Why You Should Be User Testing
Though the days of designing websites that are simply fun to look at are gone, it doesn’t mean that your website doesn’t have to look drab and boring. No matter what kind of budget you have, user testing your website can help you design a positive user experience that will help to better convert your targeted traffic. Even a basic website designed by just a guy with a computer and a couple bucks can benefit from having some friends take a look at his website to determine if there are any flaws in the design of it. A poor user experience can lead to higher bounce rates, while a good UX experience can create consistent results. What do you need to do?
What Is Your First Impression?
Ok – so not every person can spend $100k on testing their user experience. You can, however, get a good gauge of what your first impression is from friends and family. When you have them see your website for the first time, ask them for brutally honest feedback about what they liked and didn’t like. Chances are you’re going to get an 80% bounce rate anyway, but why make that rate higher because you’ve got a website that looks cruddy? Invest time on your landing pages so that they look awesome and you’ll be ahead of many other players in the game with your design.
Is Your Branding Consistent?
If you don’t have your branding consistently and strategically placed across your platforms, then people aren’t going to understand that it is you offering them stuff. It might lead to confusion, misunderstanding, and user experience chaos! Where there is chaos, there is a high bounce rate because people just don’t have the patience to deal with someone who is out of control. Though you don’t have to label every single picture with your logo, having consistent usage on each page can effectively communicate who you are and what you’re about.
How Good Is Your Search Function?
If you’ve got a blog that you publish regularly, it doesn’t take long for the amount of blog posts to rapidly start building up. With a search function installed on your website, your users can easily find what they are looking for with a simple search term. There’s a catch to this, however, because if the search term doesn’t locate anything or something completely different from what they want, chances are they’ll be done with you… for good. Testing your search functions regularly can help to insure that you always provide a beneficial user experience.
Have You Looked at Your Site Through Mobile Eyes?
More people than ever are using mobile devices to access the internet. This means your website must provide a positive user experience on this platform too! Clunky, slow loading photographs and hard to read text will turn mobile users away quickly and permanently. It’s easy to check how well your site does if you’ve got a smartphone – just use your browser, visit your site, and see what it looks like! That way you can incorporate all of these ideas together so that you can provide a great user experience, even if you’ve just got a few bucks in the bank with which to do it.
Although millions of people visit Brandon's blog each month, his path to success was not easy. Go here to read his incredible story, "From Disabled and $500k in Debt to a Pro Blogger with 5 Million Monthly Visitors." If you want to send Brandon a quick message, then visit his contact page here.