As a business, you want to stand out from competitors. This begins with your webpage. For your page to be memorable, you have to make the experience of visiting it enjoyable. User experience (UX) is key in web optimization and is all about how you make the web user feel. Does he feel confused when he visits your site? Is he able to navigate through the pages easily? Is it engaging and does it make him want to return? These are all questions that should be addressed when designing a wining webpage. Let’s look at a few things you can start doing to improve your web UX and pull on those digital heart strings!
1. There’s no place like a homepage
When web users land on your page, the first thing they see is your homepage. This is where the main message about your business is found. However, things have to be brief and to the point. It can’t be overloaded with tons of information about your company or saturated with elements that will confuse and overwhelm your visitor. After all, you don’t want them to lose interest and leave right away. This is why you have to aim to keep things short, sweet and engaging in this section. Don’t forget to include your logo on the homepage as it’s where your digital branding begins!
2. No time to waste
Web users have no patience to wait for a webpage to load. They expect it to be fully loaded in about 3 seconds or they move on. Make sure your business’ load time is limited to a few seconds in order to ensure an optimal UX.
3. Don’t clutter your page
Having breathable content on your page makes the user experience that more enjoyable. Users don’t want to rummage through information to find what they are looking for. You want them to come back and visit your site. Having more space on a page not only helps ensure that, but also makes the site visually appealing and memorable.
4. Accessibility is key
As an online shopper and web user, you want to be able to access a webpage and specific information from anywhere. Whether it’s on your mobile device or tablet, your page needs to be accessible and easily navigable. It has to have the same optimized UX as a desktop.
5. Optimize visuals
They say pictures are worth a thousand words. So why not include them on your webpage? To enhance the UX, you need to make sure that your visitors are engaged and captivated. That’s why including images and videos can create an interactive experience that they’ll remember. If you need to explain a product or service to them, it can be worthwhile to include videos to your site to facilitate the explanation. It’s about giving the human touch to your webpage!
6. Search tab
When a person visits a site, they expect to find what they are looking for quickly. If they need to scavenge through sections, they’re more likely to leave the site all together. Therefore, it would be advantageous to always have a search tab they can use. It makes it easier to navigate the site and get the information they require. The last thing you need is a frustrated customer that would rather be on the competitor’s webpage.
7. Link things up
One of the most frustrating things when you land on a website is having a link that doesn’t work and leads to a blank page. As a business, it’s important to make sure that this doesn’t happen on your site and that all broken links are fixed. An error page is a major obstacle that will definitely have your customer think twice about revisiting your site. To find those links and ultimately remove them, you can use google webmaster. Once you’ve located them, make sure to eliminate and replace them with functional URLs. This will improve your web UX tenfold.
To have your business stand out in this digital era, you need to make sure that all aspects of your webpage are on point. This begins with the user experience. An optimized UX will create customer loyalty, engagement and, ultimately, conversion and purchase. Make the experience memorable!
