It's understandable that most businesses value their online presence during the pandemic.
And the truth is that today many customers discover your business online first, so every aspect of your online presence, specifically your website, must provide customers with an incredible user experience (UX).
*Updated 9/12/2024
Your website is your best salesperson, and customer service is the only aspect filled with all the information about your business, available products, and more. Websites work around the clock, across countries and time zones - which leaves very little effort for human flaws.
It is challenging to constantly keep up with ever-evolving trends from design to shopping experience to more. However, you can avoid feeling old or outdated if you did manage to teach certain aspects, even though sometimes a revamp is essential.
But before we try to understand how to improve your website visitor experience, let's understand why it's important.
Benefits of a Good Website Visitor Experience
Most businesses want the best website, but not everyone understands that websites are created for the consumer and not for a business owner alone.
When you think of a good website visitor experience, the first aspect to work towards is the user experience. This will guarantee:
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Higher conversion rates
When a consumer or a user loves the experience on your website, they are more likely to convert. A good user journey provides the consumer with clarity when it comes to the product or the service that they are interested in.
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Lower bounce rates
A bad user journey can depend on various factors - starting from incomplete product or service details, illegible text, loading issues, and more. All of these factors contribute to a consumer leaving your business site.
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Brand loyalty
Sometimes, it's important to remember that not everyone is ready to buy. According to Marketo, roughly 96% of people who visit your website aren’t ready to buy the first few times.
Therefore, no matter how clear certain aspects are from design to text, how enticing or big that call-to-action button is, if your consumer just does not wish to buy, they will not convert.
So, the best action for businesses to take, in this case, is to create the best website possible and market their efforts via social media and other methods to let the world see it.
To make your social media plans less taxing on your team, you can always create a social media posting schedule, just like SocialPilot, to help plan, schedule, and more.
And how do you create that great website? Here’s how.
Improve Your Website Visitor Experience With These 5 Steps
If you're looking for a brief version of what you should be doing to make your website better, here it is - five fool-proof ways to improve your website experience
- Use design to your advantage
- Use language for clarity
- Optimize your website page speed
- Be multiple devices friendly
- Use tempting calls to action
Now let's review each step in more detail.
1. Use design to your advantage
Select colors and fonts that are easy on your consumers' eyes. A good designer or design company will spend a significant amount of time thinking about this and how to align it with your business goals.
If you work on your website without a designer, white space is your best friend. White space is paramount to good websites today, making your product stand out and your content more readable.
It also has the ability to make your website look modern and minimal and can be a timeless design that can require little tweaks in the future.
Another aspect to consider is visuals. Visuals are a wonderful way to keep visitors engaged with your website. They can support the communication of your message more effectively.
A good rule when it comes to visuals is to use a file that is high quality so it does not pixelate but is small enough not to cause a lag for your page.
Consider also incorporating user-generated content like videos or photos from customers, as this helps build social proof.
2. Use language for clarity
Often, we believe in the power of marketing, tag lines, and jingles, and as a result, use quirky, fun, rhyming copy to make our website exciting.
While this is great and relatable, it may fall in bad taste with some of your other consumers. Take, for example, this user who vented his frustration at Microsoft Outlook for its choice of words.
When it comes to a website, a safe bet is to use simple clear language that sets the right pretense for your consumer - this will help sell a service or product better. However, you can use fun elements in your conversation if you are looking at a niche audience you know will connect with quirky messaging.
3. Optimize your website page speed
In today's world, if you do not have the audience's attention span in the first few seconds, you miss out on them completely. With the rage of social media, instant shopping, and more, the world is changing for people and websites alike.
As of late 2019, Google deemed a page load speed of up to two seconds acceptable, although it recommended speeds under half a second. You can check the page load speed of your website by using Google’s Page Speed Insights tool.
An article by Nielsen Norman Group in May 2020 spoke of how page load delays by just one second can interrupt a person’s consciousness. Further reiterating Google's recommended page load speeds.
To avoid website lag, check all external plug-ins, backlinks, and the performance of your website server. Use the expertise of an agency to help you with more complicated tasks and in-depth reviews.
You can also choose to upload images that are as small as they can be (far smaller than 1 MB), while still maintaining their quality.
4. Be multi-device friendly
The world is constantly on the move, and so should your website. From tabs to tiny cell phones, your website must cater to any audience and every device out there.
This doesn't mean only restricting your site to a vertical design. These websites must also be responsive to the user and include features that make the website zoomable, scannable, etc.
Ensure your font size is big enough to read on a phone because you don't want a user to be tired of zooming in to read everything. It could also help stick to one primary focus for each page.
Here is an example of a website designed and optimized for multiple devices by a design firm for a luxury hotel client.
5. Use enticing calls to action
While great design is everything, a great responsive design should include an enticing call to action. Calls to action are such a critical aspect that they deserve their own special attention.
Every page on your website needs at least one clear and compelling call to action — this could be a link, form, or button that enables users to take the next step.
Understanding where to place your call to action is key. The last thing you want is to frustrate your user because of a faulty call-to-action button.
Smaller devices make it difficult to work with buttons that are not correctly coded since small screens won’t allow consumers to zoom in and click the button simultaneously.
Apple is very efficient with their call to action buttons. As shown in the picture, Apple has given people 2 options - one which is a more direct call to action asking the user to buy and another that educates the user on the product.
Bonus Tip
While websites are the greatest way to focus on your brand, it's important to consider social media - which in 2022 has become a secondary website. Most people are now turning to social media for honest representations of a business and looking for reviews, feedback, customer service, and more.
It helps to have an organized feed on every social platform and personalized tones according to the platform. But don't get overwhelmed just yet. You must also formulate a strong social media marketing strategy that helps you get your job done.
In addition, you can leverage the concept of "forwarding with masking" to seamlessly redirect your audience to your official website, thereby garnering higher online visibility for your business.
You can also use your efforts here to redirect them to your official website, garnering higher online visibility for your business.
To Summarize
Stick to a clean and simple website if all else fails. Focus on your product or service and give it the limelight it deserves. You can't go wrong with minimalism - but remember that minimalism shouldn't stop you from adding important information.
All in all, don't overdo it. While websites need special attention and personalization, personalizing a website should convey a smooth experience to your target personas with visual or text elements relevant to the consumer. It shouldn't mislead them with exaggeration or lack of information.
Understand that even the best websites take time to sell to people and market your work, even on other platforms like Google or other social platforms.
Author Bio
Chelsea Cris Crocker is a Senior Content Writer at SocialPilot. She is a Google-certified Digital Marketer, with over 6 years of agency experience. When she isn’t writing or strategizing for brands, she photographs, embroiders, hoards books, and spends more than necessary time fussing with her pets. Her weaknesses include coffee, swimming pools, and more that she isn’t willing to share.
