(Akiit.com) If you are running a small business that uses a website to sell goods and services, you’re going to want to read this post! During the coronavirus pandemic, more and more small businesses relied on their website to sell the majority of their products to their customers.
Selling through a website has its perks, but it does rely on the fact that your website is fully functional and easy to use – something that can’t always be taken for granted.
Why is a company website so important?
Your company website is the first introduction a customer has to your brand. They might have been directed to your site through your social media page, meaning that they will have high expectations for your company site and the products they will find there!
If your company website doesn’t live up to expectations, this could result in a potential new customer clicking away. Research shows that the average person visits a website for only 5.59 seconds – so in that time, your site needs to grab the user’s attention and encourage them to stay!
How to improve your website’s user experience
If you are looking for ways to improve your site’s UX (user experience), look no further! Here are five easy changes you can implement that will make it easier and more exciting for your website users.
1. Hire a freelance web designer.
If you are just in the process of setting up your website, you should know that this is a task best completed by a professional. While there are helpful domains like WordPress that can give you a template, freelance web designers can create a totally unique website for your company.
Standing out from the crowd is essential. Not only will a web designer create a flawless aesthetic, but they will also ensure that the cogs are turning behind the scenes – including helping you take payments, protect buyers’ data and solve issues quickly.
A freelance web designer will be a small investment in a long journey of success – so ensure you do this to maximise the user experience of your company website.
2. Include plenty of calls to action.
Calls to action are everywhere, even if you don’t notice them. If you scan the website of a successful business like Amazon, you will notice that each and every page you click on has multiple calls to action.
What is an example of a call to action? It’s simple: phrases like ‘Click here!’ or ‘Buy now!’ are calls to action – they encourage the user to take action and buy a product or service from you.
To improve the UX of your website, you need to include calls to action on each page. Not only will this boost your figures, but it will make your website easier to use, thereby prompting the user to stay longer and explore. There’s nothing more frustrating than a confusing website, and this will only force users to click away and try another brand.
3. Incentivise first time buyers to sign up for emails.
Incentives are very important when it comes to user experience. New customers need to be incentivised to stick around, so providing them with that immediately using a pop-up feature is the best way of achieving that!
UX isn’t just about how easy it is to navigate your site, it is about creating an overall pleasurable user experience where the customer feels valued and seen. By giving a new customer 10% off their first order, for example, it immediately gives them a reason to get on board with your brand and its product line.
Creating these simple pop-up calls to action is very easy and actionable, and will immediately give your customers more of a reason to stick to you like glue!
4. Use click testing.
What is click testing? If you have never heard of this awesome tool, you’re about to have your mind blown.
Click testing involves analysing how users click through your website, and is perfect for a website that is still in the design or early release stages. Using Userzoom’s click testing software, you can gain insights into:
- How the majority of users navigate your website.
- How long they typically stay on your site for.
- Whether certain features of your website are not standing out to users.
- The overall effectiveness of your calls to action.
- Evaluate the first impressions of a web user.
By using click testing software, your company can easily spot weak spots in your UX, and find solutions to these problems right away. No more guessing or assuming how your users find your site – see for yourself using click testing.
5. Provide high quality, readable content!
Last but not least, let’s discuss website content. As you probably already know, content such as videos, images and blog posts are easy to implement and are perfect for increasing your SEO and UX.
High quality, readable content can be hard to come by if you don’t have the skills to produce it yourself. By hiring professional writers through an agency or freelance, you can get SEO-optimised copy delivered very quickly, that is easily uploadable to your site.
Why does content improve UX? Simply put, content improves the UX of your business’ site by:
- Humanising your business. If it’s all price tags and sales pitches, your business could be slightly alienating to its customers. Written content humanises your company, giving your customers a little more insight into how your business works, and the messaging behind it.
- Making your business easily findable on search engines. As we mentioned earlier, the SEO optimization that content gives your company allows it to be found by search engine users. Ultimately, the user experience of your company website starts with it being found by new customers – and content is the solution!
- Allows people to engage more deeply with your brand. In order to keep loyal customers, you need to give customers a reason to engage with your brand beyond clicking ‘Pay now.’ Content gives them that reason.
Ultimately, improving the UX of your website is one of the keys that unlocks greater potential for your business. Use this guide to help sharpen the UX of your company site today!
Staff Writer; Harry Parker