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10 Factors that Contribute to an AWESOME User Experience

By Snap Agency August 9, 2017

If you want to convert the traffic on your website into paying customers, then you need to make sure that they have a great experience.

Just like you couldn’t expect someone in a store to buy any products if they found it difficult to find anything and things were slow and broken, online users act in the same way.

One of the best ways for you to increase your conversion rate is to make using your website a pleasure. This reduces the pain of a user giving you their credit card details and makes the transition an easy experience, making them far more likely to return.

Page Speed

Nothing is more frustrating than a page that loads slowly, especially since so many people are using your website on their phones.

Can you imagine how long it takes to load over a mobile network when it takes 5 seconds from their desktop PC?

You’ll even find that many users will click back before they even get to your website because it loads too slowly. This is like throwing money away. To optimize your page speed, you need to reduce the same of the images that you’re using and upgrade to a better hosting account, preferably a VPS rather than a shared account.

Attractive Design

Second only to a page that loads at the speed of a tortoise are ugly websites. You need to be updating your website every few years; we know that it costs money but times change and users expectations will increase each year.

If you’re still using the same site that you were using in 2008, then we can guarantee that some users are refusing to use your business because of your website. A website says a lot about a company and people struggle to trust the quality of a business that has a low-quality website.

Legible Content

We all want to save money but skimping on your content creation is short sighted. If you’ve outsourced your content to foreign works who don’t have perfect English, then your conversion rate is going to suffer.

It’s almost impossible to have an enjoyable user experience if you’re having to try and guess what sentences mean. Instead, spend the money to hire a native speaker who has worked in the industry for many years.

Good copywriting can compel people to purchase, and you’ll quickly make your money back on the investment through the extra customers you acquire.

Use Attractive Calls to Action

We’ve all used websites in the past where we wanted to buy the product, but it felt like the company didn’t want us to because the process was so complicated.

Don’t hide your CTA’s or buy buttons away in the corner, make sure that they are prominent and easy for the customer to find. You might be thinking that you don’t want to pressure the person or appear spammy, but if someone is ready to pay you don’t want to deter them in any way.

Use High Quality Images

There are hundreds of thousands of free images online that you can use without paying and without infringing on any copyright. There is no excuse to use low quality, pixelated images that give off an amateur vibe.

Spend that little extra time to find an image that works well with your current color scheme and doesn’t clash.

Include Videos

Users expect a more immersive experience than ever and often just have text to read isn’t enough. This is especially the case if you’re asking the person to part with a substantial sum of money.

Create the videos yourself and have them edited by a professional or if you have the budget hire a local videographer to make them for you.

Consistency

Unfortunately, we still see websites that use different colors schemes and themes throughout their website.

This can be jarring to new users. Instead, keep a consistent theme throughout the entire site. This includes fonts, colors, logos and image style.

Remove 404s

If you’ve ever deleted or moved pages on your website, then you might find that you are generating 404 errors. These can be frustrating for users and might suggest that your business is of low quality.

To check for these errors, you can go into the Google Search Console.

Responsive and Mobile Friendly

As we’ve mentioned before, a huge proportion of all website visitors is on mobile and more than ever they are feeling comfortable to make a purchase through their phones.

If you’re using a static HTML site, then it can be tough to navigate on mobile. It’s time to upgrade to a responsive website!

Make Hyperlinks Visible

Finally, make sure that your hyperlinks are visible and are distinguishable from the rest of the text. We understand that you might not like the blue text color, but it’s universally seen as a link and millions of dollars of studies have concluded that it’s the best color to convince people to click.

Keep these 10 tips in mind and your off to a great start on user experience. For more information check out our in depth guide Design Standards: BEST PRACTICES FOR WEB DESIGN AND USABILITY