Have you ever wondered whether your website is providing a good enough experience to visitors?
Websites that do not offer relevant content to their visitors or provide them with an unpleasant experience (due to ads, pop-ups, loud music, etc.) will often find that they get fewer revisits, as visitors will prefer not to come back to such sites. If you really want to retain visitors on your website for a long period of time and maybe even encourage them to make a few purchases, then your website needs to rank high on user experience (UX).
Here are ten steps that will help you measure your website’s overall user experience so that you can identify and improve those areas of your site that your users do not find favorable.
1. Check bounce rates
The bounce rate of your site refers to the number of visitors who enter your website but leave after a very short session. If the bounce rate of your website is high, it means that a lot of people are leaving your site within the first a few seconds of landing on your homepage. You can easily get details of your bounce rate data from Google Analytics.
2. Analyze click-through rates
Click-through rates can show you how many visitors have actually viewed the ads or promotions posted on your website. If you have a high click-through rate on any of the ads or promotional links on your website, then it means that your website users have found the information or offer in the ad relevant to what they were looking for.
3. Cross-check your website/landing page design
According to SoDA (Source: SlideShare), 77% of agencies believe that poor website UX is a weakness for their clients. No visitor would want to stay on a website that is poorly designed or difficult to navigate. So if you feel that your website is outdated, then it’s about time you switched to a newer, more responsive website design.
4. Reduce page load time
Did you know that even a one-second delay in page response can result in a 7% decrease in conversions (Source: Kissmetrics)? If your website takes time to load, you cannot expect your users to wait for it no matter how valuable your content might be. Reduce your page load time to ensure that you do not lose any more visitors.
5. Check the number of return visitors
Another way to understand and measure the user experience level of your website is to monitor the number of return visitors you get. When you see a high number of users returning to your site at regular intervals, it means that you are doing something right with your website. These return visitors could also end up being your potential customers.
6. Ensure content relevancy
Is the content you have provided on your website relevant to your visitors? Or is it failing to sustain users on your site for long? Keeping your website constantly updated with new and interesting information is essential to get more visitors. If they come back to your site and find the same old, irrelevant content and no fresh data, then they would stop visiting your site entirely.
7. Check cart abandonment rate
If you have an e-commerce website or are selling your products and services online, then you will be able to measure user experience through your cart abandonment rate as well. E-commerce site owners could use this method to understand why their website users abandon the items they have placed in their cart.
The reasons could be as simple as the payment gateway did not load or the user was looking for a better offer. Once these issues are rectified, you could improve your website UX and sales as well.
8. Check if a site contains too many unnecessary ads
Too many unnecessary or irrelevant ads and pop-ups are a huge annoyance to users. If they find such advertisements frequently popping up on your site, then it might discourage them from revisiting. Ensure you keep your site free from a clutter of ads, banners, and unwanted promotions.
9. Check average time spent on site
Monitoring the session rate of each of your website users could also be another good indicator of the overall UX of your website. When users spend a good couple of minutes on your site before moving on, then it is sure indicator that your website has succeeded in engaging them. This could help a lot in terms of getting more conversions.
10. Identify external links
Having way too many links to external websites could be one of the major reasons why your visitors are leaving your website. Check the number of external links that are currently present on your website and identify whether the sites are credible. Take care not to include any links to any suspicious sites as that could drastically reduce your website’s UX.
Is your website’s UX up to the mark?
In case you feel that your site’s UX could use some improvements, then we at 2WebDesign are here to help. Just drop us an email with your queries to [email protected]. Also, if you have any more information you would like to share with us on the topic of UX, be sure to let us know in the comments.
