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In today’s highly digitalized world, a well-designed business website is an indispensable marketing tool for any organization. No matter the size of your business or the industry you’re part of, your website is likely to be one of the foremost platforms on which both new and returning clients can interact at length with your brand. Your website will allow them to explore your products and services, make purchases, learn more about your company, and contact you when they need to. As such, it’s in your organization’s best interest to ensure that your website provides an exceptional user experience (UX).
Recent statistics from the tech industry suggest that the success of a business website hinges on how its users interact with it. For example, 68 percent of internet users are likely to click away from sites that provide poor user experiences—i.e., sites that are difficult to navigate, sites that are not optimized for mobile devices, sites that are slow to load, and so on. Moreover, 44 percent of people who shop online are likely to tell a friend or acquaintance about a bad experience they’ve had on a company’s website. And yet, only 55 percent of companies across the globe are presently conducting tests on their websites to optimize their UX.
If there’s anything you can learn from the facts listed above, it’s that optimizing your website’s UX design is one of the smartest moves you can make. Even companies without an in-house web development department can get a leg up on their competitors by investing in web design services from reputable digital marketing firms. To make the case for UX optimization, here are some of the best things that the process will be able to do for your website:
UX optimization drives higher conversion rates
The aim of any business website is to convert casual browsers into new customers—and, subsequently, to convert new customers into returning customers. The most reliable way to make these conversions happen is to make your company’s website easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. Remember that users will want to find the information they’re looking for on your website in just a few clicks. Most users will also appreciate it if this information is laid out for them in a clear and visually appealing way, regardless of what device they’re using.
On the flip side, what does bad UX look like, and why does it lead visitors to stop browsing a website and go somewhere else instead? In essence, a bad user experience is one in which the user has an unnecessarily difficult or complicated time finding what they want. If a visitor has a hard time reading or navigating your website for any reason, they’re unlikely to stay on it for very long. Moreover, they’ll probably leave it with a poor impression of your brand, which means they probably won’t be back to make a purchase anytime soon.
Knowing the difference that good UX makes for your conversion rates, you’ll want to start the process as soon as you have a capable web designer at the helm of your project.
UX optimization boosts customer satisfaction
Optimizing UX on your website sends the message that your organization cares about how your customers feel when they interact with your brand online. Good UX communicates that you don’t want to waste users’ time and are instead committed to making sure that their visits to your website are as smooth, informative, and pleasant as possible. In return, satisfied customers will repay your investment in their experience by coming back for your products and services again and again.
If your customers are happy with you, they’ll also be more motivated to promote your company to their friends, family, and acquaintances. A well-designed website can make it easier and more enjoyable for your customers to advocate for you. Give customers more opportunities to interact with your brand by allowing them to rate your products or post reviews of their purchases on your website. Including links to your brand’s social media pages on your website will also give customers a clear idea of where else they can find you on the web, and they can then pass that information along to anyone they’d like to promote your brand to.
UX optimization cuts operational costs
Prioritizing UX optimization as early as the design stage will allow you to fine-tune any usability issues with your website before it goes live. This approach is much more cost-efficient than dealing with the same issues during the development stage or even after the website’s launch when you’ll probably have to pay steep redesign fees to address them. In his book Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach, Roger Pressman points out that site issues that cost USD 1 to fix during the design process will cost USD 10 once the website is in development—and as much as USD 100 to fix after the website has been released.
Another recent study emphasizes that, while investing in UX may seem like an intimidating move, particularly for small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), more often than not, UX optimization delivers exceptional return on investment (ROI). The same study claims that every dollar a company spends on UX design is likely to earn them back a hundred more.
UX optimization increases brand competitiveness
Lastly, good UX design can translate into good SEO rankings, as search engines prioritize websites that provide their users with favorable experiences. If your website’s visitors are coming back to it frequently, staying on it for a long time, and just generally interacting with it to a great extent, search engines will pick up on this behavior and make your site easier for other users to find. And the more visible your website is on Google and other similar platforms, the more likely users are to visit your web property over those of your competitors.
At the end of the day, poor UX design will hinder even the best products and services in the world from reaching a wide audience. Conversely, a well-designed website that’s been developed to deliver the best possible user experience can take a company’s offerings well beyond its original target market. Once you invest in good web design and focus on optimizing your UX, you’ll rapidly be able to spot the difference for yourself.
