It takes as little as 10 seconds for someone to form an impression of your brand.

In other words, you have 10 seconds to make a positive, lasting impact.

A difficult-to-use, outdated website could cause you to lose potential buyers within those 10 seconds. With these website improvement tips and trends, however, you can update your website and welcome it to 2020!

Make an enhanced user experience (UX) your main focus this year.

By improving the user experience for your customers, you can encourage them to linger on your website. The longer they stay on your website, the more likely you can turn those visitors into paying customers! UX design can also improve your search ranking and benefit your pay-per-click ads.

Stay on top of your game this year with the best website trends for 2020!

1. Use Negative Space

The first step to improving your customers' user experience is to clear out the clutter!

Many people try to cram as much information on one page as possible. However, saturating your pages with information can leave visitors feeling overwhelmed. Busy pages can also make it difficult for visitors to find what they're looking for, which could encourage them to leave.

When people disappear from your site without clicking around, it increases your bounce rate. A high bounce rate can hurt your search engine optimization (SEO).

Instead, let your content breathe. Add lots of white space throughout your website.

White, or negative space, will help your website feel modern and open.

As users linger on the page and pay more attention, they'll become more likely to click around. Improving your clickthrough rate (CTR) can help you boost your SEO ranking and attract more visitors.

2. Amp Up Speed

Imagine arriving at a website and having to wait for the page content to appear. Most people don't wait for long. Instead, they leave one website for another.

If your website is lagging behind, it could cause you to lose customers to your competitors.

Instead, put speed at the forefront of your website improvement efforts. Good UX design focuses on giving visitors what they need quickly.

For example, make sure your images are compressed. Otherwise, the image file size could slow you down.

3. Have Hyperlinks Stand Out

As more businesses implement the top website trends in 2020, they also look for ways to improve their CTR. Improving your CTR will give your SEO a boost and indicates more people are exploring your site.

One way to improve your CTR is to make sure your hyperlinks stand out. For example, many websites are now highlighting the space around their hyperlinks. Other companies use text colors that contrast with the background.

Make it obvious that you want visitors to click there.

4. Use Click-Worthy CTAs

A well-designed user interface can increase conversion rates by up to 200%. Meanwhile, better user experience design can yield conversion rates up to 400%.

In order to gain those conversions, you need call-to-action (CTA) language that stands out.

Test different colors and messages when creating CTA buttons. Different messages can evoke specific emotions. Meanwhile, different colors can stand out from the rest of your content better than others.

Use a heat map to determine where people are clicking to continue discovering website improvement opportunities.

5. Break It Up

Large chunks of text can feel tedious. Chances are, people will skim for the content they're looking for.

Make it easier for your readers. Craft shorter paragraphs and sentences to improve readability. You can also use lists and bullet points to break up your text.

6. Reconsider Your Imagery

Using obvious stock photos throughout your website can cause you to lose trust with your customers. It can also make you lose authenticity. Instead, try using custom-made graphics to set yourself apart from competitors.

Meanwhile, motion graphics and effects can add a fun element to your site to keep visitors engaged.

For UX in 2020, make sure your images have a purpose. Use imagery to forge a connection or communicate your brand.

7. Design the Headlines

Make sure your headlines are attention-grabbing. Feature keywords within your headlines as well to convey the page's focus. This website improvement tip will also benefit your SEO.

To ensure your headline stands out, use contrasting colors between the text and background. Then, let the headline pop off the page!

8. Keep It Consistent

As you use these website trends in 2020, make sure you're maintaining brand consistency. Otherwise, visitors will move to a new page and think they're on a different website.

Keep your button styles, font choices, colors, photo styles, and other recurring elements consistent to enhance UX.

9. Watch for 404s

Soft 404 errors indicate a link is broken or a page is missing. This can impact UX and cause them to visit a different site.

Instead, search your website for 404s. Then, use redirects or fix the links. Otherwise, you can create a fun 404 error page with an option for visitors to head back to the homepage instead.

10. Make Sure You're Mobile

More consumers are using their mobile devices to browse the internet. If your website isn't mobile, it could impact your SEO, PPC, and UX.

You can use Google's Mobile-Friendly Test to determine if your site is mobile-optimized. If it's not, mobile users will have a difficult time using your website. To avoid a frustrating user experience, they'll take their business elsewhere, causing you to miss out on a lead.

11. Keep It Secure

Lastly, it's important to make sure your website is secure. More companies are focusing on privacy and security to enhance UX in 2020. If your website isn't secure, what reason do customers have to trust your business?

Make sure you have an SSL certificate. Check your website domain for the "HTTPS" in front of your URL. This security is especially important if you're gathering personal information, including credit cards and addresses.

11 Website Improvement Tips for an Enhanced User Experience in 2020

With these 11 website improvement tips, you can create a positive UX for your visitors. Otherwise, you could risk scaring them off for good.

Ready to start making improvements? Turn your website into a marketing machine! Contact us today to get started.