Your website is often the first point of contact a prospective customer will have with your company. That’s why user experience is essential to winning new business.

Poor download speeds and bad navigation can let you down, which will result in a high bounce rate. Fortunately, there are ways you can improve your website to ensure every visitor has a satisfactory experience.

Boost download speed

Websites slow to respond are a big turn-off. Users want information at their fingertips, and if they have to wait, they go elsewhere.

But what’s causing the hold-up? A common problem is unoptimised images. Try to reduce the size of your images as far as you can go without compromising on clarity. Embedded videos are another problem – try to mimimise file sizes where you can.

Plugins can also cause problems if they’re badly coded. Your website platform or the back end of your CMS could include heavy plugins or poor coding slowing up your site.

There are plenty of free online tools available that will let you check the speed of your website. Google provide a free speed test for web pages https://pagespeed.web.dev/?utm_source=psi&utm_medium=redirect

Optimise for mobile devices

A high volume of users will view your website on a mobile device, therefore it’s vital to optimise your site for mobile users.

Your website should be able to adjust to fit any screen size. A mobile user should be able to navigate and read each page as easily as if they were using a full-sized screen.

This means making sure that font size is large enough, so they don’t have to zoom in to read the text. Buttons should also be large enough for them to click on.

Optimising the menu is one of the most valuable actions you can take. On a large screen, the menu may be displayed horizontally at the top of the page. But on a mobile, it should adapt to become vertical. This makes it much easier for a mobile user to navigate your site.

Make navigation easy

Whether your user is on a desktop, laptop or mobile, it’s essential they can intuitively navigate your website. If visitors have to search too hard for what they want, they’ll give up and try another website.

Users will usually start at the top and then work their way down. Therefore, ensure your menu is prominently displayed at the start of the user experience. The information that follows should be in order of importance.

Spacing, fonts and colours are also vital to the user experience. There needs to be clarity between background and text so that words are clearly defined. Classic black on white always works well. It’s fine to be more creative with colour as long as you ensure the words stand out.

Simply put, use light text if you have a dark background colour. If you have a light background, use dark-coloured text.

Font size is also important for clarity and should be clear and legible. A font that’s too ornate or not the right width can be a struggle to read.

Include clear calls to actions

Ideally, every page of your website needs a call to action.

If a customer is thinking of making contact, you need to make it as simple as possible for them to carry out that action.

Your phone number and email address should be prominently displayed on each page. If the next step isn’t to contact you but to click on a link, fill out a form, view a video or download a PDF, you need to offer clear guidance on what step you want your customer to take next.

Post quality content

Finally, to keep your website relevant, you should keep it updated with quality content.

That doesn’t just mean that your text should be grammatically correct and free from errors. You should regularly post new content that increases engagement.

Content could be in the form of blogs, case studies, images or videos that will entice new users to your website.

Need help improving the user experience on your website?

Call 01902 239 010 or click to Get a Quote

The Make It Seen team can make your website work for you! Find out more at www.makeitseen.com