Your website is an important marketing tool for your company. Indeed, you might argue that your website is your finest salesperson. They work around the clock to ensure that your product or service is constantly presented in the best light possible.
But nothing is worse than standing in front of a salesman who appears to be all over the place or who struggles to get the appropriate information for you when you ask a question.
What Your Site Should Have For Better User Experience
We have compiled a list of the Top 6 Overlooked Website Must-Haves that will enhance your user experience.
- Fast Page Load Speed
- Breadcrumbs
- Correct Formatting
- Easy to Read Fonts
- Mobile Friendly
- Easy to Notice Hyperlinks
Speed
Hang on. Sorry. Just give me a moment. Hold on.
Alright, here’s my website…wait where’d you go?
We’ve discussed this previously, but there’s a reason behind it. The speed with which your website loads is crucial to keeping visitors on your site.
Most people will leave if they have to wait more than 3 seconds for your website to load.
And that’s not all! Check out our blog post on improving your site speed for more of the ways it influences your customers.
How Do I Get Faster Site Speed?
Changing your hosting provider is the most effective technique to boost the speed of your website. When you choose a cheaper hosting provider, they are more often than not situated overseas, which means that the site performance is already reduced when trying to transfer your page’s data from another nation to Australia.
You’re in luck if you’re already hosted by us. Our hosting is not only located in Australia but it is also optimised for WordPress sites to provide the best page speeds available.
What else?
Well other than hosting, it’s really going to be specific to your site. We can run a performance test on your site and let you know how we can improve your site speed.
Breadcrumbs
Just like the fairytale, breadcrumbs are a great way to stop your users from getting lost on your site.
What are breadcrumbs?
Breadcrumbs are a way for any user to see where they are on a website. You can often find breadcrumbs within Google Searches like so:
In this example the breadcrumbs are shown as: allrecipes.com > … > More Meal Ideas > DIY
You can notice this as well on sites with a large product base with multiple categories:This Woolworths search shows on-page breadcrumbs just above the results:Home > Pantry > Herbs & Spices > Breadcrumbs & Stuffing
Breadcrumbs don’t just help with user experience, but they help guide your users to pages that matter.
For example, say I find your computer parts website through a google search. I am looking for a new mouse and I land on a page that has exactly that. Great!
But I’m also interested in buying a mousepad. Without breadcrumbs, I’d have to go all the way to the top of your page and click on the Products menu item and then click into Computer Accessories then into Mouse & Mousepads.
With breadcrumbs on your page, I’d be able to see Products > Computer Accessories > Mouse & Mousepads > Wireless Bluetooth Mouse which lets me go back to the section I want with ease.
This example doesn’t just show how customers will be happier using your site, but also is an example of how breadcrumbs can lower bounce rates. For example if I didn’t find the exact mouse I wanted, I would be more likely to click onto Mouse & Mousepads to find the mouse I want, instead of backing out of your site and heading to Google again.
This hierarchy of pages helps users look at other products you offer first through an alternative way to browse your site.
And did I mention that breadcrumbs helps with your SEO?
How do I get breadcrumbs?
The best way to get breadcrumbs is with an on-page SEO tool like Yoast or RankMath. With either of these tools installed on your site, it should be as easy as flicking a switch.
Proper Formatting
Having a good layout of information is the best way for users to easily read and understand your content. Plus it makes your site look much more organised!
Formatting is key to a good user experience. It helps users know what information is important to them and what they can “get” from your site. Formatting is what helps a user digest all the information on the page.
Our Tips For Formatting
Keep paragraphs short.
And, when possible, try to keep sentences short. This helps with overall readability which can be measured something known as the Flesch Reading Ease scale.
Headings & Hierarchy of Content.
Headings are important to establish a structure to your content. This improves accessibility and lets users know what the content their about to read is all about.
Headings are also a great way to break up some of the paragraphs that might be a bit too long.
Here’s our tips for using headings effectively:
- Heading 1 (h1)
Only one should ever be used per page and if you’re on a WordPress site, this is your page title by default. - Heading 2 (h2)
This should be used to break up your content into specific sections. - Heading 3 (h3)
This should be used to break up your content into specific topics. - Paragraph
You can continue to have headings all the way down to Heading 6 if needed but by general rule of thumb, Heading 4 is the lowest subheading you’ll need. Everything after that is fine to just be a paragraph.
Headings should also decrease in size and/or weight to let people know the order of importance. For example you might have HEADING ONE and then Heading Two and then Heading Three. If your brand has multiple fonts, consider the primary font for Heading 1 and the secondary font for subsequent headings.
Use Easy To Read Fonts
Typefaces matter a lot in enhancing your site for UX. If they posture challenges to readers, they might dispose of your site and go to other websites where they discover checking out easier.
Also, do not utilize too few font sizes because they position challenges to the reader. And make sure that the size is big enough to make themselves in all mobile devices and tablets. If the readers have to zoom the typefaces, they are likely to dispose of your website and go to a different site.
You need to focus on the readability and use of a conversational tone in your material. It will help readers understand your material and help your site rank in voice search on Google.
With WordPress SEO plugins, you can examine your material’s readability score. Moreover, the plugins can give you tips on how to make improvements. As a result, it makes your work simpler.
Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly
Mobile-friendliness has ended up being the norm of all websites today. With the expansion of mobile phones among a growing number of individuals, sites need to be mobile-friendly and accessible across all gadgets.
Google also has actually taken mobile-friendliness extremely seriously. The search giant punishes websites not optimized for mobile devices. For that reason, make it a top concern for your website.
Make Hyperlinks Easy to Recognize
Make your hyperlinks easily recognizable to enhance the use of your website. It has actually been proved by research that users can identify links by the blue underlined text. However, as long as all your links are the same colour, users should be able to identify these as links. For example, if your brand has a specific green colour, feel free to use that for every link on your site. Utilize what is proven to enhance the structure and user experience of your site.
At the same time, optimize the link anchor texts to assist users and online search engines understand what the link is all about. If you write “click here,” it does not say anything about the material you connect to. If you write an anchor text, like “How to code efficiently,” it will let Google and visitors understand what the link is referring to.
In Summary
With these six tips, you can improve the user experience of your website. You can then keep visitors longer on your site, lower bounce rates, and rank higher in online search engine results. As a result, Google will see your site as important to users.
How’s is your user experience? Please share your thoughts. Or if you want to know exactly the steps you can take to improve your site, we’re here to help. Reach out and we’ll take a look at your site and help you implement all the changes you need to make your site the best it can be.