Welcome back to our final Wednesday Website Wellness Series. We’ve already covered the importance of having relevant and good content, images, design, and contact details. Now we are on to our last, but not least element: Good User Experience (UX).

But for those less tech savvy of us – what is UX? UX is the term related to the satisfaction level your potential customer has while visiting your website. Essentially, your website has a purpose and that purpose is to either provide information, sell a service or a product. If your website makes it too difficult to do this – then you’re UX is way off the mark. That’s why we want you to consider the following:

 

Are you reaching your potential (customer)?

We’ve all experienced those websites that seem overly convoluted and difficult to use. The kind that causes your hand to go numb from all that clicking, trying to find the information you want. No? Of course you haven’t because NO ONE actually stays on those websites!

Consider if your website is one which makes it easy for your potential customers to find the information they need. Essentially, it should be working to transition your potential customer into an actual customer. But if your website isn’t easy to navigate, you go from having a potential customer to just lost potential.

 

Are your customers “checking out” at check out?

You’re customer is keen to buy what you’re selling… before they see your check out. A check out that is overly onerous to complete, can scare potential customers off, just when you had them across the line! Here are but a few simple ways to make your check out more friendly:

• Have an option to sign up for a membership BUT also have a guest purchase option. Not all customers want to go through the process of signing up for a membership to buy their item;
• Have a “same billing/shipping address as above” click option. Customers don’t want to have to write in their address twice if they don’t have to.
• Have multiple payment possibilities: Have PayPal, but also consider old-fashioned credit card entry options too.

Essentially, you want to make it AS EASY AS POSSIBLE for people to complete their purchase. If you’re not sure how easy your website’s process is, again consider asking your honest friend to have a go or ask a professional. It may also be worth comparing your process to a few similar websites.

 

How fast does your website load?

The days of the dialup are over. People just aren’t willing to wait long for a website to load, so having a slow website can directly impact on your business’ success. At the risk of stating the obvious - make sure yours is loading fast. If it isn’t, there are potential tests you can run to find out why (hop on YouTube, they have a few videos on how to run such tests). However, if like most business owners you are time poor, it’s worth hiring a professional – as the slowness could be caused by a multitude of reasons (such as a slow server, database issues, etc) and they are substantially better at figuring out why.

 

Does it look good everywhere?

Your website should look good and be easy to use across multiple devices. When you look at your website on your mobile, it shouldn’t just look like a miniaturised version of how your website appears on your desktop. You know the ones I am talking about! When it is so small that it’s barely legible and clicking on menus makes it near impossible because no ones fingers are that tiny!

What should it be doing? Well, your website should have its own “version” for mobile phones and other devices. The best way to check your website is doing this is to check how it appears on multiple mediums.

 

In summary, UX is all about being as user friendly as possible. Your website can be as pretty as a picture, but if people cannot figure out how to use it with ease, you are going to lose customers. 

Now we have reached the end of our Wednesday Website Wellness Series. Thank you for sticking around! We hope that you’re website is now looking schmick and operating at peak efficiency. If it isn’t, give our specialist team at By Ninja a call to see how we help optimise your website.