Content is the key to online success. And dependable, high-quality writing is essential to successful content marketing. You work hard to create compelling content that is relevant and engaging, but your target audience won’t read it if it’s not appealing.
Your presentation, or user experience (UX), determines how your content is received by your audience. So, how do you ensure that your content attracts your audience’s attention?
This article looks at 9 important ways to improve your website content. But first, let’s define what website content is – and why it matters.
What is website content?
Website content is anything on your website that provides visitors with information, like blog posts, infographics, videos, and images.
Your content’s job is to welcome visitors, keep them engaged, and persuade them to stick around. Creating content with a good user experience (UX) keeps people on your site longer – and helps turn them into customers.
Read More: WHY and HOW to Keep Content Relevant
9 ways to improve your website content and user experience (UX)
1. Improve page speed
Visitors will bounce if a website page doesn’t load within a second or two. A slow page load frustrates users, and most don’t take the time to wait. To improve UX, boost the speed of your site and ensure pages load promptly.
Image file size is one of the leading causes of slow page speed. You can improve your page speed by compressing all your images before loading them onto your website.
Read More: 5 Effective Ways to Optimize Your Page Load Speed
2. Prioritize mobile-friendliness
Your website must be mobile-friendly and easy to navigate – no matter what type of device visitors use to access it. Google penalizes sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices, so mobile-friendliness is the most valuable way to improve your website’s usability. So, verify that your site functions as well (if not better) on mobile as it does on desktop.
Read More: 7 Proven Tips to Reduce Your Bounce Rate
3. Use white space and a simple layout
White space is essential to good design – it allows the user to focus on the elements surrounding the text, and it makes your content more legible. Clutter overwhelms people, decreases UX, and drives away your audience. Webpages with a clean and simple layout (and abundant white space) help keep your visitor’s attention.
4. Maintain consistent design across all pages
Make sure your design is coherent on every page of your website. Everything should be consistent – font choices, heading sizes, colors, spacing, design elements, photo choices, illustration and button styles, etc.
Drastic design changes from one page to another can make your user feel lost and confused. Inconsistencies in design reduce the quality of the products and services you provide, resulting in users losing trust in and leaving your site.
5. Use clear calls to action
Calls to action (CTAs) are the keys to conversion. A compelling CTA phrase can tap into your audience’s emotions, create a sense of urgency, and convey the value they’ll get by clicking. Make sure they are clearly marked with an action word that allows users to navigate your site easily and compels them to do something. Adding a button or image that draws attention also helps boost CTA clicks. Calls to action should be clear, bold, time-sensitive, and action-oriented. Phrases like “Get a free consultation” or “Unlock exclusive savings now” help guide visitors toward conversion.
6. Include engaging images
Users who visit your website instantly know whether an image is a stock photo. Stock photos stand out as generic and uninspired. Unfortunately, these associations can also carry over to your business.
Stock photos can be high-quality, but they don’t create a connection between the audience and the brand. Your own actual images convey your brand, products, and services better than stock photos.
Use images strategically to support the content and give users a visual break from text – but make sure the images are relevant and appealing. When you use stock photos, choose the ones that match your brand’s style and persona.
7. Utilize hyperlink differentiation
Adding a link to another page means you want the user to click “here” for additional information. Use visual cues to make those links easy to identify. Underlined and differently colored text draws the reader’s attention so they know it’s a link to be clicked on.
The length of the hyperlink is important. Longer link titles are easier to identify and get the reader’s attention better than a single word. For example, “click here to check out IGMs website vs. Check out IGMs website here.”
8. Remove broken links
While hyperlinks improve user experience, broken links quickly damage UX and SEO. A 404 error (page not found) error frustrates your users and makes them doubt your credibility and authority.
When you edit content, make sure the links you include work properly. Double-check that hyperlinks still work when updating existing content so users don’t encounter a broken link.
9. Make sign-ups effortless
Getting sign-ups from lead generators is one of your best pre-sale conversions. However, sign-ups dramatically decrease if you ask for multiple lines of contact information. All you need is a name and email address to reach out and build a connection with a qualified lead. It also helps to set up your forms so the user’s browser can quickly auto-fill the information you want.
Read More: Lead Generation: What It Is and 6 Effective Strategies
Bottom Line
Your website content must effectively engage, inform, and provide a positive user experience to be successful. These tips can improve your website content and user experience – and help increase conversions.
If you need help creating better content for your website, reach out to Impact Group Marketing today! We offer affordable, customized content writing solutions, including website content, blog articles, social media posts, press releases, and more.