We all agree that we want to make sure our website visitors stay on our website for as long as possible, because the longer they stay, the more pages they’ll visit, and that’s the ultimate goal, isn’t it?
But what makes that happen? The simple answer is website usability.
The biggest contributor to affecting how long users spend on your site is determined by how friendly your site is, and how easy it is for the user to reach their end goal.
So, what is website usability?
Website usability is all about the easy experience your clients have when visiting your site. Simple things like how easy is it for users to navigate, click buttons and use your website across different devices?
Because the better your user experience, the higher you’ll rank online. And guess what? We want to share our five hot tips on what you can do to get that result.
1. Reduce your page loading speed
The first impression is the most important and it can happen even before your website loads!
How?
Well, the average website user expects a page to load within three seconds. Any longer and the users will be saying seeya later and heading off to someone else’s site. Which means you’ll be suffering the loss of potential clients. Not a good first impression, is it?
Here’s one simple trick you can do yourself to improve your page loading times.
Optimise your images by reducing the file size and scaling them to the right size before uploading them to your website. Check out TinyPNG; they help you compress your file sizes down, often by half!
This one simple thing will help your images load faster and not reduce the loading speed of your other pages. Easy-peasy, right?
2. Optimise a familiar navigation layout
People like familiarity. A complicated and un-recognisable navigation layout will leave your users confused and frustrated to the point of leaving your website.
We get that you might want to stand out from the crowd with a unique layout design, but it may not be worth it if potential customers tend to favour certain navigational layouts.
Categorise your content in a way that makes sense to the end user and use simple, concise terms. If people don’t know what they’re going to get when they click on a link, you’re creating unnecessary friction that leads to a poor user experience.
Why?
Because a familiar layout makes users feel comfortable when they’re exploring your site. You might want to be different with a new design, but the truth is sticking to a tried and tested formula will guarantee better usability.
It’s also important to maintain a similar layout on each page because this makes your potential clients more familiar with your site itself. Consistency reassures visitors that they haven’t been navigated off to a different site, and as a bonus, you’ll present cohesive branding. And consistent branding is vital to business success!
3. Image selection and placement
Whether you’re low on information or have too much information, the solution is to add visual content such as images or videos. Images are a great way to break up your content, but there’s a couple rules that come along with them!
Rule number 1 is to ensure they’re high quality and relevant. It’s important for your images to appeal to your target audience and create a banging impact.
Rule number 2 is to make sure they don’t look out of place. An image that isn’t placed properly or sticks out like an oddball on your website can distract users, and lead to a negative impression being formed.
Stick to the rules and images will be your best friend.
4. Headings or internal linking? Why not both.
The last thing you want to do is overwhelm your site users with chunks of information packed onto one page. It takes time to absorb, and to be real, people are simply just too busy for it.
Give users content in smaller portions by breaking up topics of information into a number of sub-topics and put them on separate pages. Use internal linking to connect related pages, as this allows your visitors to move on to the next topic or return later for more information.
Don’t forget to utilise headings and subheadings to help break up your content. They work wonders in making your page look better to a user who is glancing through your site.
And…
Headings will also help with your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) as they’re considered to be an important ranking factor. What a win-win!
With a combination of internal linking and the use of headings you’ll improve your website usability and pave a pathway for smooth navigation.
5. Highlight the important elements
Go big or go home with the use of large icons, bold fonts, and bright colours to emphasise important content. These can be bold and impactful calls to action, contrasting background colours to break up your sections or stand-out and clearly identifiable links.
The use of icons can make key features of services stand out from the crowd or illustrate important points of information.
Highlighting important elements of your products or services will grow the chance of sales by helping to increase converting passive visitors into repeat clients.
Time to get started!
You might feel overwhelmed at first as you start your journey towards exceptional website usability, but these simple tips and tricks will help guide you towards a successful end result. So, let’s get cracking!
And who knows you might even find yourself lucky enough to be making your way towards the top of search results.
WANT TO LEARN MORE?
Our team at Studio Sondar can help guide you towards a user-friendly website by taking a deep dive into your business through an in-depth discovery/strategy session.
Whether you’d like a deeper understanding on the tips above or if you want to chat with us about where you’re at, where you want to be, and how to get there, we’d love to hear from you!
