Page loading time

A crucial factor which will determine whether users will even make it to your site is your page loading time. The longer it is taking to direct your user to your website the less likely they are to sit and wait around for that to happen. This means that you need to ensure that all content present on the site is optimised and regularly updated. Ignoring this could leave you with some long-lasting consequences i.e. users that experience a prolonged delay entering your website may never try coming back.

Things that can help speed up you page loading time are:

• Optimising images
• Minifying code (Java Script & CSS)
• Deleting plug-ins that are no longer being used
• Updating your website regularly

DON’T UNDERESTIMATE
WHITE SPACE

Minimalism and simplicity is not industry specific and in fact has become much more trendy and versatile over the years. Not only does a minimalistic web design reduce your page loading time but it also means that the space on the site is less cluttered and easier to read, grabbing user attention.

People love content! They are not there just for the pretty pictures, they want to get to know you and what you have to say. Minimal websites remove distractions that could potentially prevent users from wanting to read your content as it may be getting lost in the design. It makes the website feel more modern and open with plenty of breathing space.

Simple websites offer more engagement with calls to action as they appear much more compelling. Headings and titles also give the impression of being much more clear and concise so users know exactly what they are looking at. In fact, text and titles that have white space around them increase user attention by 20% (HubSpot).

Calls to action & hyperlinks

Visual cues are one of the most effective tactics to prompt users to interact with your website. One of the best ways to encourage users to interact with your website is through using calls to actions (CTAs). These can be presented through attractive button designs which can consist of one or two words that make it easier for users to navigate through the website without needing them to locate it. CTAs need to feature trigger words that excite the user and encourage them to interact with it. Therefore when you are creating these CTAs you need to ensure that they are bold, attractive and provoke the user to click on it.

This follows on to using hyperlinks on your website. There are two main types of hyperlinks which are internal and external. Your internal links consist of URLs that direct users to a page of section that is present on your website. External links to refer to URLs that are not present on your website and instead take you to a different website. These are great to quickly direct users to the relevant sources and pages which also makes their experience much more simple and less time-consuming as the information is all linked to the relevant places.

Be Responsive & mobile friendly

As technology continues to change and innovate we need to ensure that our websites keep up with that and different devices to ensure that user experience is maintained at a sufficient level.

Recently it has become more apparent that there is a need for optimisation for mobile devices as Google has been seen penalising websites that are not responsive/mobile-friendly. Statistics from last year show that in 2019 52.2% of traffic was coming from mobile devices and this figure only continues to grow as the years go on (BroadBand Search). This means that it is most likely that the majority of your traffic is coming from users that are on mobile devices which highlights the importance of creating mobile-friendly websites.