How to make sure the UX of your WordPress website is stellar
Photo by Hussam Abd on Unsplash
We are no strangers to a bad user experience, are we? At some point, we all struggled on the web to find the information we need or buy a product we were interested in.
That’s what your WordPress site does, regardless of the content you post – it creates both good and bad user impressions. The culprit, as suspected, is you. It all comes down to how you’ve executed and optimized your WP website UX.
But worry not – UX optimization is difficult even for experienced users. As a newbie, there is little you can contribute to making a website more usable. Plus, WordPress is a very robust CMS, and it can for sure help you improve and manage your UX.
What does UX stand for?
In short, user experience. It is an umbrella term for all viewpoints and emotions a user experiences when dealing with your website. Therefore, there are many aspects of a UX that need to be considered, such as emotive, observational, pragmatic, and so on.
User experience is also a technique used to make a website beautiful and usable at the same time. The better it is, the most popular the website will be, and the more delighted customers will be.
Here are some useful tips to consider for a more effective and attractive US:
Less is more, in particular when it comes to design
Don’t get confused – a bad web design is not necessarily an ugly one. There are many astonishing websites with poor UX ratings. This is simply because functionality suffers in favor of aesthetics. While visitors do enjoy sites easy on the eye, they always give priority to function. Your one and the only question should be: Are my visitors confused?
Again, intriguing and unique designs may not be the sweet deal you think they are. The more complicated the website, the more usability issues it will cause, as it is not predictable enough. Users have been around long enough to build expectations, and everything they don’t know may annoy them. They are a click away from your competitors.
How do you keep things simple? In your WordPress visual editor, work with vector icons and here related simple geometric forms, rather than coming up with something no one has ever seen. Explain icons with text, and make sure information is easy to locate. As simple as that!
Position messages and CTAs in the right location
Regardless of the type of website you own, one thing is for sure – CTAs must be clear and well-positioned. You need to guide your users and drive their focus where you want them to be.
CTAs, for instance, need to pop up right away, on the landing page of every website, be it a service-oriented one, a mortgage website, or a consultant website. Make them as visible and impactful as possible.
Facilitate navigation
Think of it like this: Your visitor should not even think about navigation when on your website. Zero effort should be required on his or her end, regardless of whether he is searching for information or just scrolling randomly.
This is how most websites achieve this:
- Navigation bars (absolutely mandatory)
- Sidebars with categories
- Search boxes
- Archives
- Breadcrumbs
Define a starting point
Excluding posts that go hugely viral, one thing is certain for most websites. They rely considerably on their homepage, as this is where most traffic comes from. There are two reasons for that:
- The home page is a planned point of entry, and it relates to all other pages available on the website
- Most visitors tend to go back to the homepage, regardless of where they landed on the site
Therefore, homepages are where UX matters the most. This is your place to demonstrate how good your website is and what value it provides.
To do this, follow these tips:
Provide appealing content
Content can engage users in all possible ways, but two aspects matter the most:
- Typography and design
- Formatting
Optimize the speed
We are way past the times when slow websites could be excused. Speed is now the key to professional UX, given how short the attention span of an average visitor is. This may surprise you, but a single second of delay may drive visitors away and sink your SEO rankings. It goes without saying, but the visitors you lose this way may never come back.
Luckily, there is a way to examine and control your website speed. Google offers a great tool called Page Speed Insights. This tool not only measures but also grades performance on mobile and desktop devices. It will clearly show you which are the aspects that need the most improvements.
How does quality UX improve business performance?
True, UX is a huge investment in terms of effort, and sometimes even money. But it pays off.
For starters, you will be able to increase and maintain web traffic. As we mentioned, when it comes to website speed, every millisecond matters. Note that almost 50% of online audiences are used to pages that load in less than 2 seconds. If those criteria are not met, you’ll be dealing with bounce rates and negative reviews.
Thus, a good UX helps reduce bounce rates. Delighted by the speed and the easy navigation, users will spend more time on the website, and search for more content. You can only begin to imagine what this means for your conversion rates and your business.
Finally, you will be able to stand out from the crowd. Good UX leads to positive feedback, and you will soon have more visitors due to recommendations.
Conclusion
The most important takeaway from this post is that UX is built and optimized with users in mind. You need to consider what they want, how they feel, and how much experience they have. Also, UX is not something you create once and then forget about it. It requires optimization and improvements in the long run.
