8 Seconds
That’s the average attention span of a person (and a goldfish, in case you’re wondering).
8 seconds is all the time your website has to generate enough interest to gain a new customer. This is why it’s essential for companies to provide a positive online experience for their customers.
A user-friendly website ensures that each visitor to your website has an easy, effortless, and pleasant experience. But what are the aspects of a website that make it more likely to generate new business?
A user-friendly website involves a combination of readability, navigation, mobile-optimization, and load time — all of which enable a user to quickly and efficiently navigate the site.
Readability Matters
Readability is synonymous with “skim-ability.” A user should be able to quickly skim for keywords and phrases to locate useful information.
Here are some tips to enhance your website’s skim-ability:
- Divide paragraphs liberally to create more separation between thoughts
- Make your navigation panel easy to access and clearly organized
- Use visual elements and colors to differentiate between sections of information
- Separate sections with clear headers that accurately describe section content
- Use dynamic media like photos, videos, and audio clips to engage visitors
- Choose an easy-to-read web-friendly font so your content is legible on any device
Think Mobile-Friendly
Another key element of user-friendly website design is mobile optimization. Now more than ever, users are interacting with websites through their mobile devices. In fact, Google says that 61% of users are unlikely to return to a site if they had trouble accessing it through mobile, with 40% actually leaving to visit a competitor’s site instead. In fact, Google now indexes and ranks all websites based exclusively on the mobile version. This means that having a website that is not mobile-friendly will negatively affect your SEO and search engine visibility.
With all of this in mind, mobile optimization should be a requirement during your website’s design phase, and as you continually optimize and adapt to remain relevant to customers.
Load Time is Key
Page speed is the amount of time it takes for a website’s components to load, and it’s a giant factor in the overall user-friendly website experience. Typically, you should aim for a load speed of no more than 2 to 3 seconds. Anything beyond that can drive users away from the site — and that’s not even the worst of it.
Poor load times can also have a serious negative impact on your website’s SEO. Search engines have started considering page speed as a ranking factor when indexing pages. In fact, Chrome began in late 2019 to identify slow loading sites and pointing it out to users so they can be aware that it is not a browser issue. This is not ideal if you are trying to create an appealing user experience for your visitors.
Bad user experience can ultimately be crippling to your business’s website — both online and off. In fact, 57% of users say they will not recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site.
So make sure to put your best foot forward with your web experience. After all, your website is recognized as a reflection of your business itself.
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