How to Improve Website Speed and User Experience for Higher Conversions

Did you ever check your website speed through a website speed test??

In the current highly competitive digital world, knowing how to improve website speed and user experience (UX) can hugely influence a business’s success.

If a brand’s website is slow, it will lose visitors and subsequent revenue due to increased bounce rates. A good UX, on the other hand, leads to happy visitors, which increases conversion rates and improves search engine rankings.

If you want to increase the conversion rate of your business, being aware of how to improve website speed and UX is a must! Let’s get to know how you can achieve it through this blog.

Why Website Speed and UX Matter for Conversions

1. Decreased Bounce Rates with Faster Websites

Data indicates that 40% of users abandon a site after waiting more than 3 seconds for it to load. Website visitors dislike slow-loading pages, so they leave before viewing the products or content.

2. Increased Engagement with Improved User Experience

Optimised websites make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for, improving user experience. As a result, session times, interaction rates, and conversions increase.

3. Google Favours Websites that Load Quickly and are Easy to Use

The ranking factor Core Web Vitals ensures Google knows which sites to prioritize. To determine the ranking, these metrics consider a site’s loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. A slow-loading site can damage SEO and drastically reduce organic traffic, directly impacting the conversion rate.

How to Improve Website Speed

1. Image Optimization

Large and uncompressed images can lead to slow performance on web pages. Use the following techniques:

Use sources like TinyPNG or ImageOptim to compress images
Switch from JPEG or PNG to modern WebP format
Lazy loading images to display for user view

2. Reduce the Number of HTTP Requests

Each and every item on the webpage, from images down to scripts, requires an HTTP request, which leads to slow speeds. Decrease HTTP requests by:

Merging Java and CSS files
Using CSS sprites to compile images
Removing unused scripts and plugins

3. Activate Browser Caching

Browser storage enables repeat audiences to quickly access websites due to having web files on their devices. To activate caching:

Set expiration limits for images, scripts, and styles
Install caching plugins such as WP Rocket for WordPress users

4. Employ a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Using CDN allows you to split content into various servers globally which significantly boosts performance for end users. Common CDN includes:

5. Reduce the size of CSS, Javascript, and HTML code.

Code minification helps remove spaces, comments, and characters from the file and decreases the file’s size, leading to faster loading. Utilize the following:

Google PageSpeed Insights to learn where you can improve
Autoptimize (a WordPress plugin) to help do the minification

6. Switching Your Web Host

Slow hosting providers will make optimising your website’s speed difficult, no matter how much you try. Sooner or later, you should think about:

Switching to a reputed hosting provider
VPS or dedicated server hosting instead of shared hosting
LiteSpeed servers

7. Using Gzip Compression

Gzip helps in compressing website files before a download in order to decrease the load pace of a website. Gzip can be enabled by:

.htaccess file on Apache servers
WP Fastest Cache for WordPress

8. Fewer Redirects

The more the redirects, the slower the load time. Try to lessen the number of redirects by:

Replacing outdated URLs and broken links
Removing unneeded redirects such as 301 and 302

How to Improve User Experience (UX)

1. Mobile Optimization

Since 60% of traffic comes from mobile devices, a mobile-friendly website is imperative. Mobile optimization includes:

Supporting a responsive font
Adopting AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) technology to load pages faster on a mobile device
Make sure your website adapts to all screen size

2. Well-Organized & Easy to Navigate Website Structure

Best practices include keeping the site’s layout simple so users can quickly locate the required information, as search engine optimization plays a vital role in pulling organic traffic to your website.

Organizing menus in a clear and straightforward way
Including breadcrumbs to help users go back easily
Adding a search bar to help find content quickly

3. Develop Interesting & Understandable Content

Readers must have an effortless experience when accessing your material. Achieving that can be done by:

Integrating images and videos within the text and using bullet points
Shortening the text into more useable paragraphs
Understanding the impact of fonts. In the case where contrast is increased, the font is more readable

4. Make Sure that the CTAs are Optimized

A strong Call-To-Action (CTA) that encourages users to complete a specific action will ensure that engagement increases. Make sure that CTAs are:

Easy to identify and focus more on action (For example, get started now, download free guide).
Readily noticeable, the CTA should be placed in easily visible areas, such as the end of important sections.
The title or headline should be prominent and must stand out among the other page elements.

5. Limit Pop-Ups and Annoying Ads

A user-friendly website is more useable because:

The use of pop-up ads is limited.
Popups that cover the entire screen are strictly avoided as they are disruptive and uncomfortable.
The overall speed of the page load is not affected by the ad.

6. Improve Website Security

A secure website makes users trust you and enhances their experience. Necessary security steps include:

Regularly updating the website plugins and software ensures that anything installed is updated.
Make sure to encrypt all data through the installation of the SSL certificate.
Installing a security plugin such as Wordfence would be a good idea for WordPress users.

7. Optimize the Website as per User Feedback

Factors such as how users engage with your site provide valuable information that can be used to improve it. As part of this final analysis, I would suggest using:

Heatmaps for user activity tracking (e.g. Hotjar)
A/B testing for better designs and layouts – this is more widely known.
Surveys and feedback forms to get user views.

Conclusion

For website conversions, a fast and user-friendly website is a must. If adequate measures are taken to improve loading speed, ease of navigation, mobile device responsiveness, and maintenance of the security aspects, the overall website experience and visitor engagement will likely be on the higher side.

Implement the above-mentioned strategies on how to improve website speed & user experience and witness your website’s performance, SEO rankings, and conversions soar. Also, don’t forget to run a website speed test to see the increase in loading speed compared to before.

You can do this with the help of a reliable website performance optimization tool, such as Google PageSpeed Insights, GTmetrix, Cloudflare, or NitroPack.

Want to get a high-performance, mobile-friendly website for your business?

Get in touch with our digital marketing experts today!