10 techniques to improve user experience and increase conversions

User experience can make a huge difference to your website's success. According to Forrester, improving your UX design can increase conversions by 400% — so making a few website changes may be the key to business growth.

By implementing these ten techniques to improve user experience, you can increase conversions and optimize customer satisfaction on your site.

What is UX and why is it important?

User experience (UX) is all about optimizing the way humans interact with your website or software. UX design focuses on improving layout, navigation, and workflows to make your site easy and enjoyable to use.

UX is important because it boosts sales, increases customer retention, and improves brand recognition. Having a user-friendly site can also set you apart from your competitors online — so how can you improve your UX?

10 ways to improve your UX design

1. Make your site mobile-friendly

Having a responsive, mobile-friendly design is one of the most important ways to improve UX. More than half of all internet traffic now comes from mobile devices, so designing mobile layouts for your website should be a priority for any online business.

Search engines also prioritize mobile-optimized websites, so this is also a good way to improve your SEO.

2. Optimize for a single action

Each page of your website should be optimized for a particular action, whether it’s to add an item to your cart, or click through for further information. Create a clear pathway to that action with clear copy, smart linking, and intelligent design.

This encourages site visitors to move through the user journey and ultimately buy your product or sign up for your service.

3. A/B test your UX design

A/B testing helps you find the best way to compel your website users to convert. Also known as split testing, this technique allows you to test web design or copy variants to find out which performs best with your website users.

You can use A/B testing for all kinds of UX tests, including button design, navigation, header text, and page layout.

4. Make your site easy to navigate

Navigation is the linchpin of good UX and user interface design. It helps your website visitors find their way around your website, guiding them through the customer journey towards conversion. If your navigation is confusing, inconsistent, or haphazard, customers are less likely to convert.

Poor navigation is one of the top three reasons visitors leave a website — so it’s one of the most important things to fix on your site. Make sure your menus, buttons, and navigation elements are clear and easy to access.

5. Adhere to accessibility guidelines

Following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) makes your site accessible to all kinds of users. By becoming WCAG-compliant, you can improve user interaction for people with disabilities like visual impairment or dyslexia.

Optimizing for accessibility involves providing content in multiple formats (such as text and audio) as well as making sure users can control text size and color contrast.

6. Implement behavioral analytics

Using software to understand user behavior and user interaction is one of the best ways to get valuable UX data. It’s valid data retrieved from real users, so there are fewer limitations than other UX research methods.

Behavior analysis involves capturing information about user behavior and events, such as page scrolling and time spent on-page. This helps you see patterns of behavior, which you can use to inform your UX improvement strategy.

7. Increase site speed

Slow site speed is the number one reason visitors leave your website before converting. So it’s essential to reduce latency to make your website run faster.

Reducing site speed isn’t always easy, especially if you use a lot of JavaScript, plugins, and multimedia files on your site. Make sure to optimize files and limit the amount of unnecessary code on your web pages. If you’re using external software, try to find agentless solutions that don’t compromise site performance.

8. Take responsibility for your cybersecurity

Strong cybersecurity is essential for any online business — but you shouldn’t need to compromise user experience for online safety.

While human verification and password complexity rules add some protection to your site, they also unfairly make your users responsible for your site security. Instead, you should take control of your cybersecurity with a server-side solution that protects your site in the background.

9. Minimize use of CAPTCHA and multi-factor authentication

Customer-facing security measures like CAPTCHA and multi-factor authentication are known to decrease user engagement. CAPTCHA, in particular, has been shown to reduce conversions by up to 40% — and it doesn't offer strong protection against bots.

Dedicated bot management systems protect conversion rates by blocking bots at the source, while giving real users a frictionless experience.

10. Make it easy for customers to convert

A high conversion rate is the ultimate goal of any UX strategy — so making it easy for target users to buy from you is the best way to enhance your user experience.

That means removing as many barriers as possible from the customer journey, including CAPTCHA forms, dodgy navigation buttons, and excessive pop-ups.

Combining behavioral analytics with A/B testing and server-side security software allows you to remove UX friction, increasing user satisfaction and improving conversion rates.

How bot management software can improve user experience

To avoid compromising security while maintaining a great user experience, deploy a sophisticated bot management system. This advanced cybersecurity software improves user experience by:

• Increasing site speed —, bot management systems use agentless technology, so there’s no need to install sluggish JavaScript agents on your devices, servers, or networks
• Eliminating the need for CAPTCHA and MFA — bot management software detects bots without the need for human verification, so you can protect conversions while blocking bot traffic
• Offering behavioral analysis — Netacea gives you data on user behavior, so you can see where friction occurs and spot unusual patterns of behavior.

Find out more about how Netacea’s bot management system can benefit your business.