When it comes to website design, user experience should be the focus. 
With the advent of WordPress and other content management systems (CMS), there has been an increase in do-it-yourself site options. But even professionally made sites can be difficult to navigate.
There is nothing wrong with a simple site that conveys your message. But a neglected or difficult website can make your business look unprofessional. If your site visitors cannot find the up-to-date information they need they will go elsewhere. You want your business to have a positive online presence that customers will return to and refer.
Here are a few areas to look at when reviewing your website for user experience.
Design
A site should be easy to navigate – make the layout simple, people expect quick results. Even if you have what they need if your customers cannot find it easily they will move on to another site.
Website content and navigation need to make sense to the visitor, not the person who designed the site.
Is your site responsive? A website must be accessible and load quickly on all sizes of devices.
It is a mobile world! According to SimilarWeb, mobile now drives 56% of all traffic.
Don’t over design. No one wants to be blasted with loud music when they land on your home page nor do they want to be required to download a flash player to watch your fancy logo animation.
Your site should reflect your business’ personality.
Adding video content that highlights your products or services is a good way to engage visitors.
Content
It is easy to think you will update your site regularly with blogs and company news but if the last blog post was a year ago then it is time to rethink your strategy. If you want to have updated content then have someone on your team dedicated to a regular schedule or consider outsourcing.
Web copy should be clean, neat and conversational. Watch for misspellings, bad grammar and buzzwords.
Keep it simple, don’t be pretentious.
Your content should be useful and informative.
Watch for old information and broken page links.
When visitors are spending time on your website, can find the information they need and are compelled to look at additional areas of the site then you can feel good about your design. Positive user experience is also good for search rankings as the search engines recognize organic traffic and how long visitors stay on a site. Good search engine rankings can lead to more visitors. See how important your online presence and user experience are? It all works together.
If you would like to discuss your website please contact us.
Check out this post on Website Improvements
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