5 Signs Your Site Has UX Issues

Your site might not be the powerful marketing tool it could be

Your website can be a powerful marketing tool, helping you reach marketing goals, answer user questions, and reinforce brand loyalty. But without good UX, your users won’t be able to – or won’t want to – use your site as intended.

Even the most meticulously planned and carefully designed site can still run into UX issues. Here are some red flags to watch out for:

1. Circular Flows

Check the behavior of your users on Google Analytics. If you see a flow such as About-Services-Marketing-Services-Marketing-Services… then your users might be trying to find information, but are getting stuck in a loop, going back to the same content over and over. This may mean your link labels or even your page titles aren’t clear enough, keeping your user from finding what they’re looking for.

2. Search Terms

Here’s a quick checklist for analyzing how users are searching on your site:

Do you have a search bar on your site?
If yes, that’s good: some of your users may prefer to search manually for what they’re looking for rather than browsing your site navigation. In this case, high numbers of searches is fine.

Are there any common search terms?
Make sure those terms are easily found in your navigation. If they’re not there, you may want to consider adding them – your users are telling you what they want, so listen to them.

Do some common searches return zero results?
If you have relevant content for those searches, tag it for your users to find. If you don’t have relevant content, create it! Your users are looking: support them.

3. High Exit Rates

It’s not always a bad thing when your users are exiting your site. Maybe you’re linking to external resources, or maybe the page they’re exiting from has answered all their questions. In those cases, your site is simply doing its job. But there’s a difference between your site doing its job versus leaving your users with no next steps. If a certain page has a high exit rate, you should evaluate where users are dropping off and why. A great way to do this is by setting goals and monitoring conversion rates, which leads to sign #4…

4. Low Conversion Rates

Make sure you have goals set up in Google Analytics – trackable touchpoints with your customers such as downloading a file or filling out a form. Then if you see goals with lower conversion rates than expected, you can evaluate where and why.There may be a specific point in the process where your customers are dropping off. Are there too many external links pulling them out of the flow? Is the next step buried or confusing? Could your steps by broken down to be more digestible? Consider if there are ways to better guide your user to continue through your site and improve your conversion rates.

5. Frequent Questions 

If you’re getting frequent calls or emails about information that should be available on your website, that’s a sign your content is not helpful or findable. While this is not related to Google Analytics statistics or goals with metrics, it’s still a useful indicator that your site is leaving unanswered questions or creating confusion.

Not sure how to break a circular flow, or how to monitor and interpret user behavior? Our team can help.

About the Author

Dan Burke headshot
Dan Burke
UX Strategist

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