Get it right and you can soar above high bounce rates and disappointed customers! Get it wrong? Prepare for a crash landing… Here are some of our top tips for making your customer experience reach new heights. 

Speed

There’s nothing more frustrating than waiting for a website page to load – and your customers will certainly agree. For each additional second it takes for your website to load, the more customers that are likely to drop off and find a faster route. According to research by Google, when page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, the likelihood of a bounce increases by 32%. Ouch! Want our expert advice? Optimize your images. They contribute the most in downloading webpage assets and — by reducing the file size as much as possible without losing quality —  you can watch your website finally take-off without turbulence!

Ensure easy navigation

Well-designed navigation can make the difference between a visitor spending three seconds on your website or three minutes. If the journey a customer takes around your website is too complex, or poorly designed with too many stops along the way, they’ll quickly be put off and may decide to visit a new destination... Need some tips on how to improve your webpages’ piloting? Don’t worry, we’ve got you!

• Visitors are usually there for a purpose, whether it’s finding information on your product or service, or to read your content and case studies. Therefore, position the navigation bar where users would expect to see it (typically at the top and bottom of a page), make sure your menu is easy to read and any drop-down menus work successfully
• Ensure CTAs are on all of your website’s pages, so that visitors at any stage of their buyer’s journey can take action and move through the sales funnel. Calls to action should be product-based with clear and direct messaging, such as ‘Shop Now’, ‘Buy Now’, or ’Contact Us’.
• 2% of all website trafficis generated from mobile phones, so if your website isn’t optimised for this format, you could be cutting your potential customers in half. A mobile optimised site ensures all visitors are able to access your site in whatever way is most convenient for them.

Visitor journey mapping

For each customer journey, you want to provide the best path that delivers them from A to B with the fewest obstacles possible — regardless of what page they’ve arrived on. They should be able to locate the page they need quickly, navigate to it with just a few clicks, and complete their task.

How? It’s pretty simple, actually…

Test the journey yourself. Pretend to be the customer with a specific goal and take your own trip from the entry point they’ll be coming through. By doing this, you can quickly see how easy it is to find the key elements on the landing page that take you to the next step along the way. Are they clearly visible? Does the descriptive text explain them well enough? And can you easily engage with them? Depending on the answers to those questions, you can change your mapping accordingly.

Structure the content for different personality types/needs

Everyone is different. Some of your visitors will be drawn to how your website looks visually, while others are all about the details. As a result, it's crucial that you provide for both in balance if you want to keep your website on course. Structure and navigation will be your best friends here, giving you the chance to show-off the scenery (or get a little more grounded!)

Make contact details clearly visible

No matter how ideal it would be, the passenger doesn’t fly the plane — so don’t make it hard for your customers to find out how to contact you! What if you convert them on the third page they visit; they're ready to pick up the phone and your number is nowhere to be seen? They won’t want to leave the page to get this information – and it might just cost you the full package as a result.

Want our specialist advice? Broadcast the key details such as a phone number, email address or social media details on each webpage in a clear location to ensure you are offering all the information they require so they can easily contact you – wherever their journey takes them!

Your website is one of your brands’ most important digital marketing strategies, so always aim for the sky! By providing a great user experience for your visitors, not only can you increase the chance of new conversions, but you are making your end users’ lives easier. If you would like any further advice about creating and designing a website that delivers new heights for user experience, we’d love to hear from you .

Based in Kent, Eonic offers digital strategy, web design and development, marketing and hosting support to businesses across Tunbridge Wells, Kent, Sussex, Surrey and Greater London.