User engagement is one of the most important aspects of online marketing and web design, as it defines a website’s performance.
Engagement means attracting users and making them stay on your site, but it is also for their benefit and for you to reach your goals. Driving user engagement not only directly influences your entire business, but it can lead to growth if done right.
Let’s dive straight into the key elements your site needs to boost conversions:
10 Website Elements to Drive User Engagement
1. Relevant Content
Don’t place all your resources in a separate blog section on your site. See to it that you add relevant content from your blog on the homepage. To keep visitors from browsing, also put it in other internal ages.
Using content that’s relevant to users helps lead generation. It also makes the bounce rate low and adds value to your site’s user experience. Also, remember that relevant content should be a good design that attracts and increases user engagement. In fact, 38% of users will stop engaging with you if they find your content irrelevant or your site’s layout unattractive.
When creating your copy, you should also focus on the benefits and less on your brand. To create a copy that’s action focused, you need to know your customers well. What kind of things pleases them? What are they thinking about?
Your customers’ needs are essential, and that’s what engaging site content is all about.
Here are some ways how you can turn your web copy into an actionable one:
- Tell Users What To Do: Tell them what to do rather than confuse them. Let them know what they need to do to benefit from your product or service.
- Talk To Your Customers: Writing in the second person entices users more. To talk to them, turn “Me” into “You.” This lets them feel as if you’re talking to them.
- Make your Texts Scannable: People need help reading everything on your site. Because of long and complicated texts, don’t let them bounce off your site pages. You should also ensure that users can quickly scan over your content by using shorter paragraphs, attractive graphics, and bullet sections.
- Mobile-Friendly Copy and Text Formatting: Enhance the mobile-friendliness of your copy if you optimize it for smartphones. You should also write in shorter sentences and divide your content into smaller paragraphs. Make sure that you mind the size of the text, as well.
2. User-friendly design
You should design your site for users, not just to improve rankings. Many companies, desperate to achieve better rankings, will do things considered “good” for Google and yet “bad” for the user.
Your site should also be user-friendly before a company should think of ranking higher on search engine results pages. Keep in mind that Google is smart. It could quickly tell whether or not users are getting good value from your site since they keep coming back and spending a lot of time on it.
At Sytian Productions (web developer Philippines,) we always tell clients to put their content above SEO, at least when you’re first starting off. This optimizes the site for the user and allows you to build a loyal following.
3. Clear call-to-action
One of web design’s most commonly neglected aspects is the call to action. It’s one thing that you hand a person a brochure, and they walk away. However, it’s also one thing to engage them in the process that could potentially lead to a sale.
This could be as easy as using effective CTAs like “sign up for free,” or “watch our video demo.” Moreover, there should be a call to action at every step of the way during the discovery process of prospects.
The video should encourage the viewer to do next as soon as the video is over. When clients have signed up for free, it should guide them on what to do next. Remember that there should be some sort of instruction or call-to-action for the audience.
4. Fast-loading page
According to a study by Kissmetrics, 46% of visitors expect a site to load within two seconds. Visitors may immediately abandon your site if it takes more than 3 to 4 seconds to load.
How quickly your site loads can affect your SEO rankings as well. Search engines such as Google will rank down a site if it has slow-loading pages. That’s why you have to pay attention to the web core vitals.
These are part of Google’s page experience signals that evaluate the website’s speed and user experience. They often measure three essential site elements: speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
5. Easy to navigate
Easy navigation is one of the key elements that your site needs for better conversions. Users can easily be frustrated if they can’t find the information they’re looking for on your site, and they will eventually end up abandoning it.
You also don’t want visitors confused when landing on your site. That’s why having an easy-to-navigate website structure is essential. To do this, you must ensure that every section of your site is clearly defined and placed correctly.
It should also include a logical hierarchy of sections to enhance customer experience. Now that we’re talking about customer experience, you should consider adding an F-layout to your site. According to a study, looking out for content in an F-pattern is the natural user behaviour when browsing a site.
6. Unique value proposition (UVP)
Your unique value proposition should be one of the biggest advantages of engaging leads and customers. It should also be the first thing users will see when they open your site.
That’s why your homepage or the landing page should always be in the front and centre and above the fold. Ideally, state your unique value proposition in a single sentence. Then support it with a quick paragraph on top of the CTA options.
7. Responsive hero images
As mentioned, a great website should attract users’ attention and guide their eyes down the page.
A great way to do this is to use high-quality images. That way, when users enter your site, they’re drawn to the vibrant imagery and stunning images that immediately capture their attention.
8. Testimonials, reviews, and case studies
Reviews and testimonials act as social proof of the quality you provide to your customers. Therefore, having a dedicated section for review and testimonials on your site makes it easy for new prospects to make a purchasing decision and user engagement.
Apart from that, people interacting with your business for the first time may feel sure whether to buy from you and trust your business. Having positive feedback and reviews from previous customers helps solve this problem. It also builds the credibility of your brand at the same time.
Moreover, depending on your industry, you should leverage the case studies on your site. These case studies show, instead of telling, how they have helped past clients solve their problems and why your company is a great company to do business with.
Aside from that, you should add at least four of your best customer testimonials and one case study on your site. Just ensure you don’t overload this social proof since it may seem you’re showing off.
9. A prominent search box
Many sites get this wrong, but isn’t it ironic that you must look for the search box? The thing is, most people come to your site to look for something specific. If they’re confused about how to buy something, they might leave.
So, ensure you engage with users to let them find what they’re looking for. Place a prominent search box that allows users to find specific content quickly if you can.
You might also notice that most sites have search boxes on the top left. Generally, most users expect the search box to be found there. Ideally, it’s best to adapt a simple search box design, then add features like a drop box menu and autosuggest feature that can enhance the site user engagement.
10. Live Chats
Live chats are also becoming increasingly popular since they help you attract and nurture leads.
The chat support also shows you have a strong support team caring for customers. Consider the following to ensure you can effectively get leads with live chats:
- Placement: Place live chats in places that don’t affect the visitors’ experience. You can also place an option that allows them to hide it.
- Accessibility: Don’t be tempted to give automated answers. You can hire someone that will be notified in case users will ask something. That way, they can be addressed immediately.
- Content relevance: Provide extra information about your products and services.
Over to You
So there you have it. Optimizing your site to drive user engagement isn’t easy. You need to constantly think of ways to engage users and then analyze the user behaviour data.
Having the right site elements in place makes it easier to give a seamless user experience and get quality leads for your business. Good luck!
