There is no denying the importance of a business's web site. Even in the mobile age, web sites are still essential business tools that allow businesses to interact with customers 24/7. But as with any technology, changes in design styles and other tools can make your web site seem outdated and unappealing. Customers, after landing on it, may just go back and look for the web site of a vendor that looks like they keep up with the times.

On top of that, competition online has become more intense than ever. While you may not have updated your web site in years, your competitors have most likely been working to improve their websites and offer their customers better user experiences. These five tips can help enhance the user experience of your site and make it more useful to visitors.

Make it responsive and mobile-friendly

Technology has grown in such a way that it is now essential that your web site is mobile-friendly. With the wide variety of devices available, it is important that your web site can cater to users accessing the internet on all of them. You need to make sure that your web site is both responsive and mobile-friendly.

Improve page speed

Let's face it, internet users are generally fairly impatient. Since there are now millions of web sites, it has become more difficult to get traffic to a website and to stand out from the competition. One factor that can improve your appeal is to have a fast loading website that does not take more than a few seconds to load. Modern web site visitors will quickly abandon a website that takes a long time to load. Therefore, one of the best ways to keep visitors on your website is by optimizing its loading speed.

Don't be afraid to use white space

White space is a key element to good design. White space will not only help make your website look clean, modern and professional but it also helps users to focus on important information. According to Crazy Egg, white space around your titles and text will improve user comprehension by almost 20%.

Be careful with your use white space. If you have too much white space above the fold, you may be pushing important information further down the page than a user would like. It is important to maintain a balance between using white space to highlight your information and being able to share appropriate information in a convenient fashion.

Utilize lists

Lists help share information with the user in an effective manner. These days, users will often scan or skim content rather than reading it so lists are more important than ever. Lists can be a great way to share benefits or to let the visitor know all the ways your product benefits them. Lists help make your presentation more attractive and allow the reader to review it quickly. Try getting creative with your bullets to draw attention to your points.

Use attention grabbing calls to action

When a customer visits your website, what would you like them to do? Buy a product? Request a quote? Subscribe to your newsletter? This is where a powerful call to action comes into play. A call to action is text or a button that is there to encourage a user to click it and take action. Effective calls to action can be the difference between a web site that generates business and one that does not. Make sure that you consider the color of your call to action. Colors have deep psychological meanings that can improve or reduce the effectiveness of your call to action.