How to Improve Your Website: 9 Tips for a Better User Experience

User experience is a large part of making sure your website does well. 88% of users are less likely to return to a website after a bad user experience.

If it doesn’t go well the first time, they likely won’t return for a second go-round. 

Unfortunately, this isn’t uncommon. Without a second thought to user experience, websites can crumble very easily.

Why is it so important? Your users hold you up.

This isn’t rocket science. If you have a horrible website, people won’t have a good experience, and therefore will not return or give you their business.

Your website shouldn’t just simply look good, but it should have a design that feeds into your user experience.

Yes, you want it to look good, that is part of what keeps users on the page. But you want that design to also give users an experience that guides them through the site.

Users should be able to interact and enjoy their time on the site rather than browsing and feeling like none of their questions have been answered.

Unanswered questions are a big problem, and they very clearly and understandably lead users off of the page. 

You need to clearly communicate what you do and why you do it. Keep users from aimlessly scrolling and browsing in attempts to find out more.

Your website is also the center of your marketing efforts, and it should reflect that.

Market to your customers well by using the following tips to improve your website and make the best user experience possible. 

1. Create Calls to Action
2. Stay Consistent
3. Show Off What’s Unique
4. Be Responsive and Mobile Friendly
5. Segment Key Information
6. Test It
7. Link Internally
8. Include a Thank You Page
9. Make it Faster

Customers are used to following visual clues in order to find what is important to them.

Especially on websites, visual cues allow customers to easily spot what they need and follow along until they have completed their journey. 

A call to action (CTA) with action words gives the customer something immediate they can act on and helps them navigate through your website.

CTAs should have specific colors as well as the words that catch the users attention.

Not only should it stand out from what’s around it, but it should also have just the right amount of information.

Too little, and the CTA doesn’t stand out as something important. Too much, and the CTA is clogged and takes too long to read.

With ChipBot, you can use pop-ups to drive leads and sales. Their CTAs are similar to popups, but convert higher, and are easy to test with.

With Call To Actions, you can constantly A/B test what the strongest message is. Then use the winner for your headlines, ads, and pitches.

Only ChipBot gives you the ability to promote to users on your website without any coding. You can promote when users are ready, receive user feedback, and reduce bounce rates. 

One of the first things your customers will notice is the consistency of your website. First you want to make sure your design is consistent across the board.

Every page should have the same theme so as not to confuse the user. If every page on your site looks different, they may think they have navigated off of your page. 

Try using existing themes on your website platform so as not to add extra work to designing the site.

In the long run, choosing a theme that is consistent and matches across the board will save you time and stay appealing to your customers.

Another aspect that needs consistency is your website copy. It should be easy to read and the tone should be consistent throughout the site.

Always hire a copywriter for this. That way, you know the writing will be professional and won’t differ from page to page.

You’ll want to change your website each year, so reuse as much copy and design as possible when you update.

For new content, adapt it to your existing content as much as possible so there is no confusion. 

You should be paying attention to what offers and resources are out there, but pay more attention to what isn’t out there.

Don’t replicate what your competitors are doing. Find out what they are doing and do it better. 

For example, if you notice that all your competitors are having a Labor Day sale, don’t just settle for creating yet another Labor Day sale. Put a spin on it that is unique to your company.

Maybe create a sale a week or two before Labor Day, so that your users will get it in time for the weekend and enjoy it.

Be an expert on yourself, and show off what is unique about your company. Don’t try to blend in by making your distinctions bland.

Your customers want something that stands out as better than the rest. 

Give your website some personality. Use humor and always connect your content back to what you’re all about.

National Geographic is all about those “out there” experiences, so they took this opportunity to show their audience one of their very unique photos while giving themselves some personality so that customers can relate to them. 

Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon a task if the website isn’t mobile optimized.

People use mobile more often than not these days because everyone has a smartphone and they can access it from anywhere. This is good for you, as long as you keep up with it. 

Although you may think everything is working properly, you should always test on mobile. New content, designs, and infographics tend to break mobile first.

These things are often harder to catch because you assume your website already works on mobile as it has in the past. But if you add something new, you have to test to make sure.

Google will penalize you over time if some of your newer pages aren’t tested for mobile. If Google penalizes you, your site will be harder to find.

If your site is hard to find and not responsive, user experience will definitely fall.

Breaking up your content into smaller chunks, like bullet points, will help the readability of your site. When users are scrolling, they want to be able to get the most amount of information in the shortest amount of time.

Using bullet points makes it simple and easy. Good segmented information can be:

• Bulleted lists
• Numbered lists
• Headings and sub-headings
• Short paragraphs with one main idea in each
• Meaningful links

Bullet points can also signal that the information is important or will come in handy later. 

You need to test what you implement on your site to make sure it is performing the way you want it to. In order to do so, come up with 3 important key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the improvement of. 

Evaluate conversion paths, how far your users scroll, and where they are clicking. Then change it up to see if it improves.

If you don’t know what to change, you can use tools to create A/B tests, multi-variant tests, or even set up heat maps to see what users are doing. 

Once you’ve tested it, update the page and ask for feedback. 

You don’t want your users to hit a dead end on your site. There should always be somewhere else to go, so you always want to include links to other pages on your site to keep users moving. 

This also helps users navigate through your site because it provides them with resources and options. 

With internal links, your users and customers will get to know your website, and through that, your brand.

When they are clicking, reading, and browsing, they are learning more about you and, if you play your cards right, getting to know more about what they’re interested in. 

No matter what kind of website you have, thanking your users is never out of the question. If you want people to come back, let alone have a good experience, you have to treat them well.

Automatically redirect your users to this page after a purchase has been made, and even when you’re not selling a product.

You can set up a thank you page for users who subscribe to your newsletter, and you can even insert a short thank you note at the end of a blog article.

Overall, thank you pages can reinforce your brand and increase your sales. But you have to use them to their fullest potential.

Having a website that loads fast can make a huge difference in your rankings. When users encounter a slow website, they usually bounce right away.

39% of users will stop engaging with content when the images won’t load or the loading time takes too long. People want information and they want it fast. 

To optimize your speed, try WP Cache, CDN, or image compression and sizing. 

• WP Cache is a WordPress plugin that caches pages for known users, URLs with parameters, and feeds. 
• A content delivery network, or CDN, is a geographic option that allows for quick transfers of assets needed for internet connection. 
• With image compression, fewer bytes are required to store the data.

Squarespace and Shopify help optimize your images and already have a CDN in front of your domain.