UX mistakes to avoid
Having a website for your business is only one part of the journey to online success. If your marketing efforts involve paid advertising to drive traffic, a website working at 100% capacity will help you maximise return on investment.
Visual design, layout and content are key elements to good website design, but one thing people often neglect is user experience.
User experience is the ease with which visitors can access and navigate your website. If you’re looking to improve the user experience on your website, here are a few mistakes to avoid.
Designing for your business vs your customers
It’s tempting to let personal preference guide your website design. But a website’s optimal navigation depends on your customers. Having a website built for your customers will ensure they find what they’re looking for and convert those visits into sales. Detach and prioritise your customers’ needs over your own.
What to do instead
Research matters. Do your research or hire experts to create customer personas that represent your target audience. Professionals are likely to speak to current and prospective customers to understand how they navigate websites. They’ll take them through your business website and ask them to perform specific tasks, like finding a product or filling out an enquiry form. Seeing how your customers interact with your website will give you valuable insights on where your website can be improved.
Don’t neglect your data
With technology accessible to businesses of all sizes, you will likely have access to all kinds of data. But data is only useful if you use it to provide insights you can action. Review your Google Analytics and look at your most popular pages. Are people leaving the pages without converting? Use this data to guide you through the pages you need to fix first.
What to do instead
If you don’t have Google Analytics installed, work with an online solutions advisor to get it set up properly. Spend time reviewing which pages are converting: which pages are most of your customers spending their time and which pages are they leaving from? This will help you prioritise your focus.
Don’t aim for instant gratification
Most website owners want to translate as much website traffic as they can into leads and subscribers. To do this, they may install various pop-up windows to drive form fills. While this is important, it needs to be done with careful consideration so that it doesn’t impact the overall experience of the site. Pop-up windows and ads can distract your website visitors from achieving your desired goal.
What to do instead
Clearly define the objectives of each page. If you have an eCommerce site, for example, encouraging visitors to look at your product pages may be your number one goal. If that’s the case, reducing the number of pop ups that appear on your product pages will make the journey easier for the customer. Alternatively, if you are set on having a pop-up on your site, only have it appear once they’ve been on your page for more than 20 seconds. When it comes to UX, there are no set rules. The user experience you create should really cater to your target audience.
Don’t forget about the mobile experience
UX on mobile is different from your desktop and yet, most make the mistake of treating both the same. While you want website visitors to have the same experience on different devices, there are minor details you need to consider. The size of your text on mobile to accommodate smaller devices and ease of scrolling through content are some mobile specific UX considerations to make.
What do to instead
When you do your customer research, have them go through your website both via desktop and mobile. You may find that their experience is completely different. If you’re launching new pages or a new layout, do tests on different devices. User experience on an iPhone may be different from an iPad. Depending on what devices your visitors use most, you’ll need to consider them in your UX design.
Take the pedal off maintenance work
Most have a ‘set and forget’ approach once a website is launched. As technology changes, so will user preferences. Factors like page speed and error pages will determine how long a visitor stays on your website. If a page takes too long to load or your visitors don’t find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave and you’ll miss out on a potential lead/sale.
What to do instead
There are free resources like Google’s PageSpeed tools that will give you insights on your website performance. If you’re unsure about how your website is performing, book a free website health check. Our online solutions advisors will analyse your website and leave you with a few recommendations you can action.
Creating a great user experience sets the foundations for success in marketing. It’s important to get it right before investing budget into paid traffic. If you need a new website, get in touch to see how we can help.