Be honest with us… How many seconds does it take for you to click away from a website that isn’t loading fast enough? Or has an ugly homepage? Or is hard to read because of the colours, fonts, or formatting?
It takes just 2.6 seconds for a user to decide whether they like or dislike a website based on its landing page.
That means you have to hook your audience as soon as they click on your website if you’re going to hold their attention for any length of time. If they don’t like what they see right away, they will gladly move on to the next company, AKA your competition.
And, we DON’T WANT THAT! Make sure your website is user-friendly and gives the best experience possible by following these tips:
1. Do whatever you can to improve your website speed.
A fast website is critical for a positive user experience. You can improve your website speed by optimizing images, reducing the number of HTTP requests, and enabling browser caching. You can also benefit from high-performance web hosting, which is customized to the site and the amount of traffic expected. You must also consider a managed hosting or content delivery network, which helps speed up the website both nationally and internationally as well.
2. Make sure your website is user-friendly
Always make sure to check your website on your laptop, mobile phone, and tablet. Customers may visit your site on multiple devices, so make sure your website works well on all of them.
The landing pages should give a complete understanding of the product and service you have in store. The content should be responsive and rescale to fit their device. You don’t want site visitors trying to zoom in to read your content. It needs to have big enough fonts, words that aren’t jumbled too close together, and colours that don’t blend if you squint at them making them unreadable.
Having alt text on your website is also very helpful for people who are visibly impaired. Not only do your alt tags make your website more accessible to those with impairments but, Google loves a site that tells its bots what every photo and link is about.
3. Showcase your professionalism so your customers trust your brand or service
Triple-check your grammar and spelling. Customers will feel like you’re incompetent if there are many spelling mistakes in your writing. Grammarly is a fantastic tool to use to make sure your grammar is appropriate to post. Having a friend, colleague, or family member with an eye for detail, read your content word-for-word will also help you catch misspelled words or text that is tough to read or understand.
You should also include any reviews, your brand logos or seals of certification to showcase yourself as a certified retailer, qualified professional or expert in your industry.
4. Measure your customer’s buying experience.
How do your customers complete the buying process? Do they go to a certain page on your website before clicking on “Book now” or “Buy Now”? Do they tend to click off your site at a certain homepage? Or load a ton of things into their shopping cart without actually buying them.
You need to start measuring your overall customer experience using analytics from your website. You also need to review your customers’ satisfaction, resolution of customer issues, and who your target audience is so you can fine-tune your sales funnels to attract the right buyers.
If you’re just getting started, outlining your customer’s buying journey hop on over to our resources pages and explore more articles to help you along in the process.
5. Use videos whenever possible
Video is the number one way to engage your audience (if it loads fast enough). Storytelling through video whether you’re showcasing your products, explaining all about your brand, or talking to customers about their experience is more engaging than expecting them to read a novel to get the gist.
AND, any videos you create can then be crossed-posted to your social media accounts as well. They aren’t just for your website.
6. Make sure the “Book Now” or “Buy Now” buttons are easy for your customers to find.
This one may seem obvious but it’s very common for these buttons to get buried in content or even for them to be off the viewable area on a mobile device. Having larger drop-down navigation boxes in your navigation bar across the top of your website will make it easier for your customers to skim through the content to find exactly what they are looking for.
Depending on the product or service that you sell your customer might spend a bit of time doing their research or scrolling through the content on your website. This is why it’s important to make sure your buttons are repeated throughout the page depending on how much information you have to present.
It’s also important to test the colours of your buttons as well. Some colours do in fact, perform better than others.
PRO TIP: Have a shopping cart that will keep their items in the cart after they have closed off your website. Why? Because it’s handy if they decide to come back later to purchase the products they selected. And, you can take it a step further by adding a tool to send them “you left this in your cart” type reminder emails to increase your conversion rates.
7. Speed up the buying process
Not everyone wants to spend time making an account on your website when they want to purchase, especially if they know it’s a one-time deal for them. Knowing this, you should allow a “guest checkout” option. You can always follow up with them later on through an email to ask them if they would like to make an account or sign up for a newsletter for promotions in the future.
NOTE: When you send out email reminders or follow-up emails make sure you personalize your emails so your customers feel more appreciated when you connect with them on a personal level.
8. Don’t beat around the bush, show your shipping costs and delivery time.
Provide alternative options when it comes to delivery times with prices that align with convenience. Some customers will only buy if they are expecting their package to arrive in a couple of days. Some customers just want the cheapest shipping options. If you’re shipping your products or if turnaround times can impact the cost of your products or services, try offering them a standard price, and a RUSH ORDER price. If they can save a few bucks by waiting a few more days, it might just be what gets you the sale over your competitors.
9. Create a website or revamp your existing site with 3SIXTY Marketing Solutions to increase your conversion rates.
Making changes to your own website can be a pain and not knowing your way around can lead to you wasting hours without making the gains you want. Let our expert team help get the job done swiftly and without hassle. Turning your website visitors into customers is what we do. Why? Because we know that more conversions mean more money in your pocket, and that’s the whole point, right? By implementing these tips yourself or with our team by your side, you can optimize your website for a better buying experience while improving customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Sign up for a free consultation today so we can go over your website page by page and show you how and where you could make a few small changes that will increase your sales and your bottom line.
