5 Reasons to Prioritize Website UX Design

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Assigning a budget for a website is always a challenging task. It's essential to work within any financial means while breaking those expenses down into appropriate tasks. Prioritization is a must—and user experience (UX) should shoot to the top of that list.

A focus on website UX means providing users of your service with what they need, quickly and easily. When managing B2B communications and marketing, that is particularly important.

A business consumer looking into a product or service is likely seeking to resolve a problem or concern. That user lacks the time and patience to wade through irrelevant copy, animations, and videos to find a solution.

UX has been considered an afterthought for far too long. Let's go over five reasons businesses should pay attention to UX needs and direct appropriate resources into the area.

1. Amending website design costs time and money

Building a new website can be exciting, but it's an expensive process. It's crucial to get things right the first time.

If you fail to meet the demands and expectations of your audience, you'll accrue UX debt. Such a concern must be rectified sooner or later, and the longer you leave it, the more expensive and intrusive a website redesign will become.

Bring in professional expertise when masterminding the UX strategy of your website, and do not launch until it's ready. Engage in constant testing, tweaking, and checking to ensure you don't become victim to any basic pitfalls.

You'll need to redesign your website at certain intervals. Nothing lasts forever, and new UX trends will arise. If you have a solid grounding, however, those adjustments are more likely to be minor and manageable. If substandard UX means that a developer will need to recode your entire website, you're putting your business in a vulnerable position.

2. Fulfilling UX generates consumer loyalty

Brand loyalty should always be a priority in B2B business. It costs five times more to attract a new customer than to generate repeat business from a current one.

Loyalty is paramount when dealing with businesses. Getting a contract over the line with a major company can be time-consuming and frustrating. Constantly pitching for new clients is exhausting, especially if you rely on such income for cash flow.

If your UX design provides a simple, hassle-free approach for your clients, they're far more likely to stick with you. A business is unlikely to fix what is not broken, and a positive UX can even go a long way toward making up for periodic price increases.

Making an effort to build a customer profile at the outset and centering your website UX on that will make life much more pleasant for all parties.

3. Superior UX saves your business time

How much time does your business spend answering questions and resolving issues? If those problems revolve around your online presence, you can eradicate concerns with superior website UX design.

Ways to save time, both for yourself and your potential clients:

Strategically located FAQ pages to address common queries
Chatbot software to manage initial user questions
A straightforward path down the sales funnel to taking payments that cuts out any middlemen
Contact forms that allow users to contact you through automated means, cutting down on phone calls

No business will ever be successful if it eliminates all human contact with its client base; still, a superior UX can ensure that automated website interactions are a pleasure rather than a chore.

4. Website UX and SEO go hand-in-hand

All roads begin with Google in the modern world, which means that your quality score needs to be on-point to enjoy SEO success. Solid and appealing UX will reap the rewards of a solid SEO strategy.

The days of Google algorithms that concern themselves primarily with keywords are long gone. Today, user behavior is just as prominent in assigning a quality score.

Users who can navigate a website and find what they seek with ease are more likely to stick around. A messy, poorly designed website that does not satisfy the core tenets of great UX is more likely to fall victim to the dreaded 15-second rule. As a consequence, your SEO score will plummet, and your website will slide down the rankings.

Build UX concerns—including mobile-friendliness and loading speeds—into your provisional budgeting. Spending a fortune on content creators is counterproductive if the user experience is lacking. Users will not stick around long enough to marvel at your compelling copy.

5. Superior UX design increases conversions

There is no denying that the B2B market provides less opportunity for impulse buys than B2C. Impulsive behaviours are still prevalent in the B2B sphere, though. A superior UX may not lead to an immediate conversion, but it raises the chances of making an eventual sale.

Consider the journey of a B2B consumer. Your potential customer is likely researching a solution to a particular problem. Just because users identify a pain point, however, doesn't mean they know how to solve it.

That's where UX design comes into play. By acknowledging and empathizing with a business need and then making it clear you can provide the solution, you'll enjoy immediate recognition as a helpful resource.

Some patience is required. Even if users who discover your product are interested in making a purchase, they'll rarely be able to do so right away. Software compatibility, licensing, and financial obligations all need to be discussed and agreed upon.

The important thing is that you have made a connection. Though an emotional connection is less prevalent in B2B communications, you do your prospects no harm by building a bond through efficiency and helpful website UX.

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It's up to you how much of your budget you are prepared allocate to UX design when building a new business website. The European Business Review recommends 15-20% of your total project budget. If you're prepared to make that investment, the long-term benefits of great UX will speak for themselves.