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Website user experience, quite simply, is the experience a visitor has when using your website. Sounds simple enough, right? By extension, your website is your shop window - constantly open for business and the centrepiece of all other digital marketing efforts. It can influence what people think of your pet business, your brand, and therefore fundamentally whether or not they trust you with the care of their pet.
So where does this influence come from? There are many different elements which feed into what makes a positive user experience, from how easy your website is to use, to how accessible information may be. It creates an overall experience which is associated with your brand. In a nutshell, your website needs to make it as easy as possible for people to do what you want them to do.
So what constitutes a good user experience?
1. Keep it simple
While it may seem like a good idea to have an ‘all singing, all dancing’ website, fundamentally, your website just needs to be clear and easy to navigate.
Visual appeal: Remember, first impressions always count! At first glance you want your visitors to see what you are offering and what you can do for them. While it can be tempting to differentiate yourself by trying to do something different, remember, humans are creatures of habit and like simplicity!
Ensure consistency: Remember your website ties in your whole brand, so font, imagery and layout all need to be consistent to ensure overall familiarity.
Use the space: If your website has quite a lot of content or copy, make use of the white space, colours or imagery to maintain attention and to ensure visitors can digest what you want them to.
2. Optimise page speed
This brings us nicely to page speed. Page load speed is a key ranking factor for Google i.e. it has a direct influence on where your website is shown in search results. Design can greatly affect this. A complex and therefore potentially slow website could lose visitors more quickly. Don’t subject your visitors to a ‘processing page’, or the ‘wheel of doom’ as we like to call it!
Top tip: Did you know an extra 5 seconds of page load time can increase your bounce rate by 20%? Compress your images to quicken load time!
3. Don’t forget about mobile
With at least half of all browsing taking place on mobile and tablet devices, having a mobile-optimised and responsive website is essential. But what does this mean? Have you ever visited a website on your mobile phone which doesn’t adjust to the size of the screen? If a visitor is unable to navigate your website easily on whichever device they visit you through, they could leave before taking action. In addition, responsive websites are ranked higher in search engines - another way for your business to be seen.
4. Make it actionable!
As we mentioned above - your website needs to make it as easy as possible for people to do what you want them to. Having clear ‘calls to action’ will increase the probability of this happening. Make them stand out in obvious places through colour, size and caption. Once they have been seen, think about the message you want to convey - choosing the right words can evoke an emotional trigger e.g. an action word could convey excitement, so make your words bold, action-oriented and time-sensitive.
5. Analytics are your friend!
Mapping your customer journey through your website analytics is a hugely helpful tool to see what pages visitors are spending time on, where they are clicking, and can potentially give clues as to why they left. For example, if you have two landing pages with varying bounce rates, you have the ability to compare, make adjustments and remeasure.
User experience as a whole is a very complex topic combining psychology, behaviour and design. However, many of the fundamentals are based on common sense. Our top 5 tips are a great starting point for some insight into how you can consider improving your website. Remember, if you need any help, we are always here to chat!
If you would like a free consultation, drop us a message at hello@join-embark.com - we love to chat!
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