COVID-19 practically changed how businesses operate within the closely-knit virtual corporate ecosystems, where people are more inclined to use the internet to find, research, and purchase products and services.
With the economy making an encouraging comeback post-pandemic, the competition in bigger cities like Denver is becoming more fierce, demanding businesses to make a strong digital entrance into the digital economy.
For many businesses in Denver, a digital-first strategy and strong cyber posture have become a non-negotiable part of the business to increase customer reach, skyrocket sales, and stand out from competitors in Denver’s saturated local market.
This is where an enticing and user-friendly website comes into the spotlight.
Your business website is like a round-the-clock sales staff who passionately represent your brand to the customers and ensure they have an exceptional experience of your virtual storefront.
Similar to how a skilled salesperson relies on strong interpersonal skills to engage customers, websites, too, must incorporate essential elements to deliver a remarkable user experience.
These elements will keep users glued to the storefront for longer and motivate them to purchase or take any desired action.
If you have a lackluster website, here’re five ways you can improve it to enhance user experience and stay ahead of the curve:
1. Call in the Experts to Redesign Your Website
If your website is not gaining enough visibility in search engines or fails to keep visitors engaged, its uninspiring design and lack of enticing content may be the culprit.
Instead of making imprecise changes to the website, we recommend hiring a Denver web development company that can help you create a user-centric design for your business website.
Web development companies stay up-to-date with the latest website design trends and user experience metrics. From designing responsive websites to minimizing page loading speeds and incorporating accessibility, ease-of-use, visual appeal, and interactive elements, web development experts can turn your website from ordinary to extraordinary and improve its user experience.
Their expertise and dedication to excellence will help you create a compelling website that captivates visitors, drives conversions, and sets your brand apart in Denver’s saturated digital marketplace.
2. Expedite Website Loading Speed
Internet users find it frustrating to wait for a website to load on their browsers for prolonged periods. People expect to see instant results while browsing online through their smartphones, mobile devices, and laptops.
On average, a website user waits only between three to five minutes for the landing page to load before they exit the website, which means your website should ideally load sooner than this fraction of time.
A sluggish page loading disrupts and irritates a customer and may also prevent them from purchasing. Moreover, search engines like Google now gauge your website’s performance through three core web vitals and push you farther into the search results if your website’s performance metrics are low.
Fortunately, there’re many ways in which you can improve your website’s overall loading speed.
First things first, optimize all the graphics on your website by compressing images and videos and using the appropriate size and format. Avoid using inline JavaScript and CSS files or heavy JavaScript codes for client-side scripting.
Moreover, you can use content delivery networks to maximize loading speed, as these networks use servers closest to the requesting IP.
Moreover, you can also use G-zip encoding and lazy-loading techniques to speed up the page-loading process.
3. Fix Broken Links and 404 Errors
You don’t want to leave the visitors stranded in the middle of nowhere on your website. Encountering frustrating messages like “404 – Page Not Found” can deter your website users from revisiting the website.
Moreover, suppose your users frequently face 404 errors, dead-end pages, and slow or no loading. In that case, it reflects poorly on your website’s overall user experience and ultimately affects your visibility in search engines.
No matter how stunning your website layout or how fancy your menus and action buttons are, your efforts will go to waste if your website lacks proper redirection and smooth navigation.
If your target is maintaining a seamless and user-friendly website experience, check your website regularly for any broken links and 404 errors. Create a well-designed 404-page template and add necessary internal links to gracefully steer your users back to relevant sections of your website.
Another strategy to fix a 404 error is automatically redirecting the user to another page on your website while displaying the message so the user can acknowledge the mistake.
For example, if your product is no longer available, generate an appropriate response rather than showing a 404 error and redirect them to related product pages or home pages.
If you have a broken external link on your website, consider removing it or updating it to point to a relevant and working webpage.
4. Create a Responsive, Mobile-Friendly Website
There are over 6.8 billion active smartphone users worldwide, and 92.3% of them explore the internet using these devices. In such a mobile-first world, it’s essential to empower your users to access your website across all devices, platforms, and browsers, and we label such websites as responsive or mobile-friendly.
Responsive websites maintain visual integrity empowering users across all devices and screen sizes.
Ensure your website is fully responsive and maintains its stunning look and placement of both visual and textual elements on all screen sizes and orientations. Your web development company will create separate website versions for desktop and mobile users or leverage frames for a cohesive design.
This technique will help maintain the website’s visual integrity on all platforms and allow users to enjoy the same immersive experience on all screen sizes.
Moreover, the significance of responsiveness goes beyond just user convenience and experience.
Search Engine giants like Google and Bing have started penalizing websites that are not responsive or mobile-friendly, which may lead to decreased visibility in search results and negatively affect the overall user experience of your website.
5. Website Development Necessitates Accessibility for All
An inspiring and user-friendly website is an all-inclusive and accessible website. As you work through the webpages, make sure that every user, regardless of their abilities or disabilities, can access and use the content, explore menus, and easily navigate webpages.
An accessible website accommodates users with physical and mental challenges and limitations, such as visual impairment, hearing impairment, color blindness, cognitive limitations, light sensitivity, low vision, speech disability, and more.
For this purpose, incorporate accessibility features such as alternative text for all non-text elements on your page, such as images and videos. Use closed captions for videos, add alt text to images, and provide full transcripts for audio.
Final Thoughts
Developing an inspiring and user-friendly website isn’t just about aesthetics but rather about providing a memorable experience to users in terms of functionality, ease of use, and smooth navigation.
Regularly conduct thorough website scanning and testing to identify any design or functionality flaws and follow the above suggestions to improve your website’s overall experience.
Above all, build your website’s content around customers’ needs and expectations to win their hearts and minds and leave a lasting impression.
