All businesses benefit from a good website. It provides you with online visibility, an expanded reach, and a tool to attract customers.
But how do you measure the quality of your website? What makes it good, and what makes it bad? For that, we need to look at the user experience (UX) and Search Engine Optimization.
In this article, you will learn the best practices for creating a successful website. That covers optimizing user experience and SEO. Continue reading and get started on your learning.
Improve Your Website Speed
Website speed is a factor that creates a significant impact on both SEO and user experience. The bounce rate and dwell time metrics can increase or decrease based on this factor alone. These metrics affect your ranking in search engine results.
To illustrate, a website visitor will leave your website if it is not done loading after 3 seconds. In that short amount of time, your website’s bounce rate has increased. Imagine many users also doing that. That will signal search engines to stop recommending your website.
Ensure Your Website is Secure
Almost everything is now connected thanks to the internet. The downside to that is cybercriminals can now access information more easily. As such, you should ensure your website is secure against cyberattacks. Your website visitors will also check this. They will not stay on websites where they become vulnerable to such threats.
Choosing a reliable website hosting service is a good starting point. If possible, choose dedicated hosts. It is more secure than shared hosting since your website is the only one on the server. For the same reason, it can also boost your website speed.
We understand that many stay away from it because of the higher costs. However, you can actually find affordable dedicated hosting services. You just need to look for sales and promotions.
Design a Mobile-Friendly Website
Most people use their smartphones to search for information on the internet. As such, Google uses a mobile-first approach. It will crawl and index the mobile version of your website first.
With that in mind, you should also have a mobile-first approach to web development. You should ensure that it loads fast on smartphones. Furthermore, the layout should be adaptive on smaller screens. All buttons must be visible without zooming out or panning, and no elements sold go on top of each other.
Create High-Quality Content
You should use keywords to attract website visitors. They help people interested in your services and products find your website more easily.
However, please note that you should not use just any high-ranking keyword you can find. Instead, you should select ones that are relevant to what you do. Then, create content around it instead of putting it in some random place on your website.
Why? Because, like website speed, content relevance can increase your bounce rate. If a user clicks on your website because of a keyword, they expect to find useful information about it. It is not a good user experience if that expectation is not met.
On the other hand, if the user finds your content informative, they will stay to finish the blog post or the video. That is good for dwell time, which affects your ranking in a positive way.
Improve User Experience Through Web Design
Besides designing a mobile-friendly website and improving the website speed, there are other things you can do to improve the user experience.
For instance, you should use visually appealing colors. As much as possible, choose ones associated with your brand. But do not go overboard. Utilizing white space is just as important. It improves focus and legibility.
Speaking of legibility, you should use headers and subheadings (H1, H2, H3, and so on). It makes your content easy to read for your website visitors. Not only that, but it also helps search engine crawlers understand your website more easily.
You should also use images and videos to elevate the visual appeal of your website. But again, limit the number of images and videos per page. Too many of these will slow down your website.
Check Your Website Architecture
The user interface can make or break the user experience. Suppose a user can easily find the information that they need. That makes them satisfied.
On the other hand, if they spend minutes looking for it with or without success, they will be frustrated. Visitors will leave your website once they get tired of it.
Yes, the time spent looking for the right buttons increases the dwell time. But what use would that be if there were no conversions?
That said, you should organize your buttons, links, and content in a way that is easy to understand. Put related buttons and links in drop-down menus to reduce clutter. Place them where one would expect them to be. With these, you can ensure your website will have an easy time navigating your website.
Make Your Website Accessible
Everyone should find your website easy to use. Thus, you should consider the needs of different people.
For example, you should use contrasting colors to make the text stand out against the background. That makes it easy for individuals with visual impairments to read your content. Likewise, you should add alt text, captions, and transcripts for images and videos.
On another note, do not auto-replay the videos. It may cause sensory overload in some people. Give them the liberty to choose whether to replay it again or not.
Your visitors must also be able to navigate your website using their keyboards only. That is because many assistive technologies are based on keyboard-only navigation.
Takeaway
Businesses must create websites that provide users with a positive user experience to actually benefit from it. Otherwise, website visitors will leave more quickly than they arrive. That will lead to no increase in profits but an increase in bounce rate. This will then negatively affect your website ranking.
You can adopt the best practices to ensure people who find your website will have a great user experience. That includes choosing dedicated hosting services and designing a mobile-friendly and accessible website.
Are you overwhelmed with the number of things to do? If you don’t have the manpower, time, or expertise, consider getting help from digital marketing agencies.
Companies like S & Y can optimize your website for you. With their expertise in both web design and SEO, you can expect positive results. Contact them today to identify how your website’s ranking can be improved.