We’ll cover;
- Optimise your sites speed and Responsiveness
- Simplify navigation
- Use different content types
- Display related content
- Use a consistent writing style
Optimise site speed and Responsiveness
Have you ever visited a website and got stuck behind a super slow load time? If so, you likely backed out of the page and went to a different website instead.
A study in 2018 found that the average bounce rate of a page loading within 2 seconds was 9%, but that rate skyrocketed to a huge 38% as soon as the load time surpassed 3 seconds.
Beyond that, site loading speed and performance are direct ranking signals that Google algorithms look at when determining your Google search rank, making it crucial when it comes to attracting organic traffic to your website.
You can conduct a page speed test using free tools like Pingdom to see if your site loads within 2 seconds. If not, take steps to improve the load speed of your site by removing unnecessary elements from your pages. Google Web Vitals offers free reports on how your pages perform based on real-world usage data, split into three categories: LCP (Largest contentful paint), FID (First Input Delay) and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift). Combined with the PageSpeed Insights test, you can use these tools to understand where your page is falling short and get recommendations on how to improve them.
There are many reasons why your webpage might be slow to load, such as your server response time and the way your content loads. Often a quick win to improve your site speed is optimising images. Limit the number of images, and keep the file size low. Images on a webpage don’t need to have a really high resolution to look great! Try keeping your image resolution to 72 PPI, or use the export for web function if you use Photoshop.
Simplify navigation
Your website may look great, load quickly and be full of engaging content, but what happens if your visitors can’t find that content easily? Having a website that is difficult to navigate results in a high bounce rate and poor user experience.
Make your main navigation as simple as possible, grouping together related pages into dropdowns from your main navigation bar.
A couple of things that can improve your navigation;
- A ‘sticky’ navigation bar – This kind of navigation bar stays at the top of the screen when you scroll down, keeping it accessible at all times.
- Categories – Making sure that all of your most important links are accessible from your main navigation bar is great practice! But, make sure that these links are grouped into dropdowns to keep your navigation bar clear and neat.
- Reduce the number of clicks it takes to get to key information – Try to follow the ‘3 click rule’ for information and pages that you want your visitors to see the most.
Use different content types
Using diverse types of content such as infographics, videos and GIFs along with your written content has been proven to increase website traffic and engagement.
You can also increase the reach of this content by sharing across your social media and upload your videos to a YouTube channel. This way, you generate organic traffic, social media traffic and YouTube traffic with a single piece of content, all leading to more engagement on your website.
Here are some ideas for content;
- Downloadable e-books
- Custom infographics
- GIFs
- Webinars
- Tutorials
- Graphs and Charts
- User-generated content
Display related content
Displaying relevant content at the end of each page helps visitors easily find related posts and keeps them on your site longer. This can drive engagement by providing the user with more information about the topic they were initially reading about.
On top of this, adding internal links makes it easier for search engines to crawl. This means that they are better able to understand your site structure and are more likely to rank your site higher, increasing the chance of organic traffic.
Use a consistent writing style
Your style of writing determines how readers respond to your content and perceive you and your brand. There are two predominant styles of writing on the internet – a formal, professional tone, and a friendly, easy-going tone.
The majority of websites use the more conversational of the two, opting to sound relaxed and approachable. But your business may be more suited to a formal tone if your website provides more serious content. With either of these styles, remember to keep your content simple and easy to understand. Using a lot of technical terms and jargon can make your content difficult to digest and seem less ‘human’.
Choosing a voice for your brand can both increase user engagement and differentiate you from other similar providers. This helps to build trust with your audience.
If you are having trouble with your website, or want to learn more about improving user engagement, check out our other blogs or get in touch
