Increasing Average Engagement Time through minor Navigation fixes
Quran.com presents a compelling case for strategic website redesign optimization with substantial potential returns. As the world's most visited Quranic platform serving 5.6 million monthly users with expected growth to 11 million during Ramadan 2025, the site represents an unprecedented opportunity to enhance global Islamic digital engagement.
With 20.7 million total visits monthly and a highly diverse international user base, strategic improvements could significantly amplify user engagement, retention, and spiritual impact while establishing new benchmarks for religious platform excellence.
Once user selects a chapter of the Quran to read at quran.com, the user's journey is as follows.
Explanations to Quran verses that maybe needed are given as numbered highlighted links.
Clicking on the links leads to a drop down explanation of the meaning of the verse.
Once a chapter is complete, the previous and next chapter are navigated through respective buttons.
Challenge
Make minor fixes that can increase the average session duration of a user and possibly increase the number of user sign ups which can also help with increasing the number of regular monthly donors, which is the revenue model of this non-profit organization.
Website Analysis
1) Traffic and Device type.
The website has more visits for mobile than desktop, with a very high share of visitors from direct and organic channels.
2) Referrals breakdown
On diving deep into the sources, It seems to be well optimized for SEO with increasing engagement from chatgpt.com and en.wikipedia.org.
This is a good sign that the intended audience incoming is increasing.
3) Engagement Overview
Taking a look at the engagement metrics uncovers some insights.
1) More than 50% of the traffic bounces after the first page.
2) The average pages per visit seems to be only 2.64 per visit.
3) The average visit duration is around 3 minutes.
Secondary Research
Feeding the data into Perplexity chatbot, I could get the following outputs.
1) Traffic Analysis
This website seems to be leading in the market in terms of traffic which suggests that any improvement in engagement has a much bigger impact.
2) Performance Benchmarking
On Researching data from similar web and plotting a radar chart, the overall performance seems well rounded with a dominance in market positioning.
3) Improvement potential
As a first step, without the access to company's internal analytics metrics, we can aim to increase a few parameters.
34.3 %
Improved Engagement rate
32.6%
Increase in page views
32%
Decrease in bounce rate
Redesign
Visual Overload
Instead of having lengthy long paragraphs that are harder to read and digest, having appropriate spacing makes it much more easier to read and understand.
This can drastically improve session time and decrease bounce rate.
Before
After
After ( Mobile Version )
Broken User Journey
Instead of just informing user about a further read, linking it directly can keep them in the site for longer and is a better user experience for an immersive read.
This can increase the number of pages , followed by the first change, it can improve the session duration and decrease bounce rate.
Before
After
After ( Mobile Version )
More contrasting Navigation buttons
The Navigation buttons look like ghost buttons and don’t attract attention. Most users primarily would want to read than donate. So it would be better to make the buttons more visible.
This can help with increasing pages per visit,session duration and also decrease bounce rate.
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After
After ( Mobile Version )
Business Value
Enhancing a website's user experience (UX) through improved readability, strategic internal linking, and streamlined navigation can significantly impact user engagement and, consequently, the site's revenue.
1. Improved Readability through Proper Paragraph Indentation
Enhancing readability by using proper paragraph indentation reduces cognitive load, making content easier to digest.
This improvement can lead to increased user engagement and higher conversion rates. For instance, a study by Portent analyzed 33 websites and found that sites with better readability scores experienced higher conversion rates.
Article Link : Portent
2. Adding Internal Links in Relevant Spaces
Strategically placing internal links within your content enhances site navigation, encourages users to explore more pages, and improves SEO by distributing page authority.
InLinks highlights that internal linking enhances navigation and user experience, which can lead to better indexing by search engines and improved rankings.
Article Link : InLinks
3. Facilitating Navigation Between Previous and Next Pages
Simplifying navigation between pages reduces bounce rates and keeps users engaged longer.
According to Quattr, internal links encourage users to explore more content, lowering bounce rates and increasing dwell time—key metrics for enhancing user experience.
Article Link : Quattr
Estimating the Revenue Impact
While exact figures depend on the site's current metrics, implementing these UX improvements can lead to measurable revenue growth. For example, enhancing readability and navigation can collectively boost conversion rates, leading to increased sales or sign-ups. A study by Nebula Design emphasizes that readable content leads to lower bounce rates, higher dwell times, and improved conversions.
Article Link : Nebula Design
While individual improvements have their own benefits, their combined effect can be substantial. However, it's important to note that these enhancements may overlap in their impact, and the total increase in conversion rates may not be a simple sum of individual improvements.
Data from the above mentioned studies indicate that
Improved Readability: Up to 60% increase in conversion rates.
Adding Internal Links: Significant boost in user engagement and conversions.
Improved Navigation: 18.5% increase in conversion rates.
Conclusion
Considering potential overlaps, a conservative estimate would be a 20% to 30% increase in conversion rates upon implementing all three enhancements. This may exist in more active donors to the Quran.com initiative.