwhile to perform regular technical audits on your website to ensure that everything is functioning as intended. Some steps to include are:
- Checking the quality and responsiveness of all links
- Removing seldom-used plug-ins
- Scanning for any 404 error messages
- Checking for mobile compatibility following a template update
- Identifying any indexation issues for your pages
And the list goes on. If any of these steps seem intimidating or outside your scope of expertise, it is worthwhile to consult with a web design professional to guarantee that your site is functioning as intended.
Streamline the Checkout Process
One final point about that whole customer impatience thing.
According to recent data, nearly 70% of all online shopping carts are abandoned prior to final purchase. While there are a number of reasons that customers ultimately decide not to purchase, one of the most pertinent considerations is that they are tired of inputting personal information and creating another online account.
Therefore, any steps you can take to facilitate secure, one-click checkout will be highly welcome by visitors and help you close more sales.
Improve User Experience On Your Website and Watch Conversions Grow
Creating a state-of-the-art website UX is a top priority for businesses in 2023, as it can play a major role in converting leads and securing lifetime customers. To help in this regard, increasing the loading speed of pages, using original photography, eliminating bulky chunks of text, performing a technical audit, and streamlining the checkout process are 5 surefire ways to improve user experience on your website.
George is a freelance writer that loves sharing his experience and knowledge on website development and SEO. His work can be found on Building Product Advisor, a new construction industry resource.