In today’s market of evolving website functionality, UX design[1] has become more important than ever to businesses, globally. Here’s a roundup of top UX mistakes and how to fix them.

We want users to navigate our site freely, without obstacles and without friction. If your site makes finding information a challenge, you can bet your bottom dollar your competition already knows that, and is capitalizing on it.

Both UX and SEO[2] are user-centric, which makes them a formidable pair when you get them right.

But get it wrong and you could see high bounce rates, low conversions and even a slight hit on your rankings as Google’s John Mu considers UX a ‘soft ranking factor’.[3]

If you’re finding that users aren’t spending time on your site (or converting) there could be issues. We’re going to help you find out what they could be.

Cluttered navigation

Your site’s navigation[4] is the gateway to your content and service pages. It’s where you (really) focus on building a funnel that is both frictionless and easy to understand.

Your navigation should be an architecture of well-structured, groups of pages; either commercial or informational (depending on your business).

example of cluttered navigation, bad for UX and SEO

Some of the most common mistakes we see are:

  • Links without value in the main menu
  • Excessive anchor text
  • Non-responsive (yep, it still happens in 2019)
  • Too many sub-menus
  • Relies on Javascript (with no fallback)

How to fix your site’s navigation

The golden rule here is to make your navigation accessible, responsive and clutter-free.

Think about your categories, your most valuable pages, where users spend most of their time and, more importantly, who your users are.

Forever 21[5] does a great job of linking through to the main areas

Read more from our friends at Search Engine Watch