User engagement: the phrase that every good website creator should know about

Whatever the size of your business or product, there is one crucial element that every website designer should take into account – the end goal. User engagement is the key phrase that helps website creators to bridge the gap between attracting a potential client and securing their business. Ultimately, a website with great user engagement will see users spending a lot of time on the site,low bounce levels and high conversion rates. If you are looking to build a new web platform, ensure you engage with a higher end Digital Agency that specialise in web development. By securing a good agency you can ensure that your website is relevant, responsive,serves its purpose and offers a fantastic user experience, your engagement levels will be the best and your Google ranking will be high.

Before designing your website, it is essential to consider the purpose/sothat you wish to fulfil. Perhaps you are an estate agent who wants to showcase their best properties and ultimately encourage the user to get in contact and arrange a viewing? Or maybe your business is entirely based online, such as an e-commerce, so you need to secure the business there and then. Every website has a goal and every creator must ensure to define and create these goals before going live. You would not take a cake out of the oven when it isn’t cooked so why have a half-baked website?

Simplicity is the name of the game – effective websites are easy to understand and to navigate, providing the essential information in a user-friendly, easily readable format. Creating a fluid harmony between design and content is vital:an effective design scheme will include pleasing colour schemes and fonts, while content should be of the highest quality and extremely credible, written by a professional who can add a creative flourish to really engage the consumer whilst making sure your message is delivered loud and clear. And don’t forget to put a lot of effort into creating a dazzlinghomepage, as you only get to make a first impression once. The best user engagement sites will be those that are so memorable that your success will be boosted by word of mouth recommendations, ultimately increasing brand visibility and conversion rates.

Trust is a crucial part of user engagement and the more effort you put into designing a site, the more you will get out of it. In this respect, every single need and wish of the target audience should be considered. A trustworthy site will be easy to navigate and feature the highest quality images supported by impeccable content in both style and format. A professional, responsive design is essential, with relevant internal linking and content sorted in a logical and natural way to ensure the consumer can easily navigate their way through the site. Heading tags are a great way to engage with the user by making it easy to click through to the place they wish to end up, while a fluid design will encourage the user to click through to other pages that they may not have originally intended to visit. A relevant and effective call-to-action, such as the option to subscribe to a newsletter,is also effective. By offering the user something tangible, this builds rapport and will make your website more striking.

User engagement also considers the mobile population and the web habits of the 21st century community. The site should be made available for optimum access on all modern browsers and portable devices to appeal to the largest possible audience. Social media is another way in which engagement can be forged – by including live feeds to your social media channels and encouraging users to share your content, this all creates a sense of community and helps your site to stand out against the competition. Quite simply, if the user is enjoying their experience, they will be less likely to leave and more likely to return.