7 Ways to Improve User Experience and Reduce Bounce Rate
User Experience is among the most important aspect of designing a website . This is made evident with how signals of user experience are considered ranking factors.
This really isn’t a surprise as a site that offers the commendable experience to its users lead to more satisfied users, and Google aims to make this the case and puts a site that is able to do this in the forefront of search results.
Other than improving site ranking, good user experience can also reduce your site’s bounce rate. Site abandonment is something you would like to avoid as this does not only harm your current potential since you lose possible opportunities, but high bounce rates further hurt your site’s future interaction because high bounce rates are further treated as a signal of bad user experience and can push your site down in search engine results page.
It is therefore important that you work on user experience to help boost your SEO initiatives, and to prevent losses due to the site abandonment.
The following are 7 ways on how you will be able to improve the UX of your site:
1. Provide a Better Overall User Experience
The first step for you take is to aim to provide a holistically better UX. It is best to look at the point of view that UX is the result of what you do with your site, so it is best for you to understand that every aspect of your site has a part to play on the quality of user experience that your site visitors will have.
2. Improve UX Design
With holistic UX in mind, you will then need to understand that you have the power to control UX by designing your site to provide a great user experience. Your site’s design has a huge role in the reception of your site, so you will need to make sure that your site is engineered to provide a great experience to your site visitors.
Design is not just about the visual appeal of your website, but also how each individual element of your site works as part of the whole. Make sure that all functions are delivered, and that this is coupled with great aesthetics.
The goal is to design a beautiful and working site that your audience will surely enjoy.
3. Optimize your Call to Action Placement
The placement of your CTA has a huge role to play in UX, and especially in preventing your users from abandoning your site. It is therefore crucial that you put something important in areas that you site visitors will see first and would grab their attention. Usually, what’s most effective is your CTA, as this is what you would want your customers to do anyway.
By showing it right where your site visitors just as they enter your site will allow you to grab their attention more effectively, luring them into your desired actions.
4. Ditch the “Above the Fold” Myth
While it has just been mentioned how important putting your CTA on top is, putting everything above the fold should not be done anymore. In the past, sites practice putting all content above the fold as it is believed that things that are not above the fold of the site will not be recognized.
Meanwhile, developments in technology and human behavior towards it will prove that users are now expected to scroll down so there is no point in cramping everything atop a virtual fold.
It is actually better if your site has enough white space so that it wouldn’t overwhelm your site visitors as compared to bombarding them with a huge pile of content in a small space.
Again, putting everything above the fold is just a myth
5. Work on your Funnel Conversion
The sales funnel refers to the customer journey from need recognition up until post-purchase evaluation. By being able to identify where your customers are right now, you will be able to properly make use of the appropriate strategy for your leads.
This would have been easy if you have the same type of customers all the time, but you are dealing with various types of customers, and you would need to track their progress in the sales funnel, and you will also need to know what kind of strategy would work on them, whichever stage they are on.
6. A/B Testing + Targeted Landing Pages
A combo strategy that you should practice is A/B Testing and making use of targeted landing pages.
A/B Testing is a step needed to make sure that you have the best version of the campaign you have in mind. Testing out your campaigns before full implementation will allow you to make changes that can improve your strategy.
Meanwhile, it is also a good idea to make use of personalized landing pages. You can come up with landing pages that are specific to the kind of audience, like in terms of location. Your website can detect the location of the user, and would return a tailored-fit landing page for him or for her.
7. Show your Credibility
Finally, it should be your mission to build on your audience’s trust. While that is not easy to do the first time you interact with a certain user, there are effective ways on how you can encourage trust such as by showing security measures you implement on your site to ensure that transacting with your site is not a bad idea, especially in consideration of all the cybercrime happening right now.
It is also a good idea to show reviews from actual buyers and users of your product offerings so that first-time buyers or users will feel more comfortable trying your products out.
Other ways to improve your credibility your site is by showcasing awards, certifications, and partners that your business has. By doing so, your site visitors would know that it is okay to trust your business more than others.
Final Word
User experience is a truly important aspect of your website so making sure that you work on it can help boost your business in general. But most importantly, the strategies enumerated above all aim to make your UX better so that you will have to enjoy its benefits, and limit any shortcoming.
