How User-Friendly is Your Website? Suggestions for making a website and content more user friendly.
More than 2.4 billion people use the internet every day, which means huge opportunity to promote your business.
However, creating a website with an ‘unfamiliar layout’ or several buttons to click before the user gets where they want to go is not a formula that will work if your goal is to increase sales, or clientele for your services. In fact it’s quite the opposite and this type of design will only work to turn customers away.
A website is not the place to get fancy. While this may seem like a great platform to show off your smarts and uniqueness, perhaps as an attempt to make your business stand out among the competitors, it will quickly backfire.
Always have the customer in mind when it comes to marketing your business or creating a website. It isn’t hard to imagine how quickly you would leave a site if you had to take 10 steps that could have easily been achieved in 2 to get the product or service you needed.
If you won’t take the time, they won’t either.
When a visitor lands on your website, you have less than ten seconds to spark and hold their attention. This means you better have something great to say about solving their problem or fulfilling their desires within the first couple of lines, and the layout needs to be clearly designed so they intuitively know where to go to either get information quickly, request more information, sign up, or make a purchase.
K.I.S.S. Keep it simple. Seriously!
It is not about you. It is about a user-friendly experience for anyone who lands on your site.
Save the bling, bells and whistles for other print and promo marketing of your products or services.
Here are a few tips to make your website and content more user-friendly:
Easy Navigation
This is one of the most important factors that makes your website user-friendly. It is a good idea to keep the number of main menu buttons to a minimum. Typically these would be Home, About, Services, Contact, and either a Blog, Gallery or Product Information, or an Online Store. Creating sub-menu buttons within the main menu will allow each user to choose exactly where they need to for their individual needs, without having to scan through numerous options all over the front page of the website.
Add a Search Box
Adding a search box to your website has a lot of advantages if you sell several products. This allows users to easily find what they are looking for. Make sure to add the search box on top of your page for easy visibility and accessibility.
Better Content Creation
Content needs to be easy to read and understand. Using big or complicated words may sound impressive, but they tend not to make a very terrific impact on your bottom line. People want you to solve their problem, not create work for them, so eliminate any potential need for a dictionary.
Proper formatting of content is paramount so it doesn’t run over top of graphics, banners, menu buttons or other highlights of your site. Messy creates confusion and complication, not a great vibe for anyone looking for reassurance that you will stand behind and take care of their concerns should they ever arise.
Keep the font consistent so your site looks professional. When you want to put emphasis on something, make use of Bold and Italics in the content to capture attention. This is also useful to keep the reader’s eyes from getting tired.
White space is your friend! Think about a time when you had a conversation with someone who rambled for what felt like hours, allowing no opportunity for back and forth dialogue. Likely, you were more focused on finding a way to get out of there. The same holds true when someone reads your content online. Let the space breathe! You can fill in the white space when consulting with your client.
Besides, if you tell them everything, what the heck is left to talk about when you speak with them? Leave an opening for them to make the decision to buy or learn more.
Use Images to Enhance the Website
Most users relate better with images, than plain text alone. You should make it a point to use images wherever possible to enhance the content that you are creating. One thing to keep in mind is to not go overboard with the pictures. Too much of anything is bad and can ruin the user-experience. The number of images should be decided once the length and type of content you are publishing on your website is established.
Use a Mobile Responsive Theme
This is a MUST in today’s world! Use of mobile devices is increasing every day and more and more people are using their mobile devices to browse the internet. If your website is not mobile-responsive, you are at risk of not only offering a poor user-experience, but also losing customers.
The best way to fix this is to opt in for a responsive theme that works well with both desktop and mobile devices. This not only improves the website load time, it also makes the website usable on mobile platforms, allowing the user to browse the website on any device they choose.
Give a user-friendly web experience to your customers.
Call Ancell Marketing at 778 285 2288 to discuss a complete re-design of your current site or options for building a new and professional online business.