3 Must-do tips to improve the performance and user experience of your website

Create a clear user experience (UX) 🥰

Prioritise user experience (UX) - who likes to be confused and go round in circles on a website? - Well, nobody 🤔

Here is a fact: the user experience (UX) is the cornerstone of a successful website. A well-designed UX ensures that visitors find your site easy to navigate, enjoyable to use and valuable. According to research from Forrester, a well-designed user interface can increase your website's conversion rate by up to 200%, and better UX design can increase conversion rates by up to 400%.

Now for the best part: how can anyone easily implement the key principles of UX?

• Consistency: Consistent design elements such as colours, fonts and button styles across all pages improve usability and create a cohesive brand image.
• Navigation: A clear and intuitive navigation structure helps users find the information they need quickly. Research by HubSpot found that 76% of consumers say the most important factor in a website's design is the ease with which they can find what they want.
• Responsive design: With over 50% of the world's web traffic coming from mobile devices, it's important to ensure that your website looks and performs well on all screen sizes.

Must-have list to optimise your website's performance 😯

The next important part is to optimise your website performance. It might sound a bit complicated at first, but I've been through it myself. I know how it feels, but give it some time and you'll get the hang of it.

There is no way I would leave this section without the numbers, so here we go: Website performance, particularly page load speed, is critical to retaining visitors and improving your site's search engine rankings. Google research shows that as page load time increases from 1 second to 5 seconds, the likelihood of a mobile site visitor bouncing increases by 90%.

Optimisation strategies:

• Image Optimisation: Compress images to reduce file size without compromising quality. Tools like TinyPNG or ImageOptim can help. Optimised images load faster, improving user experience and SEO. Also, add the fixed width and height :)
• Minimise HTTP requests: Reduce the number of elements on your page, such as scripts, images and CSS files, to speed up load times. This can be achieved by combining files or using techniques such as lazy loading.
• Use browser caching: Caching stores resource files in a visitor's browser, reducing load times on subsequent visits. This can significantly improve the user experience and reduce server load.
• Enable compression: Using compression methods such as Gzip can reduce the size of your HTML, CSS and JavaScript files, resulting in faster load times.

How to write effective meta titles and descriptions 🤩

Meta titles and descriptions play a crucial role in how your website appears in search engine results. They're often the first interaction a user has with your site, so it's important to get them right.

Best practices:

• Meta titles: Keep them to 50-60 characters to ensure they are fully displayed in search results. Include relevant keywords and make them compelling to encourage clicks. Moz research shows that optimised titles can lead to better rankings and higher click-through rates (Tool that can be of help to you).
• Meta descriptions: Aim for 150-160 characters that clearly summarise the page content and include a call to action. A well-written meta description can improve your click-through rate, even if your ranking position remains the same (Tool that can be of help to you).
• Use browser caching: Caching stores resource files in a visitor's browser, reducing load times on subsequent visits. This can significantly improve the user experience and reduce server load.
• Uniqueness: Each page should have a unique meta title and description to avoid duplication of content and confusion for search engines.

Summary 🧐

Improving your website doesn't have to be a complex task. By focusing on these three areas - improving the user experience, optimising site performance and refining meta elements - you can significantly increase your site's effectiveness and appeal. I hope you enjoyed this article, if you have any questions send me a message. I would be happy to discuss your current website improvement or new website development.