Have you been wasting hours and days trying to figure out how to get more leads online? You have the website for your moving business. You have a wide range of professional moving services to offer. But something is still off, and your site is not engaging enough. Well, the truth is that getting on that first page of Google search queries isn’t enough. While satisfying search engine robots and optimizing your website is a necessity; modifying software for small moving companies for the end-users is the priority. So, what are some of the simplest ways how movers can boost user experience?
We start from the WHY
Why should you focus your efforts on boosting user experience? Because that’s the endgame for any developing moving business looking to become an online authority. Having a website is not enough – you have to make sure that it meets the needs of anyone looking to find the perfect moving company online. And the only way to achieve that is by learning how to recognize and exceed the expectations of online users. Simple as that might sound, you need to invest a lot of time and effort into the entire process. That is why it never hurts to have some general guidelines to follow.
10 ideas on how movers can boost user experience for their website
To approach this task in the best way possible, we first have to get some background story going. In our previous blog post, I went into an extensive guide to the basics of technical SEO and the role it plays. What we established is that there are two main goals that every website has to fulfill: accommodate the standards set by search engine robots and answer the needs of their target audiences. Answering the needs of your potential clients comes to taking every step necessary to perfect the user experience of your site. So, here are ten ways to achieve that:
- Use all the white space.
- Optimize your page speed.
- Use high-converting CTAs.
- Use hyperlink differentiation.
- Segment key information with bullet points.
- Movers can boost the user experience with quality images.
- Take the time to optimize your headlines.
- Keep your website pages consistent.
- Identify and eliminate 404 pages.
- Prioritize a mobile-friendly website.
#1: Making use of the white spaces on your website
Most people fail to recognize the line between having too little content and having an overwhelming amount. As a result, you come across websites that have so much content and advertisements that you don’t know where to look. And that is, of course, very bad for user experience, since you can have leads spend time on your website without converting or simply leaving at the very sight of it all. Instead, research has shown that by utilizing white spaces on your pages, you can help focus your site visitors, leading them to convert into clients.
#2: Optimizing page speed is yet another way how movers can boost user experience
If we were to consult Google standards, we would come across the common page speed borderline, which is three seconds. That means that any page that takes longer than 3 seconds to load negatively affects user experience and results in loss of conversions and revenue. After all, we are all in a hurry today. And with so many moving companies to choose from, people won’t wait on a single website for ages to get the information they need. Instead, they will proceed to the next moving company site from the top page results.
#3: Make smart choices when it comes to CTAs on your websites and moving company apps
As amusing as it sounds, you have to look at online users as mice in a maze. The mice are looking for a way out of the maze and to the cheese (or in this case, the most favorable moving estimate). It is your job to provide them with the tools they need to find a way out that will lead straight to your company.
The way to achieve this task and how movers can boost user experience is through strong and well-placed calls to action. If you want people to contact you or submit a request for a free moving estimate, you have to help them see the beacon of light that leads there. To achieve this, you need to design a proper call to action button, and place it on several key positions on your website:
- Hero section (first screen people see when they come to your site)
- Mid-page (usually in the form of a banner or sidebar)
- Embedded in the content (through straightforward anchor text)
- Bottom of the page (in the footer itself or within a contact form)
#4: Make the hyperlinks in your content visible to people
Building on the topic of CTAs, you can also make use of the hyperlinks you place on your pages or posts. After all, you link to other pages or articles because you want people to read it. Movers can boost user experience by offering people links towards content that connects to the one people are reading. That way, instead of having to waste time searching for another topic related to the one they are exploring, users can simply follow the link.
However, before they can do that, they first have to be able to identify it. And the way to accomplish this is through your classical colored font and underline. After all, why change a strategy that works. People are used to seeing blue-colored underlined text and clicking on it to follow the link. And it can work just as fine for your user experience.
#5: Use bullets to accent vital pieces of information
As with the use of underlined text to exemplify hyperlinks, and the use of bold/italic text to point certain things out, bullets are also a practical way to point users in the right direction. It takes us back to the first argument, which was the utilization of white spaces. People respond well to bullet points because they can skim through them to summarize essential data. So, if you were a moving company that wanted to showcase the strength of your brand development, you could use conventional or non-conventional bullets to showcase:
- The range of moving services that your company provides.
- Awards and accreditations relevant to the moving industry.
- Areas that your services cover across the state or nation, etc.
#6: Practice using quality images on your website
With so much software development and a massive increase in website quantity, it’s getting harder to judge the good from the bad. However, one of the “trust factors” that online consumers use is the images that a company uses. Users are less likely to trust a website with generic stock photos than a site that uses authentic images of offered products or services.
For moving companies, this is extremely important. One of the best ways to generate moving leads is by increasing your customer base. To achieve this, you have to establish a certain level of trust in your brand. And you can do this by giving people a clear presentation of what they get when they hire you. So, rather than using stock images, take a day to snap some photos of your moving crews, moving trucks, packing supplies, etc. As a result, you can notably increase your conversion rate and exposure.
#7: Movers can boost the user experience with well-phrased headlines
Having a technically perfect website is not enough to secure conversions and the development of your moving company. The ideal user experience on a movers’ website also involves some well-placed and phrased headlines. Content plays a vital role, as it sends out clear signals to search engine robots when crawling through your website. Even more importantly, strong headlines can affect the decision of site users to purchase your services or products. And so, you need to invest time into creating inviting headings to advertise your moving business in the best way possible.
Additionally, websites that contain a range of headings and sub-headings meet the expectations of search engines and online visitors. It helps indicate the essential topics and sub-topics of certain pages and posts, making site coordination much simpler, thus improving the overall user experience.
#8: Prioritize web page consistency as a way to improve your website
Although you want the best design and layout for your website, it becomes easy to get carried away. People end up designing each page with different colors and visual elements, which can cause confusion among users. At one point, you are no longer sure whether or not you are on the same site. That is why consistency is such an important element for any website and other pieces of software. Just like you want content that matches the services that you provide, so do you want a single base design that overlaps from one page to the next.
So, if you have already created a homepage or product that uses your company colors, make sure that other pages and products do the same. That way, the user experience remains optimal, while you ensure that the brand building process of your company is all the better.
#9: Movers can boost user experience by eliminating 404 pages
One of the worst scenarios imaginable for site visitors is to come across a page that no longer exists. 404 pages are like penalties for your website – the more you have, the bigger the punishment.
- For user experience, this punishment comes in the form of leaving the website altogether.
- For search engines, 404 pages result in the devaluation of your website, and loss of online positions.
All in all, the one thing that you definitely want is to eliminate any 404 pages from your website. By doing that, movers can boost user experience and maintain consistency in quality. But the good news is that there are plenty of ways to discover 404 pages and broken links on your website. You can either turn to Google Webmaster tools or if you don’t have the time to get into all that, Movers Development offers a free website marketing analysis to help you discover any website flaws, technical, SEO, or otherwise important.
#10: Responsiveness to all devices is crucial when trying to secure the perfect user experience
As popular studies teach us, more and more online users browse the web via smartphones or other mobile devices. And the first thing they tend to notice is whether or not a website is mobile-friendly. In cases where it is not, they are more likely to leave the website and continue their browsing spree. That is why one of your priorities has to be to optimize your moving company website for mobile devices. By doing so, you will automatically increase the number of organic visits and the overall user experience that your website offers to online users.
