Irrespective of what type of website you have, your ultimate goal is to create a lasting impression in the minds of the users. There might be many websites relating to your field, so what do you do to be different from the crowd? Your website is going to do well only if it lives up to the customer/user expectations or if it exceeds the user expectations.
What are the benefits of ensuring a great user experience on your website?
- Higher number of returning users
- Large number of social media shares
- Better conversion rates
- Increased user-engagement and thereby more traffic
Doesn’t this sound great? It’s not that difficult to provide your users with a great experience, all you need to do is pay attention to some specific important aspects, have a look:
A Website Crafted For Users
Your website has to be appealing to all types of visitors. Although you might be having a certain target market or your products might be focused on people belonging to a certain age group; even then you need to ensure that your website is designed for all types of audience. Study your customer base and user behavior on your website and you will get a better idea about what people want to see on your website. It definitely sounds difficult to put together a website that creates a good impression on every visitor, for this, you can either create different segments of your website or you can also create different websites for different segments.
For example, The Discovery Channel owns many other websites like TLC, Animal Planet, Science Channel, Discover Channel Asia, Discovery UK etc. that portray different types of content for different type of audience niche.
Smooth Navigation
Although this factor looks like a minor one, it is very important and plays a key role in ensuring a great user experience. For making it easier for people to find what they are looking for, pay attention to the factors mentioned below:
Website Menu
Your website menus should be perfectly labeled and organized. Use submenus if required but don’t make it very complicated. It is also important to know if your website menus are clearly visible on all types of devices like smart phones and tablets. Think from your visitors/customers point of view while creating the website menu and try to keep things as simple as possible.
Website Search
There are plugins for enabling the search option on your website. Your job doesn’t end after installing the plugin; make sure that the search option is serving the right content that people are looking for. For this, you also need to ensure that you have incorporated proper tags and keywords in all areas of your website for the search option to work perfectly.
Interlinking Within Content
Your website visitors might be looking for some specific information. Even if they have reached on the right content segment on your website, they might want to know about other related topics. For instance, if you have written about selecting the right domain name, you can provide more related links like information about domain name TLDs or how to register a domain name.
Website Content
Every word that you have on your website should be meaningful and grammatically correct. The content should be helpful to the visitors. Your content should be precise and smartly composed. It will be beneficial for you if you create content according to the interests, goals and issues of your customers. With valuable content on your website, you can achieve higher user engagement.
Aesthetic Appeal Of Your Website
How your website looks to the users is a great deal and you need to pay special attention to the aesthetic feel of your website. This includes factors like color combinations used, the arrangement of categories and menus, the font used for content on your website, the spacing between the content, the placement of images etc. Although it is preferable to opt for a website design that is specific to your industry, but it is okay to do a little bit of experimenting. It is also important to ensure that your website is hosted on a good web hosting server and works fast.
Use Impressive Call To Action
Your customers or visitors will find their way to get to the information on your website. You must make sure that the call to action buttons are clearly marked with a powerful keyword. For creating call to action buttons for your website, it is crucial to pay attention to the color you use. Also, think about the words you use for call to action; preferably, it should be a verb or an action word that makes the user do something. It is important to establish an emotional connection through your call to action buttons to connect with the customers and let them know that they will get what they want.
Check For Broken Links
Broken links on your website can be a big turn off for your website visitors and potential customers. If any of your website visitors encounter a broken link on your website, chances are that they will never think of returning to your website again; and also, there is a possibility that they might spread a word about it. Check for broken links on your website and if there are any, you can treat them by creating 404 error page or by implementing 301 redirects. A custom 404 error page enables your customers to find what they are looking for and a 301 redirect lets your visitors know that either some page of your website or the entire website has moved.
Conclusion:
The key to having the best website is to put yourself in the shoes of your customers and visitors. It is surely important to consider the technical factors of a website, but you need to think beyond the technical aspects to create an impressive and user-friendly website. If you take care of the basic points mentioned above, you will be successful in providing your users with a great online experience on your website.
