Enhancing Your Website’s User Experience Using a Three-Step No Brainer Process

User experience is a rarely discussed topic a couple of years ago. It was all about links and rankings, and more links and higher rankings. Then Panda and Penguin were let out of their cages and everything changed. SEO companies often say “content is king” which boils down to giving your site visitors a richer and more meaningful experience when they go to your site and browse your webpages.

At this point, you might be wondering, what on earth is user experience? An SEO agency can give you all the technical details but in layman’s term, it’s basically the overall feel an internet surfer gets when visiting an online space. If you go to a restaurant, the dining experience will be the combination of the food, the ambience, the customer service, etc. It’s also the same in websites – several factors combining to give a visitor one key takeaway.

For starters, here are three basic tips if you want to enhance your web property’s user experience.

Use Your Own Site

Love your own! Ask yourself, when was the last time you actually used your site? This is not just about typing your URL, giving your home page a once over and admiring how beautiful it is and then closing your browser. In order for you to understand the user experience your visitors get from your webpages, you need to be one – a visitor. It’s not an excuse that you have a partner SEO agency.

One of the most crucial elements you should look out for is navigability. Here are a few things you should take note:

• First, is it easy to actually go to the site?
• From here, inspect if it’s easy to jump from one page to another

A common technique SEO companies use in aid of navigation is the use of a “breadcrumb” which basically tells a visitor where he is exactly within the site (i.e. Blog>Tips>You Are Here). If you have a blog section, having a “related articles/posts” feature makes it easier for surfers to explore your site and also encourages further reading which is good for traffic as well.

Put Your Editor’s Hat On

It’s time to drill down on your content. A lot of brand managers or marketing managers skip do not read their webpages simply because they know what’s already there. However, you have to read and edit. Things you’re looking for are:

• Typographical and grammatical mistakes
• Incorrect information
• Obsolete details
• Irrelevant content
• Jargons and highfalutin words which can be made simpler

You want to make sure that all content in your site, whether it is in your blog, the copy on your homepage, the text in your services section or what-have-you are up to date and updated to the latest industry standards.

You may have an SEO agency working for you but no one knows your brand better than you so there’s no better content editor for your site than you.

It Pays to Know What Your Visitors Think

Of course, at the end of the day, the greatest source of feedback is from actually asking your customers about their experience. Send occasional surveys or you can even have a pop up feedback system to get their spontaneous thoughts.