If customers don’t stay long on your website because they find it confusing, frustrating, or boring, your business will ultimately struggle to make sales online.
The good news for you is that there are many quick and easy ways, usually free, to make your website more attractive to your customers.
Here are 5 that you can apply today.
1. Site search is easy to access When you have more than 20 pages, it’s a good idea to add a search function. Make sure your site’s search is prominent. Usability guidelines tend to prefer the top right corner of the page. Keep the button label simple and clear: “Search” still works best for most sites. Don’t unleash your powers of lateral thinking and exchange a word like “Recover.” keep it simple
To Do: Just using your search, try to find 3 pages of content. Is that process “quick, easy and straightforward”? Or is it “random”?
2. Make sure your web pages are easy to read. Few people read word for word online; the vast majority skim through to get a feel for the page before reading it in detail. Make it easy for visitors to skim your content. Always use headings and bullets to break up text.
Think about it. If a heading isn’t relevant to your visitor, you can easily skip to the next heading, making it easy for you to jump straight to the information you need.
Always keep your text in manageable chunks, not a continuous wall of words, like the fine print on insurance, to make it easier for customers to find what they want immediately and with confidence, which is critical if they’re taking a decision. purchase decision.
To Do’s – Quickly review your website and make sure all text is divided into clear and manageable sections.
3. Keep your styles and colors consistent Make sure people know they’re still on your site by being consistent: mix them up and you’ll lose them. Keep the appearance of your website sections consistent and avoid radical changes. Visitors can get confused and think that they accidentally left your site.
The layout, headers, and styles should be consistent across the site, and colors should generally have the same meaning.
For example, don’t use red for headings on one page, red for hyperlinks on another, and red as standard text somewhere else.
To Do’s: Check that all your web pages appear to be part of the main site and are consistent with each other. Are there “unpleasant surprises” depending on where you are on the site?
4. Emphasis (bold, etc.) is used sparingly It’s a fact of human psychology: try to draw attention to everything and you will effectively draw attention to nothing. We’ve all seen that site, the one with the red, flashing, underlined “NEW!” next to everything Don’t be that boy or girl.
Remember, if your site’s graphic design is counter-intuitive and doesn’t help visitors to do something quickly, it will make your site much slower and harder to work with.
Slow and awkward sites never delight your customer or build rapport online.
Visitors will return to the search engine in seconds if they find your website “complicated” or “busy”.
To Do’s: Make sure your website only highlights the critical factors you absolutely need your visitors to look at or click on to meet your online business goals. Menus, buy buttons, subscription boxes, etc.
5. Keep your ads and popups discreet
Ads are real, but integrate them nicely into your site. Don’t try to force ads and popups down people’s throats; you will end up creating frustration for your visitors. Also, please people and make your ads clear. If you blur the line between ads and content too much, your content can suffer, as many people have developed “ad blindness” when it comes to browsing and may miss some important content by mistake.
To-Dos: Double check if your popup is significantly increasing your engagement rate. If not, you could be unnecessarily inconveniencing current and future customers.
last word
Always make sure you view your website through the eyes of the customer and not through your eyes, the website owner.
Make sure there are no red flags on your site that are going to frustrate, confuse, or bore customers. Keep everything nice and simple to make sure your visitors enjoy spending time (and money) on your site