According to Neilson Norman Group, users are likely to read 20% of the words on a page. You can have the best content in the world and still get unnoticed. The first few seconds a visitor spends on your website are crucial. Before they even get to your content, you need to make sure that you attract their interest right away.

A successful website must strike a balance between high-performing content and an amazing user experience. The last thing you want is to spend time creating amazing content for your blog or service pages only for it to be ignored due to navigation issues, poor functionality, design flaws, confusing layouts, or missed conversion opportunities. It doesn’t matter how beautiful your website is or how many features it has unless it is designed with the customer in mind.

Your website should prioritise your customers so as to ensure that you anticipate their goals. The goal of your website should then be to assist customers in achieving that goal.

So, how can you get started on improving your website?

Let’s focus on seven reasons why your website isn’t working as effectively as it could in 2022. If you can address these issues, your site will be greatly positioned for the rest of the year and into the future.

1. Map your customer journey 

User experience is one of the most common reasons for a website redesign — whether it’s because the website is cluttered, difficult to browse, or takes a long time to load. 

This is where customer journey mapping comes in handy. Have a thorough understanding of the customer’s decision-making process. This can range from the moment they become aware of an opportunity or a pain point to the moment they decide to make a purchase.

Customer journey mapping helps in the creation of content that guides potential customers through the conversion funnel.

Develop a plan on how users navigate between pages and sections of the website. Make sure you apply web design principles that work.

2. Improve your site speed

One of the most common reasons for users to abandon a website is because it takes too long to load. Page speed has become such an important component of a positive user experience which is why Google now includes load time in its search engine rankings. Making sure that a website loads quickly is one of the simplest and easiest strategies to get more clients and increase conversion rates. This is only possible when a website is built with speed and efficiency in mind. 

There are a variety of strategies you can take to improve the speed of your website, including linking to or compressing huge files, deleting any unnecessary pieces of code, or having your website load as users scroll. Google’s PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest and Website Speed Test by Pingdom are some of the great tools to measure and track your website’s speed and performance. Make sure that you hire a web development service so that they can help you get fast and efficient website speeds.

3. Keep your site secure

Have you recently changed your login passwords? Do you have any plugin or theme updates that need to be installed? Small details like this often go unnoticed by most business owners, yet they might compromise the security of your website. From viruses and malware to malicious apps and hackers’ threats, websites must prevent security breaches on both the front ends and back ends. 

To protect customer information, websites designed to make online transactions, such as ecommerce sites, require additional security measures. Users want to know that when they make a purchase on your website, it’s safe and secure, and that their credit card information isn’t sent over an open connection and made public. SSL is vital to search engines, and sites that do not have it enabled may be penalised. Businesses must also conduct regular security checks or work with a company that offers this service. 

4. Use responsive design 

Since many people will use your website from both a desktop and a mobile device, it’s critical that you build it using responsive design principles. This means that your site should adjust to different screen widths while still allowing you to access all of the key data and graphics. When using a responsive layout, make sure it keeps the same look and feel as the desktop version, regardless of the device being utilised.

Although the layout of the site will invariably change on mobile from the desktop version, only minor changes will be required, such as the maximum width of the page and the size of the photos and logos. In addition, if possible, the colour palette and typefaces should have a unified approach to it. Any significant differences between the desktop and mobile versions will just add to the user’s confusion when accessing the site on different devices. Other elements, such as increased visibility for essential icons like the shopping cart, can help mobile consumers navigate your site more easily. 

5. Promote through social media 

Social media pages are an amazing strategy to promote your content and drive traffic to your website. Social media networks with millions of monthly users such as Instagram, Youtube and Twitter, might be an amazing way to promote your website online. From the list, Facebook is the most popular social media platform because it has the most active members.

Share posts online and use keywords in doing so. You can ensure that your posts reach the right people in a variety of ways, one of which is by using hashtags. Most users use hashtags on social media platforms to help other users interested in related topics find their posts online.

Another great strategy to do is to include quotes from other online businesses that are similar to yours in your posts. This will improve your chances of not just being discovered, but also having your posts shared on their profiles.

6. Write meaningful content 

It’s not enough to simply post content. You also need to develop content that is meaningful and cuts through the noise. In reality, one of the most effective strategies to increase website traffic is to provide relevant and meaningful content. Users can find this type of content for free by conducting a keyword search. It can be found on your website’s blog, knowledge base or resource page. 

Basically, web traffic should increase if you care about the content you create, upload often, and research what your audience wants to see. Your blog posts should use commonly searched keywords, phrases and questions. Then, include high-search-volume keywords in your header, text, URL, and meta description to optimise blog entries for SEO. Once you’ve ranked on the first page of the search engines, a single blog post might generate hundreds, if not thousands, of clicks every month. After all, the top five organic results make up 67.60% of the total clicks on the first page alone. 

7. Use call to action

Do you have effective calls-to-action on your website to convert visitors into customers? A lack of a clear call to action is one of the most common web development flaws. Things like “sign up,” “contact us,” “watch video,” “shop now,” and other similar phrases are critical for moving potential buyers further down the purchase funnel. Your call-to-actions should be visible, appealing, and persuasive enough to persuade readers to do the requested action.

CTAs will encourage users to take a favourable action towards your business. Getting visitors to visit your site is great, but it doesn’t mean anything if they leave without taking any action.

Conclusion

When it comes to your website, keep in mind that there is no such thing as a single, one-off design. It requires regular maintenance and updates.

It is, in reality, the backbone of your business. And before you know it, a superb website redesign could be just what you need to take your business to the next level. Also, don’t forget to assess your site’s success with a reliable web development team.

If the idea of revamping your website has you feeling overwhelmed, seek out a web development agency that can run redesign tests and establish pinpoints. Creativ Digital’s team is here to assist you. We can help you with every step of the way. From the initial phases of brainstorming to design, launch and maintenance, our expert team has you covered. Get in touch with our Sydney team today to get you started.

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