If you generate a $200 million quarterly profit with an online product, your website’s user experience must be world class, right? Wrong.

Last week ConversionXL published my guest post about companies that have terrible UX but still generate millions.

The article compares the bad (websites of different cryptocurrency exchanges) with the great (Shopify, Slack, Revolut).

You should definitely check out the full article. To whet your appetite, here’s the list of dos and don’ts from the article.

What to avoid

  • Slogans or generalities
  • Thinking. Every time a user has to think about what to do, you’ve lost them.
  • Leaving customers for themselves. Hold their virtual hand and lead them where they want to go.
  • Don’t focus only on acquisition. When “more customers” is your primary (or only) goal, you inevitably forget about retention.

What to do instead

  • Manage expectations. Tell them what you’re going to do. Do it. Then tell them what you did. Avoid surprises.
  • One thing to do. Each page or each screen should do one thing. And it should be immediately apparent, especially during registration or onboarding.
  • Trust and social proof. Do anything you can to maximize both. That’s how you get people from “Maybe” to “Yes.”
  • Focus on customer lifetime value (LTV). Homepage, registration process, onboarding—these elements should be built, optimized, and measured against their impact on LTV.

Read on:

Why Sites in High-Growth Industries Have Terrible UX

PS. While it’s easy to point fingers when someone’s doing a bad job at something, I’ll bet you too are doing at least one of the mistakes mentioned in the article.