Why Website Functionality Is Important in 2024

October 24, 2024 By Janne Smith No Comments 5 minutes

You can agree that the internet has significantly altered how businesses and customers connect. For instance, if you want to buy, say, a refrigerator, what would likely be your first step in your purchase journey? Research online, right?

Importance of Website Functionality

This is not new at all, as, according to Invoca, 81% of retail shoppers will research online before purchasing. So, as a business that seeks to stay relevant, you want to always appeal to such customers by implementing an online presence.

However, it is not just all about having a website but ensuring the website functions properly. But, there are online tools now that can help with it. For instance, finding the best VPS hosting providers can help you enhance your website’s speed, control, and security. In this guide, we’ll walk you through reasons why website functionality is important and how to improve it.

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Highlighting Important Statistics

Can you imagine that as of 2024, there are about 200 million active websites on the World Wide Web? On top of that, Digital Silk claims that about 252,000 others launch every day. From this data, we all can agree that a lot goes into making your website visible. You do not just want to have a website but cannot use it to reach target audiences. That brings in the concept of website functionality.

Mark you: Buyers today have become more discerning, and they can easily tell the difference between a good and bad experience. The worst thing is that more than half of them will not recommend your business if your website is poorly designed, JRR Marketing reports. But if you offer remarkable experiences, you can drive conversions by up to 400%. This could involve anything from adding helpful tooltips to offering simple checkout processes.

According to some studies, slow loading speeds are actually the number one reason why people leave websites. Why would you want to spend all your time on a page that loads slowly while there are many others that offer similar products at even faster speeds? So, you always want to ensure your website is as fast as possible to minimize the chances of site visitors leaving your site because they got a better website experience elsewhere.

Enhancing Your Website Functionality

Here are 3 factors how you can enhance your website’s functionality:

1. Speed

Just as we have already hinted, website speed is not something you can ignore. Even in 2024, users have not stopped showing preferences for faster-loading websites. In fact, according to WP Rocket, nearly half of customers (47%) expected websites to load for not more than two seconds.

If the load time increased by only one second, you could lose up to 40% of customers. It gets even worse if the time gets to 10 seconds, as that can result in bounce rates of up to 123%.

One of the many ways you can improve speed is by optimizing images, as the corresponding HTML and CSS files can take long to load. You may also want to limit the number of HTTP requests. Consider running a speed test to identify which HTTP request takes the most time. Browser HTTP caching can also help by reducing the amount of data a server needs to move to the browser.

Other tips may include:

Removing unnecessary render-blocking JavaScript
Reducing the use of external scripts
Minimizing using redirects and many others

2. Responsiveness

Responsiveness is now a popular name in the design sector. With users now accessing online platforms through multiple devices, you want to always ensure they have consistent experiences. In fact, Business Dasher recently highlighted that about 67% of users expected responsive websites when buying products online.

For websites that offered such experiences, they witnessed a 15% increase in unique clicks. Beyond unique clicks, responsiveness can encourage up to 75% of customers to return, which is definitely a plus for any business. To implement such designs, you may want to consider the following:

Using appropriate responsive breakpoints
Take advantage of fluid grids
Consider touchscreens by adopting responsive multimedia
Define topography
A pre-designed theme can help save time

3. User interface

In your efforts to reach many people, you can never ignore the power of intuitive user interfaces. You do not want customers to have a tough time when trying to find items on your website. The whole idea is to have a website that is as responsive as possible. Once a customer visits your site, he/she should be able to spot what you offer quickly.

You can achieve that by using appealing visuals, good-spaced icons, lightweight user interface elements, etc. Layouts should also be well organized with accurate screen resolutions. By implementing these strategies, you minimize churn rates from 88% of customers who will be less likely to do business again with a brand after a bad web experience.

Rounding up

By now, you can agree that website performance is not just something that customers of yesteryears considered—it is still important even in 2024. More and more websites launch every day, and it is becoming quite competitive to ensure visibility.

Since search engines consider factors like performance to rank websites, you want to ensure that your site performs really well. Thankfully, improving speed, responsiveness, and UI can actually get you ahead of the game.