1. Organize Your Pages
Organizing your website’s pages and the content on each page is better for website usability overall. Consumers enjoy looking at pages on a website that are easy to read and are visually appealing. The user experience design should be clean and free of any potential clutter. Let’s take a look at a few best practices.
Incorporate White Space
Sometimes when people think of white space, they might be worried about their webpages looking empty, but incorporating white space into your overall design can improve your website’s user experience.
The use of white space is much more visually pleasing to the eye in comparison to a cluttered page filled with advertisements, large blocks of content, and “fluff” words that won’t mean anything to the user.
Keep Pages Consistent
Consistency is key. Sometimes it may be tempting to design each webpage on your site with a personality of its own. Consumers enjoy simplicity and reliability on a site, however.
Pick a consistent theme to be used throughout your website that is streamlined and designed with users in mind. Consistency across a website has been shown to improve site traffic and help increase sales.
Utilize Well-Designed Headlines
When creating content for your site, keep your audience in mind. Whether you’re reaching out to consumers who may not know much about your company or industry professionals, be sure to cater your message and wording appropriately.
By having clear, well-defined headers, your website usability will increase as site visitors will be able to easily scan and register the content.
2. Troubleshoot Before Problems Occur
One of the most frustrating occurrences for any consumer is when they arrive at a site and something goes wrong. The first instinct for any consumer may be to click out of your site and to visit one of your competitors.
Always monitor your site and be prepared to troubleshoot for a variety of possible scenarios. Your website user design should be free of any potential problems that would complicate the website user experience. A few best practices:
Optimize Your Website’s Speed
You have finally created all of the content for your website and you are ready to make your site live to thousands of potential consumers. Great. Once you publish, though, it is critical to check the speed of your site.
Your website speed is extremely important to your overall SEO efforts and website user experience. If your website doesn’t load quickly enough, users will leave and look elsewhere for the information they need.
Prevent 404s
One of the most frustrating aspects of any website is when a page gives the notorious “404 – Page Not Found” notification. Although search engines will not punish you for these 404 pages, your user will by simply leaving.
A 404 page makes the user question if they should spend any more time on your site. There are many different ways to scan your site for these nasty 404 occurrences. We highly suggest the implementation of Google Webmaster Tools as one way to combat them so you can fix broken links, or redirect where need be.
Make Sure You Are Mobile Friendly
Recently, Google started penalizing sites that were not mobile friendly. Because a high percentage of searches now come through mobile devices, Google wants users’ searches to be as streamlined as possible.
It is important ensure you have a user-friendly website on both your desktop and mobile platforms. Otherwise, you risk your company becoming an afterthought to consumers as the traffic to your competitor’s site skyrockets.
3. Interact with Your Audience
Once consumers arrive on your page, you should instantly start to nurture them as prospective leads. As they funnel through the sales pipeline, it is important to demonstrate your credibility and become more interactive through a variety of tactics discussed below.
Incorporate a Call to Action
Let’s assume that a specific user loves all of the content you have produced and they want more. Providing an intriguing call to action is the perfect way to encourage more from your user without seeming overbearing.
For those users who are drawn to your website and simply want to learn more without diving deep into your content, a call to action is also a perfect way to foster a relationship that can result in a lead.
The most important aspect for consumers is to feel confident in their purchasing decision. By establishing a call to action, you immediately get the ball rolling for a relationship with your consumer and perhaps a potential future sale.
Use Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks not only help the user navigate your site and learn more about what you do, but they also boost your credibility and improve your Google rankings.
And when you incorporate hyperlinks, though, make sure to check all of them. You want to ensure that each hyperlink takes a user to the right place before publishing it live on your site. No one wants to click on a link and end up somewhere not relevant, or worse, on a 404 page. Double checking is just another way to ensure your website’s usability is constantly improving.
Don’t Be Afraid to Use Pictures
While it’s important to have white space on your website, you shouldn’t let that discourage you from incorporating pictures and graphics related to the content you post.
Do note that similar to white space, there is a fine line that should not be crossed when you incorporate visual aids in your content. Make sure that overall, your site looks polished and streamlined, with any images or areas of white space relevant to a given page.
Need Help Boosting Your Site? Contact Sixth City!
If you want to improve your website’s usability in an effort to secure more leads, we can help! Reach out to Sixth City today to talk with our experts.
