How to Make Your Website Better than Your Competitors’ Part 2: The User Experience (UX)

A website that is easy and enjoyable to use optimizes your visitors’ time, resulting in more site visits, increased conversions, and higher customer satisfaction. But how do you go about improving your website’s user experience (UX)? In this blog post, we explore five key strategies for doing just that. Share this article with your colleagues and talk about incorporating these suggestions to improve your website's user experience and create a better online experience and user journey for your customers and website visitors.

1. Update your UX web design

A modern website UX web design that incorporates best design practices sends a strong message of credibility to your audience and greatly improves the user experience. Here are a few things to keep in mind when updating your site's design:

• Use responsive design, which ensures that your website looks and works well on all devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones. See ‘Design your website to load quickly and be mobile responsive’ in Part 1 of this series.
• Check to see that your content is easy to read. Use clear and concise language and structure your content in an easy-to-follow format.
• Use visuals to guide users through your content. High quality images, iconography, infographics, and even video and multimedia content can help to explain concepts and make your website more engaging.
• Pay attention to details including button styles, typography, and whitespace, to make sure they fit your brand, because they can have a major impact on website navigation and user satisfaction.

2. Personalize the UX to each user’s behavior and preferences

User experience is all about making sure that your website visitors have a positive experience when they use your site. One way to improve UX is to personalize the experience according to user behavior. Here are a few examples:

• For ecommerce websites, some ecommerce platforms allow you to track previous site activities including the items that each user is interested in and then show them relevant recommendations based on their behavior
• For news or interest/niche content websites, show personalized content from your website based on what topics users are interested in
• Create user/buyer personas for the segments of your site audience. You don’t have to create an entirely unique user journey and website experience for every individual; instead, create six or seven unique personas that represent your audience and deliver an experience that caters to the needs of each segment.
• Learn more about how to create a powerful, integrated ecommerce experience

Website personalization can be a great way to improve UX because it helps to make the user's experience more relevant and tailored to their needs. If done right, it can also lead to more conversions and higher satisfaction levels. There are plenty of tools and resources available to help you out. Just make sure to do your research and test different approaches before implementing anything on your live site.

3. Provide website customization options for each visitor

Giving users the ability to customize their experience through their own preferred settings is a great way to improve the overall UX. Here are a few different ways that you can provide customization options on your website:

• Allow users to choose accessibility options such as a light or dark mode and the ability to change font sizes. This can be especially helpful for those with vision impairments or other disabilities that make it difficult to read standard text.
• Enable users to select their preferred language. This is particularly important for websites that cater to international audiences. By giving users the ability to change the language of your site, you can make sure that everyone can understand and navigate your content.
• Give users the option to turn on or off certain features or functionality depending on their needs and preferences. For example, some users may prefer not to see images while they're browsing your site, so offering an option to disable them can improve their overall experience.

4. Ensure that every page satisfies each user’s intent

When a user arrives on your website, they have a specific goal or intent in mind. It is your job as the website owners to make sure that their needs are met. Here are a few ways to do this:

• Make sure your site is easy to navigate and organized logically so that visitors can easily and quickly find what they need.
• Use clear and succinct language throughout your site. Avoid industry jargon or overly complicated terms.
• Incorporate visuals to help guide users through your site. Images and icons are helpful in explaining complex concepts or helping users find what they need.
• Set up a chatbot so users can get extra help 24/7.

5. Fix the errors on your website

A bad UX can drive away potential customers and damage your brand. That's why it's essential to fix any errors on your website that could negatively impact the user experience. Here are a few tips:

• Conduct a UX audit to assess all aspects of the user experience, from the navigation and design to the content and usability, to pages that don’t load and buttons and links that don’t work.
• Simplify the design. A complicated or cluttered design can confuse users. If users can't easily find what they're looking for on your website, they're likely to give up and go somewhere else. To avoid this, keep your design simple and easy to navigate. Use clear labels and concise content to help users find their way around your site.
• Invest in editing and proofreading. One way to maintain authority and credibility is with well-written content that is properly edited and proofread. Conversely, mistakes in this area often drive away visitors with an unfavorable impression.

By following these tips, you can ensure that every page on your website satisfies the needs of each of your users and provides a positive user experience (UX) that generates website and brand loyalty.

Are your customers loyal? Find out by taking our Customer Loyalty Quiz!