Your business website is, for many customers, the main point of contact between themselves and your company. That said, it needs to be easy to understand as well as navigate.
On the contrary, a poorly designed website can have the exact opposite effect on your customers. It can cause confusion and frustration, which could eventually lead to a potentially interested customer, turning to one of your competitors in only a matter of moments.
Regardless of the business sector you belong to, it’s vital to set up your website the right way and offer good UX (user experience) to immediately engage both your existing customers and potential clients who come across your site.
To ensure your business website offers the best UX possible to your target market, here are 6 features your site should have:
Readability
Your website needs to have clear, concise copy that readers find engaging. Don’t be temped to overwrite your copy since long paragraphs can quickly bore potential clients when all that they are really after are the basic facts. Copy needs to be direct, relevant and interesting. Remember, visitors don’t want to have to work their way through your website, they simply need to get the facts as quickly as possible. Some, if not most, people who search the Web have short attention span. In a matter of seconds, they can hit the exit button and look somewhere else. The key here is to come up with a killer title and well-written content.
Loading Times
Website loading times are utterly important. According to recent surveys, at least 40% of users will abandon a search if the site takes more than 3 seconds to load. If your website is slow to load, you can speed it up by either caching to compress data or changing to a hosting service that offers faster load times.
Responsive Design
More and more people are using their tablets or smart phones to access the Internet. This, of course, means that many of your customers are using small screens to view your website. If you only have a standard PC orientated website, you should definitely invest in a responsive design platform that automatically rescales itself to suit smaller mobile device screens. Without responsive design, many of your customers may struggle to navigate your website.
Reliability
Customers expect a high level of reliability from business websites. If your site should fail to load during busy periods or have general slow loading times, you may find yourself losing customers to some of your competitors. To avoid this, invest in a high quality hosting service that offers both reliability and fast load times. Don’t be tempted to use budget-hosting services as this will ultimately lead to you losing valuable customers.
Navigation
Your business website needs to be easy to navigate and intuitive. This will lead to a much higher level of user experience, that is, customers will stay on your website longer. Increased interest and longer onsite visits will, of course, lead to higher levels of sales and service interest. Don’t clutter your site, but instead, leave plenty of back and forward buttons along with a clear and easy- to-use main menu bar.
Spelling and Grammar
Make sure the content on your website is grammatically correct, without spelling mistakes. Poor grammar and typographical errors will almost certainly give a bad first impression of your business to new customers. All it takes is just a little time to run over any new copy you may have hosted on your platform.
Ensuring your business website has these feautres will offer a high level of UX to your customers. Remember, your customers want to browse through your site at their leisure and not as a chore to get the information they look for.
Guest article written by: Josh Weaver is a freelance content writer and digital marketing specialist working for FelineSoft, an established software and website development house in Bristol and London. He also loves reading and writing about the latest technological updates when he isn’t busy doing DIY projects at home. He has worked with clients in finance and industrial industries on content and social media strategies.