5 Ways to Create the Optimal User Experience (UX) on Your Website

Most people have quit while waiting for a website page to load. Waiting is a hassle, we all expect fast-loading sites—anything less isn’t worth the wait in today’s time-poor world. If your website is like this, then you probably haven’t upgraded or even thought about your website fora little while now. That’s why website optimization is so important.

Key aspects of website performance optimization

1. Hosting

There are several important web hosting factors to consider when choosing whether to stay with your existing provider or move to anew provider. It goes without saying that you must make sure the hosting service has a dedicated 24×7 customer service. Check out reviews of their service on third-party review sites as well. Make sure there are no common themes in complaints as that would suggest there is likely to be a similar issue for you.

2. Size of images

Files and images are crucial tools for your site as they help increase conversions, elicit your audience’s emotion, and tell stories about your site. It would be hard to develop an effective website without using visual content. The primary roles of using images on your website should be to improve the user experience and also enhance your content marketing. If the images negatively impact your site’s performance, then you need to fix this ASAP as Google will also start punishing your site by ranking it lower.

When selecting a file type, consider the purpose of your image and what it consists. Choose the format which results in the smallest size while retaining the quality. Furthermore, ensure you choose the right dimensions. Identify where the images will be used on your website and make sure they are not larger than needed for that space. Your hosting provider will be able to advise on not just how best to optimize them.

3. Apps/ Plug-ins

Plugins offer different features and functionality. Some plugins load assets on the front-end such as images, JavaScript files, and CSS style sheets while others are used in making database calls on the back-end. Most plugins need HTTP requests to load assets, and each request impacts your website’s page load time.

For example, we use the infinite scroll plugin to make our blog, well, scroll infinitely!

4. Mobile-first/Responsive Web Design (RWD)

Mobile-first can be described as the as a way of designing a mobile version of your site before the desktop version. Responsive web design is an evolution to that design style.

Having a mobile version on your website has two key benefits:

1. It improves the user experience for your website on mobile devices.
2. Google checks if websites have a mobile version and favors them in search engine results pages.

5. Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)

CDN is a geographically located server which host copies of your website’s resources to deliver content based on the user’s location. CDN shortens the RTT (round trip time) of your content and brings it closer to the geographical location of your site visitor.

Conclusion

The fact that many customers say that they will never return to a slow site means that you should keep them happy by using proper website performance tools and incorporating the aspects mentioned above. You’ll be surprised at the difference it makes to not just your overall website traffic, but all key website metrics.