Imagine entering a random site for the first time. You just follow a link and get to a landing page that loads forever. It takes forever to load, it’s not SSL encrypted, the design looks shabby, and you’re unsure where to go next.
- Would you feel comfortable continuing browsing?
- Is there a scenario in which you recommend this site or share the link yourself?
- Would you click on the site’s CTA, and what are the odds of giving them your credit card number?
A quality landing page is critical for providing a positive user experience and improving engagement with potential customers. By creating a landing page that is visually appealing, easy to navigate, and provides relevant and valuable information, businesses can capture the attention of visitors and encourage them to take action.
Poor user experience leads to suspicion and unwillingness to engage further. Whatever your initial objectives, you need to ensure that your site feels credible and that the users feel comfortable browsing it.
Don’t assume that every user will analyze all these design elements; they will feel if something’s off. This is why you need to emphasize enhancing their user experience more. Here are five ways you can do that.
1. Boosting loading speed-Experience For Better Engagement
People will only wait 7-9 seconds for your site to load. Afterward, they’ll leave, and they probably won’t look back. After all, with so many options online, whatever they’re interested in, they don’t have to get it from you. For them, it’s a minor setback and a huge loss.
However, failing to load is just one of your problems. If the site fails to load within the first two seconds, they might see it as slow. This will make them develop all sorts of mental images about the inefficiency of your website and make a huge problem for your brand down the line.
So, how do you boost the loading speed of your site?
A lot of it comes down to servers, so make sure that you check your hosting options before making commitments of any kind.
Optimizing images to make them smaller will make your landing page quicker to load. You could also cache some of this data. This will make the page load instantly on a return visit.
Keeping things simple is the way to go. You should start by reducing the number of HTTP requests. Even if you don’t do this, you want to audit your plug-ins and remove those you don’t; actively use.
Just make sure you don’t push it too far. Simple is not the same as inadequate. Smaller pictures are fine unless you completely ruin the quality of the image to get there. The same principle applies to almost all of these tips.
2. Working on the site’s technical SEO
There are so many reasons why great search engine optimization services can lead to a better user experience.
First, you must understand that user interaction with your site doesn’t start when they click the link. It starts way earlier. The easier they find you, the more they trust you. It’s not just that people hate scrolling down or going to a second page looking for results. It’s that they believe that there’s a reason why some pages are ranked first and why some have lower visibility. For the most part, they’re absolutely right.
A good thing about working on the technical SEO of your site is that many metrics coincide with some other items on this list. For instance, making your site faster, improving navigation, and making it mobile-friendly will help you rank better.
Another helpful part is great content formatting and optimization. You’ll make a difference by making your content more skimmable (fixing table of contents) and adding “estimated time to read” at the start of the article; you’ll increase the retention rate. These simple content management tips can help persuade people to stick around and actually read what you have to say.
As a result, you get a better user experience, and all your KPIs will move in the right direction.
Lastly, great SEO ensures that your site has a great metadata organization. This is why, regardless of browsing it manually or using tools, you’ll have an easier time navigating it. Speaking of which…
3. Better navigation- Experience For Better Engagement
One of the most confusing things, and one of the features that are bound to annoy your users the quickest, is counter-intuitive or non-intuitive navigation. There’s nothing more disheartening than not knowing where to click next or remembering how many clicks it takes to return to one of the pages you previously visited.
So, start by keeping your navigation as simple as possible. If you have a clear agenda, work on your CTA. You want people to subscribe, buy, or read more in a few clicks. According to one survey, having a single CTA can increase your CTR by 371%.
Dropdown menus can help you squeeze many options and produce them on demand. The reason it’s so efficient is that you don’t have to place them all on the page. People can access the menu and go through many options when needed. Then, they can move their mouse cursor an inch to either side and clear the view.
Breadcrumbs are the most efficient way of allowing people to backtrack on your site. They don’t have to return to the homepage to return to the category or one of the previous pages. They’re simple to implement and represent a huge quality-of-life upgrade.
To top it all off, you need to add a search bar. This way, you allow your audience to use their mouse or keyboard in their search. Remember, presenting an additional option is always positive, even if some of your audience members choose never to use it.
Also Read: Best 5 WordPress Mobile Plugins
4. Making your website mobile-friendly
According to the latest statistic, 58% of all internet traffic comes from mobile, and 92.3% of all internet users have mobile phones. Even today, when most internet users browse the web via their smartphone, some website owners forget to optimize their sites for mobile.
In 2023, people no longer expect your site to load slower on a mobile device. About 12% of users expect mobile layouts to be even more responsive. So, loading speed is the first thing you want to work on.
The next thing you need to acknowledge is the smaller screen sizes. This is relevant because it makes the page harder to read. You must be very careful when choosing fonts and font sizes.
Another element that contributes to readability is the amount of whitespace available. Whitespace is not just great for segmenting large chunks of text; it also helps with scrolling. After all, tapping on the empty field to zoom or scroll is easier. Otherwise, you risk clicking on the interactive element.
While all of this sounds complex, many mobile-friendly layouts and templates exist. You can simply pick one and customize it to fit your current needs. With the help of a mobile-friendly website builder, you’ll make your work substantially simpler.
Finally, remember that not all screen sizes are the same. Ideally, you would test your site on multiple devices (including tablets) before launching it.
Also Read: 6 Effective Steps To Sell Online Courses
5. Integration of social proof-Experience For Better Engagement
People don’t want to spend too much time checking your reputation online. Sure, if they have to, they’ll go through volumes and volumes of reviews and comments (these can actually be entertaining), but why not just skip right to the matter at hand? By offering social proof on your own, you’ll give them what they’re looking for in the most straightforward manner possible.
First, you want to appeal to authority. Add some certificates to your homepage. If there are any honorary badges that you can add, this won’t take too much of your time, and it will make a much stronger case in your favor.
Press mentions should also go with these badges and certificates. Standard practice is that they should be included at the top or bottom of the page.
Reviews and customer testimonials come next. It’s a lot easier for people to trust you if they can find a story they find relatable (written by someone they find relatable). Ordinary users like them will seem more trustworthy than professional reviewers, marketers, and content writers.
If there’s a case study related to your product, services, or industry, you should promote it. Again, by linking towards it, you will gain some SEO boons and eliminate your users’ need to look for them independently. This way, you’re being extra handy.
You also want to promote endorsements. This way, you’re tying your organization’s credibility to that of other brands and individuals.
Lastly, you shouldn’t ignore all the good feedback from your social media feed. Every single asset needs to be used to your benefit.
Experience For Better Engagement-Wrap up
Lastly, a better user experience works to everyone’s benefit. If customers feel safe interacting with your brand, they will be more willing to spend, spend more, and your SEO rank will grow. At the same time, you need to make a series of improvements to get there. You need to make your website faster, organize your content better, optimize your mobile experience, design perfect navigation, and add more social proof. This way, you’ll give people all they need in one place, and the idea of abandoning you to go to a competitor’s site would be redundant.
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