How long did your last website take to load? If it took more than just a few seconds then the chances are you probably left and went to another more friendly site. What about if you couldn’t find the information you wanted because it was hidden in a sub-menu or tucked away in a bottom menu?
The way a website is designed and the ease at which you as a user can navigate it matters. With so many websites now competing for your time – 50% of the world has connected the internet – you have to get user experience optimization right to succeed.
Here’s everything you need to know about building a great user experience.
More Traffic to Your Site
Taking advantage of user experience optimization software can lead to more traffic to your website. Remember that sites like Google are the main point of entry for people accessing your website rank websites. The smoother you make the experience for users the easier it will become to push traffic towards your site.
User experience optimization software can sort out small problems with your website that you might not even have considered. Perhaps you have some large images on there. But if they are not cached then they will take an age to load for new users. The software can sort out this problem easily.
Even banks, the most conservative organizations, have had to get with the program and transform their user experience for their customers.
Organizing Your Site
User experience optimization software can also give you reports and analytics on your website that can help you to organize it more effectively.
You might have written content for a page that you thought nobody was going to be interested in and kept it in a sub-menu or at the bottom of the page to avoid cluttering your site. UEO software might so more users than you anticipated navigating to that part of your site. The opposite might also be true. You might have a main page on your site that’s getting almost no traction.
If that’s the case you might want to redesign your site to give users what they want straight away. Alternatively, if some pages aren’t getting traction then you might want to change up the content in some of your pages. To do this get a great content writer.
More Products Sold
Another key benefit of using UEO software is that it can help you to sell more products. Websites are a funnel; they lead users to where they need to go. In the 2020s if you are selling a product this is usually Amazon, though some sites do let you buy directly from them.
If you are selling a service such as a course then you will want to direct your users to a contact form where they can reach out to you for more information, very easily.
To increase the chances of this happening you need to create a website that makes this easy for clients.
Avoid using pop-up windows and making them feel bombarded. Remember that the best-sellers are the ones that understand selling is about fulfilling a customers’ needs.
Once you have directed users to the information they need or the answers they want, it should then be very easy to direct them to a sale as this appears natural and like the next step on their journey.
The Journey
Thinking in terms of the journey is the best way of thinking about user experience. To do this try and get a user review from as many customers as possible. Software like Decibel can help you track users’ real-time interactions with your site. Be sure to check out this Decibel guide for more information about whether this is the right tool to help you develop your sites’ user experience.
Think about what they are going to see when they first step foot in your website and where their likely first steps are going to be?
Would a major supermarket or shop just dump things in the store and hope for the best? The answer is no. They would have carefully decided where to place items and how much space was necessary between the different isles so that shoppers could easily find the goods that they needed.
It can also remind them of goods they didn’t realize they needed but which will come in handy for them. Think about online shopping in the same way.
User Satisfaction: Reoccurring Customers
You want your customers to keep coming back to your site and over and over again and not just be one-off visitors.
And for that to work you have to offer them something to keep coming back. Before they leave your website, after visiting for the first time, you could offer them a free voucher for their second visit.
This is the pinnacle of customer loyalty and user experience in the 21st century.
User Experience Optimization Is a Must in 2021
One year on from the start of the global pandemic and much of the world is still online. Shops across the western world remain closed and it seems likely that we might never get back to normal.
This is a positive step as it opens a world of opportunities for those wishing to sell their products or services. But for those new to the online world, the user experience will be key to making those first small steps that will eventually turn into giant leaps.
If you are interested in learning more about user experience optimization for your website, then be sure to check out the rest of our site.