The user's browsing experience, or User Experience (UX), is an increasingly important factor in determining the success of an online business.
When we talk about UX we are referring to the way users visit a site and interact with the elements they find on the page. Needless to say, this is an extremely complex and constantly evolving topic: user experience optimizationIn fact, it involves design, good security, technical aspects and communication.
Identifying issues related to navigation, the structure of a site, and the language used to guide users from one point to another can help improve brand perception, increase traffic, and even conversions.
But where to start?
To understand if your digital activity guarantees pleasant and fluid navigation, our advice is make a UX audit , that is, control over how the public interacts with the site. In this article we see in detail how it works and what it is for.
Define your goals
Verifying the user experience is a very important step to improve the results of your online business. But what do we mean, in practice, by User experience? As will become clear, the subject matter is varied and there are many aspects to work on so that a website becomes a positive experience.
Each digital business has different needs, just as each user group will be looking for a different experience. For this reason, the first step in a UX audit must be understanding the company objectives and customer needs. Before leaving, therefore, you will need to establish:
- target : the groups of people you want to reach with your business;
- brand values: what (and how) you intend to communicate with your audience when they come into contact with the brand;
- business goals : the desired goals after an online activity optimization operation;
Knowing the needs and wants of your audience is essential to understanding how to improve their experience. Therefore, when defining your target audience (through statistical analysis, questionnaires and interviews or market studies) it is important to create buyer personas that allow you to find people interested in your business and satisfy their requests.
What is a UX analysis for?
This information will allow us to proceed with an analysis aimed at understanding the behavior and expectations of visitors arriving at your site and are essential to identify the reasons for non-optimal performance. Specifically, a site UX audit should answer these questions:
- What is working and what elements can be improved ?
- What aspects of the back-end and front-end prevent optimal navigation ?
- What does the data say about user behavior?
- What metrics should be collected for understand user behavior over time?
- What aspects of communication prevent conversion rate grow?
A properly done UX audit is not based on opinions, but in the analysis of accurate data about user behavior on your site. Consequently, the results of a UX audit can provide immediate benefits when easily solvable problems are identified and offer insights for experimenting with A/B testing aimed at increasing conversions.
How a UX audit works
Now that we know what benefits an analysis of the users' browsing experience can bring, let's understand the steps to verify that your site is set up the right way.
We can divide the actions aimed at improving the user experience into three macrocategories:
- technical analysis,
- navigation analysis,
- messaging analysis.
Technical analysis
A technical UX analysis aims to find the structural obstacles that prevent people from using the site optimally. This part of a UX audit therefore primarily looks at the performance of a site.
A classic example common to many sites: mobile navigation . Whether you manage an Ecommerce or a personal blog, you must keep in mind that today many users browse through a smartphone.
In 2021 in Spain, Internet traffic that came from mobile devices grew by 25% and from computers by 23% compared to the previous period, according to Movistar. So managing a site that does not fit correctly on the screens of the latest smartphones It is a typical error that compromises the UX and therefore makes conversions difficult.
The same applies to site loading speed, which could be slowed down by using too many plugins, unnecessary scripts, or a site structure that is not very effective from a usability point of view.
Therefore, to make a UX audit of your WordPress It starts with the technical analysis and touches on the following points:
- Update theme and WordPress status;
- Analysis of active plugins
- Control of scripts in use, added by third parties;
- Conversion tracking analysis and configuration of tools such as Google Analytics and Facebook Pixel
- Site loading speed analysis
Un fast, effective site and ready to adapt to all devices It helps you gain the trust of the public and guide them to discover the services you offer on the web.
Navigation analysis
Navigation analysis is mainly aimed at the front-end of the site and serves to understand how users react to its design choices . This part can cover all stages of the visitor's journey. From the registration process to what happens after filling out the contact forms.
Generally speaking, navigation analysis first seeks to understand whether the site architecture allows for smooth navigation. That is, observing whether the user's path from the landing page to the purchase (in the case of an ecommerce) or filling out a contact form is intuitive and free of obstacles. Second, this part of the audit analyzes individual pages to find design elements that could be optimized or removed entirely to create a distraction-free browsing experience.
There are several tools to perform this type of analysis. By looking at traffic data through Google Analytics, you will be able to understand where the user's path stops, which pages have the highest bounce rate, i.e. where users abandon navigation and what are the conversion rates.
To identify which design elements cause navigation abandonment, however, it is useful to study heat maps, which we can obtain through software such as Hotjar . Heatmaps -o maps of heat- allow you to see which sections of a given page attract the user's attention the most and which ones go unnoticed. Through a heat map you can see, for example, if the images, blocks or buttons are positioned correctly or if a CTA is rarely used because it is not sufficiently evident.
Monitoring the browsing experience therefore serves to identify the main problems that block or slow down visits. It mainly focuses on three aspects :
- La usability of the pages , which must be clear and with a precise design in all details and on any device;
- Accessibility for all visitors, with a readable and inclusive graphical interface;
- The right one operation of interactive elements (buttons and links) in all formats.
With careful review, you can turn these pain points into new opportunities to satisfy customers who already know you and win over new audiences.
Message analysis
Message analysis is about the clarity of communication, both textual and visual. This part of the audit has two main objectives. It serves to ensure that the product or service for sale is described accurately and that the tone of voice is representative of the brand values .
The language used on the site should be simple and comprehensive to anticipate visitor concerns, answer frequently asked questions, and convey confidence in both the company and the individual product.
However, copywriting It is not everything: we live in a world where an image can say more than a thousand words and consequently photographs are also a central element of communication. We are talking about both product photos, which must inspire, illustrate and be realistic, and photographs inserted to demonstrate the use of a product that, if they contain people, must be in line with the previously established target audience.
Therefore, the analysis of messaging focuses on these aspects:
- Writing and tone of voice : we make sure that the texts reflect the brand values defined at the beginning;
- Clarity in the description of the products ;
- Microcopy : analysis of small texts that helped the user in navigation;
- Visual identity : analysis of photographic content to ensure that they are representative of the product, brand and target audience.
In short, the analysis of the massage is aimed at ensuring that both the brand and the product or service for sale are perceived optimally by its audience, but also that the communication is clear so that all expectations are met.
Does UX help positioning on Google?
In addition to influencing the direct experience of visitors, User Experience is also becoming increasingly important for search engine positioning . In June 2021, Google introduced some significant changes to its ranking criteria.
The Google PageSpeed Insights browsing speed analysis tool now takes into account the Core Web Vitals , three parameters that evaluate the usability of the pages. The most widespread opinion among insiders is that in the coming years - if not months - user experience will become a crucial positioning factor, along with SEO - that is, search engine optimization.
The User Experience Report is not the solution to all your problems, but rather the point to start solving some of them. The focus of the analysis is on usability; Therefore, it is useless to wait for useful data on other issues, such as security or SEO relevance.
Without a doubt, an audit helps you discover some dark sides of your digital project that you might otherwise have difficulty detecting, for example:
- Because you get few conversions compared to general traffic;
- Where users are blocked from browsing and because;
- Which are the metrics to have under control to improve .
Can try perform the audit yourself . However, without the right tools in your box, you are likely to get partial and insufficient information to fully understand what the weaknesses are. However, one tip we would like to give you is to spend some time in Google Analytics to learn more about the traffic flows to your pages and where they stop… after that, it might be best to turn to professionals!
Trust the experts: our UX analysis service
To take your digital business towards the goals you have always dreamed of, start take care of your WordPress site professionally . If you don't have the time and skills to do so, trust those who analyze website performance every day: IndianWebs' new UX analysis service helps you identify your site's weaknesses and plan specific actions to improve the user experience. users, and therefore conversions. All this, as always, at a fixed price and without surprises. Discover our web maintenance services and analytics dedicated to sites of all sizes.
