2018 September 27 Archive - EXEIdeas

What’s your most important digital marketing tool? Chances are that your answer to this question was not your website, but this is precisely the case. Your website is your most important digital marketing tool and is at the core of all your sales efforts. The first thing which your potential customers or clients are going to see when they hit your website is the landing page you tried to get them to fin, and it is important that this page, along with the rest of your website, provides the very best user experience possible.A great user experience is about far more than a good product or a leading service, it is about understanding the problems your visitors have, not just in terms of your product, but in terms of your website and then working to resolve them to enhance overall user satisfaction.Here are four tips which you can use to drastically improve your website’s overall user experience and help increase your conversion rates at the same time.1.) Focus On Speed And Power:Your website needs to be fast. Like, really fast. If your website or any of its pages take longer than three seconds to load, the majority of users will not have the patience to wait. In addition to this, if your website does not load quickly, Google will not assign it the value it might otherwise deserve.You get what you pay for, so if you are paying low rates for your web hosting, this could be a contributing factor to slow speeds. If, however, you are getting slow speeds despite paying for a good host, it may have something to do with your website’s theme, coding or design. It is always worth having a professional come in and checking things over, as you may not even be aware of some of the underlying issues.2.) Use Intuitive Website Design:Nobody is going to stay on your website for very long if it is clunky and difficult to navigate. When a potential customer or client visits your site, they want to be able to move from A to B as quickly as possible and find the product or information they are looking for. If they find that your website is difficult to navigate, they are probably going to leave and instead visit one of your competitors’ sites.The best way to figure out whether your website is intuitive is to test it out yourself, and this is a mistake many new entrepreneurs make – they don’t test out their websites! Have a browse around your site and get a feeling for how easy (or hard) it is for you to find certain products or pieces of information. How easy is it to reach your customer support page? How easy is it to reach your FAQs? You should be able to find them instantly. If not, then it needs attention.3.) Look Good To Stand Out:A good-looking and responsive website is just as important as a fast and intuitive one. You really need to wow your visitors with your website and make a good impression. Not only does this give them something to talk about, a nicely designed website is an instant mood booster and can capture and keep your visitors’ attention better than a boring and placid one.You should invest in a good quality design agency to produce a bespoke website theme for you. Whilst pre-made WordPress themes and the like do serve a purpose and can be good for new start-ups, a bespoke theme which can’t be found elsewhere is always going to be the best choice.4.) Use Modern Technologies:Artificial intelligence and machine learning have come a long way in recent years and are increasingly being used by companies both large and small to deliver basic-level customer support.This is achieved through the deployment of chatbots on a website, clever pieces of technology which can process information fed back to them by a human and answer their questions. If they are unable to do this, they will pass the query on to a human operative (probably you) to help solve the issue.This serves to improve user experience, as it provides an immediate point of contact between a visitor to your website and yourself, as they can access a basic level of help immediately, or have their query immediately passed up the chain.There are so many ways you can improve user experience on your website, and it is important that you strive to make a visitor’s stay as pleasant as possible. Your website is your most important tool and it is the first thing a potential customer or client will see. First impressions count, and a visitor who has a good experience is likely to return or spread the word.About the Author:Michael Deane is a consultant at WPConsult, and spends his time helping clients improve the UX on their websites. He is a huge baseball fan, is addicted to productivity podcasts and dreams of running his own agency one day.Find Me On Facebook