The Importance of User Experience (UX) for Your Website

Is your website a lead-generation machine? 

Does it satisfy your business base? 

Is it of the highest standard and quality?

There are two big reasons why the answers to these questions matter:

1) You want to appeal to your customers. Having your visitors and customers engage in and consume your content means they stick around your site longer, which  produces higher odds of them converting to sales. 

2) You want Google to recognize your site as being high-quality and relevant. When your web visitors are engaged with your site, Google will pick up on those cues. This will then translate into a high ranking on their search engine, and as we all know, when a site ranks high on Google, it’s a formula for success.

So, how exactly does your business build a website that generates high-quality leads, satisfies your business base and exudes a standard of excellence within your industry?

UX, or the user experience. 

What is User Experience (UX)?

The technical way UX is defined is as a “person's emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service.” 

Because the user experience design of a website involves a healthy marriage of art and science, the definition can be subjective based on who you’re talking to. 

But for the sake of understanding why a well-balanced AND strategic user experience is so vital to a website, we want to streamline the definition.

So, how do we define the user experience?

We define it as a website that is quick to upload, responsive on mobile, and easy to access, understand, and navigate. Essentially, a great user experience means roadblocks for the audience are rare, site navigation is intuitive, and questions are easily answered through robust and authoritative content.

But now that we know what a user experience is, why does it matter for your website?

Let’s take a look. 

Speed and Efficiency

As technology continues to advance and improve, one critical component we’ve consistently seen is the manner in which individuals want their information: immediately. 

To take the idea of immediacy a step further, let’s think back on a time when you had a problem, or for example, a question about what digital alternatives to cold calling are being circulated in the industry in the present day.

You might use Google to search “Digital alternatives to cold calling” and have this blog pop up. 

Perfect! It seems to answer your question to a T!

But, if you were to click the link with excitement only to have to wait for the article to load, your enthusiasm quickly turns to frustration and chances are high you will leave the site only to hunt down a new article that you can dive into instantly.

We’ve all experienced the irritation that comes with slow website speeds. And although we can logically explain the who, what, when, where and why behind a lagging website, it’s the experience the user walks away with that matters. 

As the saying goes, time is money and people always want results yesterday. So, ensuring your website is fast will help capture the attention of new visitors, keep the eyes and attention of current customers, and elevate your website’s user experience.

ROI and Conversions

When you enhance the user experience, you’re able to maximize your marketing dollars (Hello, high ROI!) while also increasing conversions. It’s a serious win-win.

But don’t just take our word for it. Let’s break it down.

Placing your business’s focus on the user experience of your website allows you take advantage of opportunities you might otherwise miss. 

The big picture story your website should tell is how the visitor moves through the buyer’s journey using your site as a conduit from point A to point Sale. 

Your website should immediately empower a new visitor to explore your content and offerings and navigate your brand as seamlessly as possible, without unwanted moments of friction that will lead them to bounce and, perhaps, never return again. 

When you laser in on how to efficiently shorten the distance from lead to sale (omitting clutter, streamlining media, clarifying copy, etc), you are effectively capturing the attention of your target personas and raising the odds of converting these individuals to sales. 

Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty

Your website should engage and delight your ideal audience by presenting answers and solutions to the questions they have in an easily digestible and intuitive format. 

When your website can achieve these metrics of success, your business creates a high level of customer satisfaction. And when customers are happy with their overall experience, they will stay with your brand for the long haul, speak positively about your offerings, and refer their network of like-minded individuals to you, therefore organically building your business base.

Having a website where the user experience is of the highest caliber means the business generated is guaranteed to please as well. 

Don’t let opportunities for growth fall through the cracks.