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Are you looking to improve user experience for your customers? If so, check out this guide to learn how to improve user experience.
Today’s internet plays host to 1.7 billion websites and 4.5 billion internet users. By that standard, every website is entitled to about 2 visitors…
Unless you’re selling products that retail for hundreds of thousands of dollars, 2 visitors to your website aren’t going to cut it. To increase your “fair share” of web traffic, you have to optimize your website to make it more useful to online consumers than competing websites.
That optimization process is called improving user experience.
Companies invest thousands of dollars to improve user experience on their web products every year. Save yourself that money and instead, follow these simple tips to achieve the same result.
1. Understand the Power of Blank Space
In today’s media landscape, people are inundated with information. You’ve got hundreds of thousands of new web pages landing online every day and millions of hours of video content being published on YouTube and competing video platforms. This inundation of information has led to people wanting to scan content rather than going through it with a fine-tooth comb.
Blank space (or white space) on websites break up text enough that users can scan successfully. This is in contrast to websites that try to fill in any white space with information, images or ads.
Websites that fill in all available space come off as endless blocks of content and intimidate many to the point that they quickly hit the back button on their web browser.
2. Speed Your Site Up
Today’s consumer has very little patience for slow websites. There are just too many fast sites out there for people to waste their time with one that’s going to take 5+ seconds to load.
While you might not think that asking users to wait 5-seconds to access your content is a big deal, data says otherwise. On average, a website that takes 5-seconds or longer to load sees 20% higher bounce rates than sites that load up in under 4-seconds.
To improve user experience on this front, use speed checking tools like Google’s Page Speed analyzer.
3. Learn How to Write for the Web
If you’re using the research paper skills that you picked up in college to craft your web content, there’s no way that your site is getting traction right now. Writing for the web is an art and learning what that art embodies is paramount to making sure that you don’t negatively violate your online visitor’s expectations.
The subject of web-writing is too extensive to cover off in our post but a few things to make sure that your writing implements are:
- Headings that break up your text’s sections
- Short paragraphs (between 1 to 3 sentences)
- Use bullet points to break out lists of information
- Effective titles for headings and sub-headings within your content
The Yahoo! Style Guide is a fabulous resource to take your web writing savvy further.
4. Get Visual
People process images tens of thousands of times faster than they do text. Therefore, your improve user experience efforts should include taking the time to roll out images within your web content.
Be tasteful in your use of imagery online. While there’s no hard and fast rule, some usability experts have stated that using a photo every 300 to 400 words is a good benchmark to shoot for.
5. Double Check Your Copy
Nothing crushes consumer confidence quite like spelling and grammar errors. While online readers will forgive the occasional typo, if your work is absolutely filled with problems, consumers are not going to engage with you.
Doing simple things like reading your copy out loud before publishing and checking it with free tools like Grammarly can do wonders when it comes to reducing text errors. You can also spell/grammar check your website with site-wide scanning tools that you can find online.
6. Use Helpful 404 Pages
When people navigate to a page on your website that doesn’t exist, they get redirected to a 404-error page. By default, this page will simply tell people that the page they’re trying to access doesn’t exist. As a user, that’s a dead-end that almost always leads to clicking away from a website.
To improve that outcome, you could design a 404 page that’s entertaining and suggests alternative pages that your searcher might enjoy.
A 404-error page refresh could reduce the number of people that click away from your site after inputting the wrong link and only takes a few minutes.
7. Make Your Website Mobile-Friendly
It’s 2019. If your website doesn’t have a responsive infrastructure and isn’t prepared for mobile then it can’t survive.
There’s no excuse today to not implement a mobile-friendly design. Just build your website on any popular content management system (WordPress, Joomla!, Squarespace, etc.) and any of those system’s templates will come pre-built to scale to any screen size that users are tuning in from.
8. Learn More About Your Customer
Knowing why it is that your customers come to your website should drive all of your improve user experience endeavors.
Do you cater to business to business clients? If you do, you’re going to want to learn everything that you can about B2B user experience principals.
Do you operate in the business to consumer space? Then you’re going to want to understand what makes B2C sites successful.
The better you can narrow down who your customer is and what they want from you, the better you can optimize your website to get your customers what they need, quickly.
Wrapping Up How to Improve User Experience
If you take the time to improve user experience on your website, you’ll see upticks in web traffic, page retention and sales. If that sounds good to you, leverage the tips that we just hit you with and enjoy your increased online traction!
For more killer business tips, check out additional free and informative content right here on our blog!
Website testing and tracking bugs is a full-time job for web development companies. Building and maintaining complex web applications requires a dedicated team of professionals. This is not an easy job. It requires a wide variety of skills. New devices and browsers make ensuring websites and applications are bug-free on every device harder and harder. Outsourcing is a great solution, but there are a lot of things to consider before choosing this route.
Why You Need Website Testing
A website has become an integral part of any business. And simply having a website is no longer adequate; it needs to be a good one. All websites can be improved and made to achieve more. Testing and quality assurance have many benefits. It leads to improved layouts that showcase relevant information. It can raise on-site conversion, clicks, sales, and visits. It eliminates underperforming or problematic elements such as bad links, buttons, ads, text, and code. It helps your website function at its best. Many times, your website is the first impression a client or customer has of your business. You want it to be a good experience.
This makes website testing vitally important. Automated monitor and performance testing makes sure your site is always available and responsive and notifies you of problems instantly. Manual scripted and exploratory testing on multiple browsers, devices, and screen sizes identify any experiential problems. Make your site even more user-friendly using A/B testing. The occurrence of bugs is increasing and can be costly. On top of making sure your site is running smoothly and is quick and easily accessible, you need to be testing for and tracking bugs.
Should You Outsource?
All of these tests require time and money. It is worth considering outsourcing to a website testing company. If you have a small team, you can task them with running tests. Ensuring high-quality website requires many skills. Members of your team need knowledge of web development, communication skills, and domain expertise at the very least.
The value to your company of outsourcing equals the benefits minus the costs. Some costs might include contracts, process changes, and communication. When making these decisions, involve everyone in your company that might be affected by your decision: developers, designers, project managers, etc.
It is assumed that outsourcing will speed things up. This is not necessarily the case. Most outsourcers are half as effective in the first few months and take up to a year to reach maximum effectiveness. It takes web testing companies time to learn what works best for your business.
There are many benefits as well. Companies like QAwerk have teams of professionals with years of experience. They ensure usability, security, user-friendly design, and functionality. You are paying professionals to perform a specific task. You get a fresh set of eyes on your website. Outsourcing alleviates pressure from your team and gives you the peace of mind that all checks have been carried out and documented. A high-quality website generates better results for you and your customers and clients.
Elements to Consider When Outsourcing
- Service Level Agreements – These describe in detail the level of service a vendor will provide. Some types of SLAs might include client satisfaction, volume of work, on-time delivery, effectiveness, availability, and sensitivity.
- Mobilization – After signing the contract, there is a period of mobilization. During this time, certain elements are organized: people, knowledge acquisition, infrastructure, and processes.
- Communication – The ability to communicate seamlessly with your outsourcing partner is important. Make sure open channels and effective points of contact are maintained. An effective communication model includes issue resolution, escalation, and reporting.
- Quality – The point of outsourcing is to improve the quality of your website significantly. The testing company that you choose should assess testing capabilities, identify gaps in test processes, and implement positive changes.
When it comes to your website, quality assurance is important. When a potential customer travels to your site, you want the experience to be flawless. This requires testing and bug tracking. It is possible to maintain your site with an in-house team, but it is not always the best scenario. Outsourcing might be your best option. It is important to consider the benefits versus the costs to determine the value derived from such a decision. There are many benefits to partnering with a company that specializes in web application testing and quality assurance for websites. Their team of professionals may have the capabilities to improve your website in ways your current staff is incapable of accomplishing.
If you provide products and services online, you certainly need a website. No buts. No Ifs. Not to have one is business suicide. And you also need the latest gadgets iPad, iPhone, Android phone, laptop, etc. to reinforce the website you will create.
By reading this article, you come closer to your goal of success online. Yes, you are! Many people are still confused about what a website can do to their business. But of course not you.
What do you need to do now?
Now that you are aware of your need for a website allocate a few hours to create a remarkable website for your business. Be assured; the next few hours would be fascinating and fun for you as you start building a showcase for your products and services online.
What will you accomplish?
After reading this article, you have done the following:
- Made a website design.
- Enhance a highly compelling website that generates potential customers and convinces them to rally behind your website promotion.
- Create a remarkable and exclusive website, one that has a professional look and appealing.
- Publish the website for all to see.
What will you need?
- Passion and predilection to create a website for your business.
- Cool picture of you.
- Editing photo tools. All these software are for free plus some powerful website tools online for you: Photofunia, Picnik, Pixlr, FotoFlexer, and BeFunky. As you go on creating the website, you will learn how to utilize them.
- Hosting webs with the website builder. Take note, free website hosting is not stable and not secure, so it is not advisable to create it for your business. Choose one that has a reputation.
The advantage of website building is that expert computer designers take the fundamentals of web usage and web formats (consistency/fonts, etc.) care.
It will allow you so much time to design your website, and that is what draws and persuades customers to employ your services.
However, some newbies commit mistakes by using templates outside the box. Don’t do that! Your website is not a VA generic so why make your site a generic?
It is best if you customize your website and be entirely your own and you can make use of dummy-proof visuals and pdf orientation to implement this one.
There are two platforms in a website we can suggest, GoDaddy Domain and HostGator Website Hosting. HostGator feature includes Plesk Website Builder, and GoDaddy offers 5-page websites for free.
It comes with it an ad as a temporary setting-up. I recommend for you to purchase a paid account with an add free to have a professional look.
How to Plan Your Website?
Source:https://stocksnap.io/photo/RGRCNHCEYG
Failure to plan is a plan to fail. Ensure that you are much aware why you want to create a website before you begin. Have concrete information about your clients’ needs and what they want to gain in viewing your page.
The most significant goal is for you to convince them to support whatever design you will create on the web.
How to Create Your Website?
It is the exciting part! Whenever you’re ready, follow the 3-15 minutes tutorial on how you can create your website. No need for you to learn the HTML or CSS.
It will give you guidance how to convert your photo into an artistic artwork. You can download Pdf tutorials for your guide. At the end of the session, guaranteed, you have published your website, live!
Why Oh Why, Do You Need a Website?
You are not in need of a website if –
Can you engage in a VA business without an existing internet site? Of course, you can! But your potential development is limited. There are some situations where you don’t need a website. Try to analyze the situations below if you do not need a website.
You don’t need a website if:
- You just want the internet site for a hobby, not for a business to succeed.
- You just want to get along, and not distinguish yourself.
- You are contented with an endless cycle of search job-apply job-do the job-search job; you don’t need success.
If all of the above applies to you, then, yes you don’t need to build a website because you’ll be just wasting your time.
What Are The Five Big “Buts?”
Here are the five common fears about building a website and why they should not compel you.
- “I have no knowledge of HTML” It is alright. You don’t require an HTML to build a website of your own.
- “But it is so laborious.” Well, if you are employing the old school of website building, then, yes, it’s difficult. But with today’s technology where everything is like a click-and-play, it’s so easy to create one.
- “But I will spend much time” No, you will not! You will have one published and live in just a few minutes.
- “But I am not creative” No worries with that! There are now lots of free designs or applications online where you can transform a dull photo into an original art. Plus you can put all your notes and sketches on your notebooks and sketchpads.
- “But it is expensive” Website builders and hosting only cost a few dollars per month, a small investment compared to the potential profit and reputation you will generate from having a website of your own.
What Are The 4 Important Reasons In Creating a Website?
Source:https://stocksnap.io/photo/825303XHAE
The website that you will create is where you will build trust and confidence with your prospective customers. It is where you will start building an identity of your business and reputation as well.
And when all these elements are suitably enhanced, then this is where business transaction starts with your clients.
- To Build Trust. For you to obtain trust from a prospective client, you have to draw their attention initially. On work boards, it is not easy to implement as there are hundreds of bidders contesting for the attention of the client.
You have to convince the customer to visit your website and see the writings and portfolios you publish. The items that you display in your website will speak for you, and it will be a manifestation that the client can trust you.
- To Be Distinguished and Demand Higher Rate. Jobs on board (eLance, LimeExchange, Freelancer, oDesk), you are just one among hundreds of bidders. Competition is too tight, and your capacity to be different becomes dim because of the pressure of systems that job boards employ.
The only chance for you to be distinguished from competitors is to display your portfolio, writings, and articles on board your website for the client to see and analyze. They can easily assess the look of it and see that you’re different from the others. Most job boards and bid prices are consumer driven, so your offer of a higher or lower rate will depend on your clients.
However, flexibility is too weak as there are other VA’s who have access to them, and can quickly embrace drop-dead rates which you cannot contest. It’s better to drive the clients to your website so that you have much more control and price demand the moment they see all your portfolio.
- To Enhance and Develop Status of Expertise. It is a competition of perception online. The one equipped with competence draws an influx of clients. However, you might be the competent secretary or whatnot in this planet, but if you are not known to be such, there’s a probability that you end up bankrupt or broke because you do not have any client.
Nevertheless, those who can position right on time and build on the perception of their client needs will surely garner all the customers. And that is because they are the first to create a website and display a broad range of their products and services that suit the client’s needs.
- To have a 24/7 Marketing Mechanism. The website you create is your biggest asset, and good organizing and planning will funnel sales leads and transform them into paying customers, even while you’re sleeping.
Takeaway
Building an excellent website will pave the way to enhancing your business. It is easy to display all your products and services on your site, so you’ll just have to think of strategies for converting your visitors into customers.
If you have a website, it will cut down operational costs in your business because you don’t need to go door to door to make your product and services known.
By placing the right keywords in your web content, you can draw hundreds of viewers to your site. And to make sure the viewers will be attracted to your website, so they keep coming back, arrange the content of your site in such a way that when viewers read it, they will see all the things they are looking for as seamlessly as possible.
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