Making Your Website Easy-To-Use: Some Simple Techniques and Tips for Website Owners

By Sumi Olson

This article looks at how you can improve your site design so that users will find the experience satisfying enough to stay and look at what you have to offer. With less than 30 seconds to make an impression, it's imperative that your website attracts and retains visitors not repel them.

Thinking about your own experiences visiting websites where you have felt frustrated or irritated, ensure your visitor can see where you are on the site, where they have been and how they can get to the parts of the site that are relevant to them.

Using the principles and techniques outlined will help you to create a website that improves the user experience, offers ease of access, and improved functionality. If you are capable of making the changes on your site in-house then the task is relatively straightforward. Otherwise, invest resources in hiring specialist providers who have the skills to complete the task. If appropriate, consider setting your site up onto a platform such as WordPress which will allow you to make changes to content and layout and allows you to update content without resorting to a web designer.

In the first instance, make sure your menu options actually provide the visitor with clear to understand navigational options that reflects their needs and desires. Group similar navigational elements together so that it makes sense to the user and put them prominently on each page. This means that whatever page the visitor is on, they can go straight to the home page, contact page, about me page, and so on without having to repeatedly click backwards.

Certain information is important enough to you or the visitor for it to be accessible from where the user is on the site. For example, the contact page should always be just a click away regardless of where the user is in the site. Hyperlinking to connect pages with each across the site will help the user in their quest to quickly and easily locate pertinent information.

Avoid long pages if possible otherwise offer a clickable list of contents so that visitors don't have to scroll down each time they want the information but instead click on the menu options provided. For ease of access, put your navigation tabs towards the top of the page.

Offer visitors a site map option which will show in plain but clear detail the structure of the site and where each page sits in relation to each other. This is very useful if your site has many pages. Make it easy for the user to see where they on the site by offering them a "breadcrumb trail". This means you have set up different coloured and underlined hyperlinks to higher level pages. By looking at the hyperlinks, it will be clear to the visitor how far the page hierarchy they have reached.

Make a note of sites where you feel that you were easily able to see what information was available and where the progression to material was practical, logical, and workable. Your ability to incorporate as many of these features as you'd like will depend on factors such as budget, your template restrictions, and your technical ability.

Text links are considered better link options than those connected to images as it is clear to see that a link exists (it is not always clear that there is a link over an image until the cursor moves over it). Text links also download more quickly than image links and can take the visitor to the new page fairly quickly. Make the length of the links short enough to minimise wrapping but at the same time they should be long enough to be appropriately descriptive of where the link will take the visitor.

It should be clear whether a link will take your visitor to another part of the site (internal link) or take them to another location altogether (external link). A link to your blog or your YouTube, Facebook or Twitter account will be external links as they are not actually part of your website.

Links are a very useful way to provide additional information which you don't have room to include in the main site. Good site design restricts the host from cluttering the site or overwhelming the reader with too much content. By directing the visitor to a PDF or another area where you can go into more detail helps you retain a web design that is focused on clarity and simplicity.

Check your links to ensure that they are working and use software (or check manually) to keep a constant eye on the integrity of your links. Links that don't work are both an irritation and a mark against your reputation which users will not forget. If a user comes across a broken link, they are not likely to return later in the hope that the link is working..

Some of these techniques can be put into practise by most individuals but if you have a large site, or if you feel ill-equipped to deal with it, then find skilled people who can. If using a professional, then look at their portfolio to see how they have created sites for people in similar industries or set-ups. They must have a real understanding of what you do and the needs of your target market.

This is important in terms of site navigation, branding, and layout. It would be a mistake to assume what your audience needs or want. Good professional web designers need an understanding of your industry and mind-set of your target audience. They should be willing to spend time to learn about your business to help them put together a website that is easy to use, resonates with your audience, makes abundantly clear what you have to offer your target market, and really reflects your brand identity.

Following the principles outlined in this article will help you establish what work you need to do on your site, and what resources are needed to implement it. The investment will certainly help you create a site that your visitors will enjoy visiting and even recommend to others.

Sumi Olson (author of the Amazon five-star rated, "How to Manage Your Social Media Marketing in 30 Minutes A Day"), is an author, speaker, diamond-rated article writer, consultant and trainer on social media, content creation strategies, and business development.

With 25 years' experience in book publishing, business development, online selling, sales & marketing, Sumi is committed to reducing overwhelm and turning insights into implementation. Through speaking events,books, programmes & workshops, she helps you further your publishing or writing aspirations, meet sales, marketing & management objectives, or master social media & online branding.

As a working mother herself, she's passionate about helping people create a great work-life balance so that they can spend more time on the things that matter in life - hobbies, friends, and family.

Connect with her on Twitter (@sumiolson), LinkedIn http://uk.linkedin.com/in/sumiolson or visit http://www.learningbusinessskills.com to sign up for her free fortnightly newsletter.

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