User experience (UX) is the foundation of SEO. Everything we do to optimise for search is also to optimise for the user experience. We reduce the time it takes for a site to load so that visitors don’t get frustrated, we create content to help users find the information they need or find interesting, and we make it as easy as possible for them to find what they want, when they want it.
And, when the user experience is good, it means that they’re more likely to convert: to buy a product, enquire about a service or take any of the other actions that strengthens the connection between them and our business. So putting time into improving your UX is a sure-fire way of increasing conversions. Here are five ways you can do that.
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1. Get Rid of the Bloat
That’s not to say you have to get rid of everything that makes your site engaging and looking nice. You just need to find a balance between what’s beneficial and what’s not. Some things you can do include:
Resize and Compress Images
Do this before you upload them to your site. Try to compress each image to below 200KB without losing the quality. You can do this with free sites like TinyJPG. You can also reduce size by reducing the dimensions and converting to WebP instead of formats like JPG and PNG.
Host Videos Off-Site
Hosting a video natively on your own website can really slow things down, so instead host it on sites like YouTube or Vimeo, then embed it on your site. This will allow you to make use of engaging video without slowing down your site to unbearable rates.
Choose Better Hosting
Your hosting can make a huge difference to site speed, so picking the cheapest option may be losing you conversions. Smaller sites likely won’t run into this problem, but if you have lots of pages and your website is slow, it might be time to consider a different hosting provider.
Look out for dedicated hosting, where you get your own hosting server, rather than common shared hosting, where you share hosting bandwidth with lots of other sites.
Keep on reading with 7 Tips for Optimising Your Website for Site Speed and Page Speed.
2. Simplify Navigation
How does a user get around your site? Is there a clear journey? Can they easily find what they’re looking for? Are they trying to pick out relevant links from dozens of menu items? Or are they unable to find links to basic information like your contact details?
How “simple” your navigation is will, in part, depend on the size of your site, and owners of sites with lots of pages will need to think their navigation through more carefully.
Here are some tips for creating a better user experience through simpler navigation.
Main Menus and Sub-Menus
You should have your main pages in the main, top-level menu, with secondary child pages via dropdown links if necessary. Very large sites may even have a third level of drop-down, but this should be considered (and designed) very carefully to make sure it’s still easily navigable and doesn’t look messy.
Some sites will have a secondary menu, which is usually smaller and less prominent than the main menu. This is where you can have links to pages that aren’t quite as important to your sales funnel, but which are still helpful for user experience, such as contact details and a blog.
Group Pages and Create a Structure
Looking at the overall structure of your site and grouping pages into categories can help you identify which pages should go in your main menu. It will also help you map your navigation so that users can instinctively and easily find related topics, products or services. I go into more detail on this in my guide to building site structure through keyword research.
Test and Trial
The best way to see how well your navigation is laid out is with testing. Ask friends or colleagues to spend some time using your website, and collect any feedback from them. If you can find testers who are a similar demographic to your real users, that’s even better.
3. Create Scannable Content
Nowadays, people have a lot of demands on their time, from work and family life to the sheer amount of information out there on the web. To help them get the most of your website, ensure that the content is comprehensive yet scannable. That means there’s plenty of useful information, but that it’s also broken into sections so that people can quickly find the information they need.
Make use of headings and subheadings to divide your content, and give them descriptive titles. Other formatting features such as tables and bulleted lists, as well as page summaries, can also help users find what they’re looking for.
By making it easier for users to scan content, you’re answering their questions more quickly, moving them towards a decision, and providing a better user experience.
Read my guide to writing good website copy.
4. Consider Accessibility
Approximately 16.1 million people in the UK have a disability, and if your website isn’t accessible, these people may be unable (or unwilling) to buy from you. If you want to create a better user experience on your website, it’s important not to ignore the 25% of the population that may have additional needs.
Creating an accessible website can be fairly straightforward, and some of the simplest things you can do include:
- Add image alt tags that accurately describe what an image shows
- Improve colour contrast to aid readability.
- Choose an appropriate font that’s clear to read and of a suitable size. Ideally, fonts should be easily zoomable so users can adjust size to suit their needs.
A site such as www.accessibilitychecker.org can help you identify ways of improving accessibility so that you can provide a better user experience.
5. Use A Clear Call to Action
Once you’ve created a fantastic user experience on your website, then it’s important to make sure visitors can take the next step. That’s where a Call to Action (CTA) comes in.
A CTA is a clear instruction – usually via a button – for a user to take a specific action. This could be a purchase, getting in touch, signing up to a newsletter… anything that suits your business. You might find a CTA in the menu, at the top of the page (the hero section), or within a body of text. Wherever it is, it should stand out from the rest of the page and really draw the eye. It could be a different colour, sit prominently in a menu, or fall naturally within the eyeline when a user is navigating your site.
Wherever it is, and whatever the prompt, your Call To Action gives a user a clear and easy next step. It’s a better experience for them and it improves your chance of generating a conversion.
The CTA itself, though, isn’t enough. What happens after they click? Make sure the whole process is smooth and easy so that, once they’ve taken that vital step and started the sales process, they see it through.
Conclusion
A positive user experience is key to improving your site’s search engine rankings and to encouraging visitors to convert. Reducing site speed, improving accessibility, and creating clear navigation are just some of the simple things you can do to improve your chances of making a sale.
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