To succeed in digital marketing, having a well-designed website is important. To create a great user experience, it’s crucial to identify the problems that visitors to your website encounter.
Websites have grown in importance; functioning as a 24/7 salesperson and serving as the centerpiece of your marketing strategy. However, keeping up with ever-changing digital trends can be challenging, leading to outdated website designs.
While redesigning your website may be ideal, it can be a costly and time-consuming process. As an alternative, we have compiled a list of 10 straightforward ways to enhance your website’s usefulness and effectiveness to help you tackle this issue.
Use White Space
Good design requires the use of white space, as it enhances the readability of content and allows users to focus on surrounding elements. Research by Crazy Egg shows that incorporating white space around text and headings can increase user attention by 20%. In addition, white space can give a website a modern and spacious feel, which can be advantageous if it aligns with the brand image.
However, it’s important to be mindful that white space takes up physical space on the page. If you’re aiming to fit a large amount of content above the fold, the white space could displace valuable information. To strike a balance, prioritize the most crucial information and frame it with some white space to draw attention to the accompanying text and images.
Use Attractive CTAs
Users are accustomed to using visual cues to determine the important content on a website. Calls to action (CTAs) that are clearly marked with action words help users navigate the site and quickly find what they need.
When designing buttons for your website, it’s important to consider the psychology of color. Researchers found that using different colors and action messaging on the Laura Ashley website led to an 11% increase in clicks to the checkout area. Colors evoke different emotions and messages, so it’s important to choose colors that align with your desired message and brand.
In addition to color, the words used on buttons are also important. Action-oriented verbs can excite users and encourage them to take action. The choice of words should prompt emotional identification with the user to encourage action. Using bold, time-sensitive language can help encourage users to act.
Optimize Page Speed
As reported by Section.io, websites that takes an additional five seconds to load, experienced 20% more “bounce rate”. This is a big issue that you need to address.
In order to find your page speed, Google provides a free service that offers insights on page speed and suggestions for improving it on both desktop and mobile devices.
To boost page speed, start by compressing all images before uploading them to your website. Large image file sizes can significantly contribute to slow load times. Compression tools like compressor.io can help you speed up each webpage on your website.
Barnes and Noble’s website is an excellent example of fast load times. Their website loads quickly, regardless of the device used. This is accomplished by loading important elements first to assure users that the content is on its way.
Use Hyperlink Differentiation
When you include a link on a page, you are indicating that you want the user to click on it. It’s important to ensure that links are easily identifiable through visual cues, such as underlined text or different colors. These cues draw the reader’s attention and signal that the text is a clickable link.
Research conducted by Karyn Graves reports that regular web users associate blue and underlined text with links and know to click on them. Using users’ expectations and knowledge of web browsing is crucial for success.
To differentiate hyperlinks, there is no need to invent a new design. Following the usual conventions can be advantageous in this area. A simple method to test link effectiveness is to blur the design and remove the color, then observe which elements stand out.
Use Bullet Points To Segment Key Information
Using bullet points can help users quickly access the information they need, such as the benefits, problem-solving methods, and key features of a product or service. This can make your propositions more appealing and enable users to obtain the information they require in a shorter amount of time. Additionally, you do not have to use the traditional circular bullets.
There are numerous creative icons available that you can use as bullet points, which can assist readers in understanding your point further. This approach helps you identify and highlight the critical points you want to make without getting bogged down in technical jargon or details.
Use Images Wisely
Internet users have become increasingly discerning and efficient at evaluating company websites, often making a quick decision about whether or not to continue browsing upon first visit. One way they do this is by quickly identifying generic stock photos that lack personal style or uniqueness. This association can negatively impact a user’s perception of your business and decrease trust.
In a case study by Spectrum, Inc. of Harrington Movers, a moving company in New Jersey and New York City, replacing a stock photo with an image of the actual team of movers led to increased conversion and page confidence. The same result was achieved by replacing a stock photo with an image of their actual moving truck.
Ultimately, only your own actual images can convey your brand, services, and products in the way that you desire. Strategic use of images that support the content and offer a visual break from text is recommended, but it’s essential to ensure they are relevant and non-generic.
Use Well Designed and Well Written Headlines
It is important to align your headings and content with the needs of your potential customers. Including relevant keywords in your headings is also essential in attracting the right audience and targeting your message effectively.
Headings hold more significance than other content in the eyes of search engines. By choosing the appropriate heading and making it noticeable, you can enhance your search engine ranking significantly. However, the primary role of headings is to assist your users in navigating your website, allowing them to easily find content that addresses their needs.
Headings should stand out in size and color and accurately describe the content that follows.
Keep Web Pages Consistent
To ensure a seamless and pleasant user experience, it is important to maintain consistency throughout your website design. This includes maintaining uniformity in various aspects such as font styles, colors, button designs, image selection, and spacing.
Consistency helps to establish a sense of cohesion and familiarity for users as they navigate through your website. Any sudden or drastic changes in design elements can lead to confusion and mistrust among users.
Catch Those 404s
Although search engines may not penalize you harshly for soft 404 errors, your users will. Whenever a user clicks on a link or an image, they expect to be directed to the next page they want to visit.
Essentially, encountering a 404 error page can irritate your user and make them reconsider spending their time on your website. This can lead to them seeking a quicker solution elsewhere. Along with slow page loading, encountering 404s is another highly frustrating experience for users and can significantly disrupt their journey through your website.
To identify whether there are any 404s on your website, you can set up Google Webmaster tools and check for crawl errors.
Use Responsive and Mobile-Friendly Design
As technology progresses, we increasingly rely on mobile devices, and websites must keep up with this trend. Your website needs to be easy to navigate and mobile-friendly, no matter what device your visitors use to access it.
In fact, Google now penalizes websites that are not optimized for mobile devices, which highlights the importance of responsiveness. Making your website mobile-friendly is one of the most effective ways to enhance its usability. To determine whether your website is mobile-friendly, you can use a free tool available online.
Wrap-up
Improving website UX is not only about creating a visually pleasing design, but also about providing an optimal user experience that guides the user towards a specific goal. We hope that these tips on how you can revamp your website to be more user friendly without shelling out the dollars on a complete redesign can lead to more sales for your company.
